In 1968, I was a doctoral student at UCLA when the first Internet message was successfully sent between UCLA and Stanford.
The message is mentioned as “Lo and Behold”. In 1978, at AACC we founded The Telecourse People, a stream of telecourses and online learning. In 1986, as an interest group of media psychologists in APA, we established Media Psychology Division 46 of the American Psychological Association, and media psychology was formalized as a specialty in psychology as the Society for Media Psychology and Technology.
Today, significant technological advances, such as advanced compression algorithms, the rise of cloud computing, and satellite streaming, continue to fuel the growing growth of streaming services. The rise of streaming services is big business, rapidly changing the way we consume content and reshaping the landscape of new and old media. Media psychology is at the heart of it all.
The most successful streaming platforms are built using media psychology techniques that immerse, engage and engage audiences. Examples of successful streaming services include Netflix, Prime Video, AppleTV, HBOMax, Youtube, Paramount Plus, and hundreds more.
Below are five theories that are examples of media psychology design strategies that contribute to the success of these streaming services:
The psychology of binge watching: Binge viewing is a habit-forming strategy in media psychology that consists of dopamine a release that is born from interesting content, exciting endings and serial stories. This creates psychological reinforcement, similar to gambling, where anticipation keeps viewers coming back. Platforms like Netflix use similar techniques by releasing entire seasons, normalizing the “one-time” model, and embedding it through marketing to reinforce viewer expectations.
Personalization and Discovery: Platforms use marketing algorithms to invoke the “Multiple Visits Effect”. Users who return multiple times are more likely to become long-term viewers. Individual videos use cognitive biases, such as confirmation bias and the curiosity response, repeating content that matches past preferences, introducing new and interesting options, thereby creating habits.
Emotional psychology: Escape from stresssocial connection through shared cultural moments and the satisfaction of completing narrative arcs creates an emotional investment that makes viewers more likely to spend time and money.
Social media: Streaming environments are part of the “growing barrage of social media” that is taking shape personalityaffiliation and perception. Carefully designed platforms now amplify or calm emotions, influence polarization, and even manipulate perception through algorithmic curation and targeted messaging.
Continuous development and evolution
Phenomena such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) will dramatically and uniquely change how we create, consume and change preferences. And, with new advances in space and extreme communication technology competition among streaming services we have entered an increasingly global and even galactic boom. The media landscape is evolving rapidly. The evolution of new and traditional media is opening the door for new players in news and entertainment. Platforms like X, Space X, etc. are driving drastic changes consumer behavior.
As legacy media struggles to adapt, those with expertise in media psychology will increasingly shape audience response and the future of all streaming services. Meda’s psychology is a field whose significance and importance are obvious. More behavioral research is needed, as well as modern workshops and courses. Media psychology has become a behavioral specialty that is both insightful and powerful imagination helps in shaping the future.
The American Psychological Association, Division 46, the APA Society for Psychology and Media Technology, has come a long way since its founding in 1968. As digital technology becomes faster, cheaper and smaller, it’s psychology that makes the competitive difference. We all have a lot to do and a lot to learn. The future of media psychology as a design feature in streaming competition is challenging and bright for those with experience.
