No more learning alone: All about the „study with me” trend
What's behind this phenomenon, why is it so successful, and what are the potential risks or challenges?
An entry by Katharina, Martin Ille and Angelo Stockinger
Thursday, December 02, 2021
Media, Technology and Society
Tastes are different, right? Whether it’s food, music or lifestyle – even when it comes to studying, there are many differences. But there is one thing that many students all over the world have in common: Distractions. Especially the internet and videos distract students from learning – but the phenomenon we present to you is about internet videos to support during the learning sessions.
What are “study with me” videos?
„Study with me” (SWM) videos or 공방 (gongbang), are originally from South Korea and are videos where students film themselves studying – usually for several hours, up to 16 hours or longer.
Especially since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and the worldwide quarantine period, there has been a growing interest among students to master the difficult time together with a virtual study partner (Lee et al., 2021).
If you want to learn with several people at the same time, there are also online service providers such as StudyStream or StudyTogether. There is no protagonist – everyone has the camera on and learns. However, in this article we focus on YouTube SWM videos.
Core Elements
If you are sitting in your room, have no opportunity to go outside and have always wanted to study in Tokyo, New York or in a famous public library, you can do so with certain SWM videos. But not only the interesting location can be relevant, but also the desks and pretty decorations. Candles, cups of tea or aroma diffusers create a calm learning atmosphere. From time to time you can also find videos with cute cats or dogs lying relaxed in the background, mostly asleep.
Depending on the creator’s choice, there are different camera angles and settings. Some record themselves from the side, directly frontally or from above. Others do not show their face at all.
Most videos have some kind of sound. Whether it’s the creators turning the pages of a book or the sound of typing on a keyboard. Others intentionally set themselves in cafés to capture the typical atmosphere. If you prefer natural sounds like rain or a burning fireplace, you can also find such videos. If all of this is too „boring“ for you, there are also videos with lofi beats or classical music.
Often the study period is divided into study and break sessions by applying the “pomodoro technique”. A certain number of minutes, e.g. 45 minutes, is used for concentration, followed by a 5-minute break. During real time break sessions, the creators usually talk to their community.
Psychological Aspects
Now that the trend has been described, the psychological aspects will be examined. In principle, two psychological constructs can be assigned to the SWM concept. One is emotional contagion and the other is parasocial relationships.
Emotional contagion is a process in which one’s own behavior influences the behavior of others in the environment. Thus, using the example of the SWM videos, the focus and concentration can be transferred to the audience.
The other psychological concept is about parasocial relationships. It means that the viewers feel connected to the person in the video because, for example, they are always studying or working on projects together at the same time (Stojanovic, 2021). However, in the literature, the construct of the parasocial relationships is described as one-sided because the performer does not receive feedback from the spectator (Horton & Wohl, 1956). Since there are opportunities for interaction on the social networks such as Twitch or YouTube, on which SWM content is primarily accessible, it is not possible to speak of complete parasocial relationships in this context. Possibilities for dialog are established here through the chat function during a live stream or through the comment section under a video.
Benefits
In addition to the two psychological concepts, a number of benefits for the viewer can also be attributed to the South Korean trend.
For example, the videos and live streams are often perceived as motivating because they convey the feeling of learning together with others in a library or café and working toward a goal. In addition, many consumers perceive it as an emotional support when they know that another person is currently doing the same thing or even studying late into the night. In addition, choosing an appealing video can create an ambience in which the person learning feels comfortable. Usually, this is done by selecting the preferred visual design as well as background sounds. This makes it much easier to adapt the ambience to one’s own wishes than in physical form. Another advantage is that the SWM content is often consumed via the smartphone, which drastically minimizes the distraction caused by the smartphone, since the screen is occupied by the video player and no further interaction with the mobile device is possible (Lee et al., 2021). In addition, the videos lead to better time management, which helps learners divide their workload more wisely (Stojanovic, 2021). This is because, as described at the beginning, a large part of the videos consists of time blocks in which either concentrated work is done or a break is taken. In many cases this is based on the already mentioned Pomodoro technique, which was developed by Francesco Cirillo (Cirillo, 2018).
Challenges & Risks
As we have just seen, the concept of SWM has some advantages and reasons for its existence. However, there are also some challenges and risks that should be critically considered when applying this concept (Stojanovic, 2021).
On the one hand, with the thoroughly immersive nature of such videos, there is a risk of overexertion and overload with learning, which in the worst case can lead to burnout. Thus, you should not lose yourself too much in the learning routine of the Youtuber and not adopt his or her learning sessions, which may be up to 16 hours long, identically. Rather, you should consider your own stress limits when learning and follow your own learning pace. In addition, SWM videos should not be the only convincing factor for productive learning, as there are other influences that contribute to productivity than just increased motivation. For example, by combining healthy food that stimulates the brain, a balanced sleep schedule, and some time off for hobbies and fun, you can further increase your learning efficiency and thus achieve your learning goals even better.
On the other hand, another challenge for consumers as well as producers of such videos is not to lose sight of the actual reason and focus of this content. The Youtuber pay more and more attention in their videos to an aesthetic image and environmental composition to make the videos even more visually appealing. This also encourages the corresponding community to also create such an aesthetic learning environment for themselves and thus emulate their role model. For example, visually appealing and clearly arranged desks can be helpful for the learning process, but should never be the main reason for learning.
Another risk lies in the minimization of the Youtuber’s privacy, since especially long 12-hour live streams definitely create an increased transparency of the private person and thus enable intimate insights. Through such private insights into personal spaces and behavioral habits, third parties could possibly harm the content creator with this sensitive data quite considerably, for example through break-ins or stalking.
As already described, there are also video variations which do not only last two hours but are sometimes recorded for twelve or more hours. With such a high intensity and extremely long duration, there is definitely a risk that the video formats take on morbid proportions and lose touch with reality.
In general, the challenge of increasing pressure can also be very intense for the creators, especially in the case of long live videos, as they are constantly under observation except for breaks and may be expected to be in constant interaction with their viewers.
Despite all these possible risks, the concept of „study with me“ videos has a high potential to be helpful for others in learning and generally creating a more productive daily routine. In other areas, such as cooking and eating, decluttering, cleaning or rearranging the household, or sports activities, it is also conceivable that the sociality that underlies “study with me” videos can be beneficial.
References:
Cirillo, F. (2018). The Pomodoro Technique: The Life-Changing Time-Management System
Horton, D.; Wohl R. (1956). Mass Communication and Para-Social Interaction. 215 – 216. https://doi.org/10.1080/00332747.1956.11023049
Lee, Y., Chung, J. J. Y., Song, J. Y., Chang, M., & Kim, J. (2021). Personalizing Ambience and Illusionary Presence: How People Use “Study with me” Videos to Create Effective Studying Environments. Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445222
Stojanovic, M. (2021). Do “study with me” videos help with productivity? https://clockify.me/blog/managing-tasks/study-videos/#The-appealing-elements-of-study-with-me-videos
Image source: Julia M Cameron / pexels.com