ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Media Psychology
This article is part of the Research TopicDigital Citizenship in the New Era of Social MediaView all 25 articles
Scrolling to Apathy? The relationship between short video addiction and the "Lying Flat" tendency among Chinese university students
Provisionally accepted
- 1Chaohu University, Hefei, China
- 2Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Malaysia
- 3Universiti Sains Malaysia, Minden Heights, Malaysia
- 4Monash University Malaysia, Bandar Sunway, Malaysia
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Background: The increasing prevalence of short video platforms among Chinese university students has raised concerns about their potential threat to psychological well-being and lifestyle choices, particularly the emergence of the "lying flat" phenomenon. While existing studies have explained the "lying flat" phenomenon from cultural and social perspectives, few have examined its interaction with specific media use behaviors, particularly within the immersive and addictive environment of short video platforms. Objective: Based on the social cognitive theory, this study investigated the psychological mechanisms underlying this phenomenon, focusing on the mediating role of short video addiction in the relationship between flow experience, platform attachment, and peer influence, as well as the moderating role of self-efficacy. Methods: An online survey was administered to Chinese university students, yielding 486 valid responses. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). A self-report survey was conducted via the Wenjuanxing platform, yielding 486 valid responses from Chinese university students. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied for data analysis. Results: The results indicate that higher levels of short video addiction are associated with a greater tendency to adopt a "lying flat" attitude. Flow experience, platform attachment, and peer influence contributed to increased SV short video addiction, which mediated their indirect effects on the in turn was linked to "lying flat" tendencies. However, the interaction effect between self-efficacy and SV addiction does not significantly predict lying flat tendency. Conclusion: These findings provide new insights into how digital media use influences youth lifestyle disengagement and offer practical implications for managing SV addiction among university students.
Keywords: flow experience, lying flat phenomenon, Peer influences, platform attachment, Short Video Addiction
Received: 14 Aug 2025; Accepted: 19 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Xu, Ismail, T., Liew and Zheng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jie Xu
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