The Relationship between Short Video Flow, Addiction, Serendipity, and Achievement Motivation among Chinese Vocational School Students: The Post-Epidemic Era Context

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, people have been spending more time in the online world because of restrictions on face-to-face communication due to epidemic prevention controls. This has also brought the issue of Internet addiction, including the overuse and negative effects of short videos, to the forefront of attention. Past research has found that Internet addiction has a negative impact on well-being. However, there is a special concept of positive emotion called “serendipity” (小确幸). Serendipity provides a small, fleeting but positive experience, yet it is often associated with negative perceptions from an outside perspective. However, the relationship between short video addiction and serendipity is not yet known. Based on this, a theoretical model was developed in the context of the I-PACE model. To understand the relationship between short video addiction and serendipity among college students, in this study, we conducted snowball sampling and distributed online questionnaires using the Wenjuanxing platform. The target population of the questionnaire distribution was vocational college students in China, of whom 985 valid study participants responded, yielding a valid return rate of 82.1%. Of the respondents, 410 (41.6%) were male and 575 (58.4%) were female. The results were as follows: a. short video flow had a positive relationship with serendipity, a negative relationship with achievement motivation, and a positive effect on short video addiction; b. short video addiction had a positive effect on serendipity and a negative effect on achievement motivation; and c. serendipity had a negative impact on achievement motivation. This shows that short video addiction, like other Internet addictions, can have a negative impact on students’ learning.