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Secrets in the bedroom: Adolescents' private use of media

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Abstract

This essay discusses the functions of solitary media use within the ongoing daily emotional lives of adolescents. I review evidence suggesting that adolescents find in solitary TV watching and especially music listening, the opportunity, first, to cultivate a newly discovered private self: teens use media to explore numerous possible selves including those that are desired and feared. Second, I propose that solitary media experiences provide adolescents an important context for dealing with stress and negative emotion. Popular music listening allows adolescents to internalize strong emotional images around which a temporary sense of self can cohere.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Human Development and Family Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois

    Reed Larson (Professor and Chair)

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  1. Reed Larson
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Received his Ph.D. in Human Development from the University of Chicago. Research focuses on the temporal and emotional organization of daily life, especially in adolescence and within adolescents' families.

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Larson, R. Secrets in the bedroom: Adolescents' private use of media. J Youth Adolescence 24, 535–550 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01537055

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