The Psychology of Escape: How Popular Media Shapes Emotional Regulation in the Digital Age

Wu (2016) describes how social media and streaming services compete for user attention by minimizing “friction” (e.g., auto-play, infinite scroll). This design logic directly serves emotional avoidance—the desire to escape negative feelings—rather than emotional processing.

Streaming platforms encourage continuous viewing, which disrupts natural emotional closure. A single episode of a drama provides narrative catharsis; a six-hour binge produces emotional numbing. This structural feature of popular media—the elimination of the weekly wait—transforms entertainment from a ritual of anticipation into a fugue of consumption.