"The Impact of Digital text type and Screen Time on Language Processing: A Comparative Study of Social Media texts and News articles"
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2025-10-08
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en
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Digital text types differ in pace and structure, which may shape the depth of language processing. This study examined whether text type (social media vs. news articles) and daily screen time relate to shallow processing, indexed by semantic fluency. In an online mixed-design study (N = 120), participants read five social-media posts and five news fragments in randomized order. After each reading phase, they completed a one-minute semantic fluency task, generating as many items as possible within a category (fruits). Screen time was self-reported and divided into low and high groups, and age was coded into five ranges (18–24, 25–34, 35–44, 45–54, 55+). Results showed that participants generated more items after reading news than after social media. Screen time did not show a clear association with fluency, but the difference between text types varied by age group. These findings suggest that, in the short term, news-like expository text may prime greater semantic access than short social-media content. Age-related differences in this effect highlight the need for further investigation.
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