Research on the long-term impacts of short-form video consumption is still lacking, but recent studies show concerning associations with cognition and mental health.

Research on the long-term impacts of short-form video consumption is still lacking, but recent studies show concerning associations with cognition and mental health.

With short-form video now dominant on social media, researchers are racing to understand how the highly engaging, algorithm-driven format may be reshaping the brain.

From TikTok to Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, short-form video content has become a cornerstone of just about every online platform, including LinkedIn and even Substack. But increasingly, studies are finding associations between heavy consumption of short-form video and challenges with focus and self-control.

The research, though still early, seems to echo widespread concerns over “brain rot,” an internet slang term that the Oxford University Press defines as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state.” (The term became so mainstream that the academic publishing house crowned it as its 2024 word of the year.)

  • fizzle@quokk.auEnglish
    10·
    10 hours ago

    challenges with focus and self-control

    This seems to be what teachers are reporting.

    There’s some threads in /r/teachers on that other site which are pretty terrifying. It sounds like the majority of kids are in dopamine withdrawal all day at school.

  • sudo_shinespark@lemmy.world
    20·
    13 hours ago

    Short form videos are fucking digital opium. I hate it. I deliberately do not have instagram/YT/tiktok accounts with the intention of avoiding it, but I have repeatedly found myself watching a short vid sent from a friend before I find myself scrolling and then snapping back to attention, 40+ minutes later, like some Jekyl/Hyde shit. I imagine it’s what having an epileptic seizure is like. I just lose track of time completely and I hate it.

    I never agreed with Bradbury about how TV is so bad so forth, but I am with him now. Shit’s addictive

  • drail@fedia.io
    38·
    16 hours ago

    I avoided shorts on YT religiously, but as people sent them to me and they became more tuned to my preferences, I began absent mindedly scrolling them. I fucking hated it, I would realize I had wasted so much time idly swiping. I started running revanced specifically to turn that shit off on my phone so that the temptation wouldn’t exist. So happy with my decision. I don’t think it rotted my brain, but it made my phone a landmine for shit content, scammy ads, and wasted time.

  • ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.oneEnglish
    191·
    15 hours ago

    With short-form video now dominant on social media, researchers are racing to understand how the highly engaging, algorithm-driven formatmay be reshaping the brain.

    The issue isn’t the short form video. It’s the algorithm behind everything to keep people addicted to what ever social media website.

    • stickly@lemmy.world
      5·
      12 hours ago

      Short form video (and it’s sibling, the infinite headline scrollers) are the final evolution of engagement architecture. There’s nothing inherently nefarious about an algorithm presenting content, but these platforms fracture the content into a bottomless feed of tiny dopamine doses, requiring some smart behavior to present all of that.

      I’d argue that a short form video platform couldn’t exist without a finely tuned algorithm. With long form videos the barrier to creation limits the pool of available content. A smaller and deeper pool is more manageable for manual curation. A wider and shallower pool is exponentially harder:

      • Just navigating each video (even a <1s interaction) adds a large overhead to consuming the content. This could be 16% of your time watching 6s vines.
      • You basically have to watch most of the clip to judge it’s quality. Even a 3s glance could put a hard floor of watching 5-10% of all content.
      • The amount of video topics in short form dilutes high quality creators. Is it likely that a creator who covers 3 topics in interesting, in-depth 30 minute videos could match that engaging runtime with 90+ diverse topics?

      Take out a content distilling/targeting algorithm and your platform is unusable.

    • gustofwind@lemmy.worldEnglish
      364·
      17 hours ago

      It must have rotted some people’s brains because they’re letting their kids watch TikTok and YouTube starting in elementary school

    • fizzle@quokk.auEnglish
      161·
      16 hours ago

      Well yeah but just because “they” no longer say that doesn’t mean it isn’t true, nor does it mean that short form video doesn’t “rot your brain”.

      As in all things, moderation is key.

      If you let your kids watch this trash for hours a day they’re going to be imbeciles.

      • nymnympseudonym@piefed.socialEnglish
        131·
        16 hours ago

        What do you get from a glut of TV?
        A pain in the neck and an IQ of 3!
        Why don’t you try simply reading a book?
        You’ll get no… commercials…!

        -The Oompa-Loompas

        • Blaster M@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          12 hours ago

          While I admire the “modern” remake movie for sticking closer to the book on the characters caricatures, the Gene Wilder version of this movie is still great in its own way. Particularly the oompa loompa songs.

  • gerowen@piefed.socialEnglish
    4·
    14 hours ago

    I use AdGuard Home on a home server to block all social media for my kids for this very reason.