Key features of digital media consumption: Implications of users’ emotional dimension

Abstract

This chapter contains two objectives: (1) To identify general factors that are distinctive of digital consumption in the current media ecosystem and (2) to describe the connotations that said consumption has on human beings’ emotional dimension. It further attempts to present key elements of this consumption, namely (a) the overabundance of information available to the user, (b) the acceleration of time as it is experienced, (c) the emergence of attention as currency, (d) the multiplicity of screens and devices, and (e) the socialization of consumption. The chapter finally concludes that the development of a critical and conscious media consumption, which is associated with emotional management, is one of the main issues in the analysis of digital technology and its everyday use.