The relationship between people’s feeling of loneliness and their tendency of switching on the television
Nowadays, it is said that the rapid development of mass media has enabled people toknow what is happening all over the world even in places that are far away from their own places, as a result, mass media has seemingly become essential in people’s daily life. However, apart from the fact that mass media helps to spread news and foster globalcommunication, meanwhile, it may be possible that people’s feeling of loneliness can also lead them to make use of mass media more frequently. In this study, the question “ When the foreign students living in the Mitaka Dormitory of the University of Tokyo feel lonely in their rooms, do they have the tendency to switch on the television?” was investigated.
It has been suggested that international students who are studying in foreign places generally suffer from homesickness because they have to learn how to adapt to the new living environments. When there is a greater change of culture and language, they usually take a longer time and have to make a greater effort to overcome the difficulties.The feeling of homesickness may make them feel lonely more easily. Moreover,suffering from homesickness and feeling lonely may give rise to a feeling of alienation from the rest of the world.1
Concerning the question “Why do people watch television?”, one study has reported that one of the reasons that people watch television is because of their personal needs. For example, watching television makes people know more about the world or have more fun. More impressively, it has also been reported that some people watch television because this helps them escape from the real world and get relaxed. 2
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In this study, I try to examine whether foreign students living in the Mitaka Dormitory of the University of Tokyo have the tendency to switch on the television when they feel lonely in their rooms.
In this study, 3 foreign students in their early 20s who are living in the Mitaka Dormitory of the University of Tokyo were invited to take part in the individual interviews. They were asked about the amount of their television-watching time and some related questions.Moreover, they were also invited to give comments freely. Only foreign students were invited to take part in the individual interviews because the foreign students who are living in a foreign country have a higher potential of suffering from a sense of isolation and homesickness than the Japanese students do.
Interviewee A
She is a Vietnamese girl. She watches television for more than three hours every day. She is quite confident in her Japanese ability. Before she came to Japan, she did not watch television as much as she does in Japan. She always turns the television volume to the highest level. When she is alone in her room, she always feels very lonely. When she feels lonely, she often switches on the television, listens to the music and chats with her friends in her country through the internet. Even when she is studying, she still has her television switched on but to a lower volume. She sometimes turns on the television without watching it. More impressively, she said that she hates locking the door when she goes out just for a while for example, less than two hours, then having the television switched on may make the strangers think that someone is in the room. In this way, she thinks that no thieves dare enter her room even though she does not lock her door when she is out for less than two hours. She feels common and normal to switch on the television when feeling lonely because most of her friends do the same too.
Interviewee B
He is an Indonesian boy. He wathces television for less than two hours every day with his friends. He is very confident in his Japanese ability. Before he came to Japan, he did not watch television as much as he does in Japan. When he is alone in his room, he always feels quite lonely. Although he does not like watching television alone, he does enjoy watching television with his friends. He strongly emphasized that watching television is actually a waste of time. Without staying with his friends, he thinks that having the television swithced on annoys him with a lot of noise and distractions. When he feels lonely in his room, he always does netsurfing. Moreover, he spends at least four hours on netsurfing every day. Even though he always feels quite lonely when he is alone in his room, he feels that only fools switch on the television in order to release the feeling of lonliness.
Interviewee C
She is a Russian girl. She watches television for more than three hours every day. She has been studying Japanese for six years. She thinks that watching television is a good way to learn Japanese. Before she came to Japan, she already liked watching television very much. She sometimes feels very lonely when she is alone is her room. When she feels lonely, she likes watching television and listening to the music. She thinks that Japanese television programmes are more interesting than those of her country. She commented that it is impossible for her to take meals without watching television at the same time. She said that watching television helps her to improve her Japanese. She also remarked that watching television can get addicted easily. She said that she is not sociable and afraid of meeting a lot of people. As a result, she likes staying alone so television becomes her good companion in her daily life.
Figure 1. Summary of the individual interviews
Interviewee / A / B / CNationality / Vietnamese girl / Indonesian boy / Russian girl
Age / 21 / 20 / 22
Number of hours watching television per day / More than 3 hours / Less than 2 hours / More than
3 hours
Japanese Ability
(Based on self-report) / Good / Fairly excellent / Quite excellent
Being alone in their room, how often do they feel lonely? / Always / Always / Sometimes
Being alone in their room, how lonely do they feel? / Very / Quite / Very
When they feel lonely, what do they do? / Watch television
Listen to music
Chat with friends / Do netsurfing / Watch television
Listen to music
Being alone in their room, what do they think about the act of watching television? / It is common and normal. / It is a waste of time.
It is foolish. / It is common and normal.
Other comments / Having the television switched on makes her room safe when she goes out for less than two hours. / Only fools switch on the television in order to release the feeling of lonliness. / Watching television can get addicted easily. Being unsociable, television becomes her companion in her daily life.
In Figure 1., it shows that foreign students living in the Dormitory of the University of Tokyo tend to feel lonely when they are alone in their rooms. For all the interviewees, when they feel lonely, all of them make use of mass media. Moreover, when they have a relatively negative attitude towards watching television, the hours of their watching television every day are fewer. On the other hand, when they have a relatively positive attitude towards watching television, the hours of their watching television are more.
Since this kind of study is unprecedented, so individual interviews were carried out to collect information. In this study, through individual interviews, more open questions have come out and these open questions have brought about new ideas which may be helpful for the future researchers to discover more in similar studies. In this study, “switching on the television” and “watching television” were supposed to be separate concepts. However, when the interviewees were doing the individual interviews, they consciously or unconsciously mixed up these two concepts. Therefore, the validity of this study was distorted a bit at this point. As for the future similar studies, it may be better if new approaches can be found to retain a higher level of validity for the studies.
Based on the results obtained, several conclusions have been drawn. Foreign students living in the Mitaka Dormitory of the University of Tokyo tend to feel lonely when they are alone in their rooms and when they feel lonely, all of them make use of mass media. Furthermore, rather than their language ability, it is the interviewee’s attitude which affects the amount of their television- watching time every day. In this study, only a relatively weak relationship between people’s feeling of loneliness and their tendency to switch on the television has been shown. It may also suggest that foreign students who come from developing countries may tend to watch television more often than they did in their countries before they came to Japan. Therefore, future studies are expected hopefully to be done in order to make this topic clearer and clearer.
Science Writing Seminar
Name: Lei Mei Si
Student Number: 730499 D
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1. Royal of Academy of Music, “Feeling lonely or homesick”,
last accessed 27th June 2007
2. Donna Michelle Jones, “Why people watch TV”,
last accessed 27th June 2007