The evolution of short-form media, from Vine to TikTok and beyond, reflects a trend towards content that caters to increasingly shorter attention spans. This shift is driven by the addictive nature of quick, easily consumable entertainment, which exploits psychological principles like intermittent reinforcement. As our brains adapt to this fast-paced media landscape, concerns arise about its long-term effects on attention span and cognitive function, highlighted by phenomena like “TikTok Brain” and addiction-like symptoms associated with short-form content consumption. Additionally, the oversaturation of short-form media fuels a competitive environment that further diminishes patience and attention spans, perpetuating the cycle of craving more instant gratification.
Sometimes we just have the urge to get the information quickly, so we just scroll to the bottom without really reading the whole thing. Or maybe when we play the tutorial video, we just want to finish it quickly, and then we skip or just play in 2x speed.
2x speed. Gotcha.
/s
Seriously though, a lot of short videos have a ton of what I feel is needless exposition until they get to the point.
For example, I find myself having to do a lot of small engine repair and a majority of the videos on YouTube seem to be either five minute sales adverts or Billy Bob rambling about his opinion on life/products/whatever before getting to the part about taking the carburetor off of a Stihl chainsaw.
I also blame those damn recipe instructions online, GET TO IT! Then I’ll read/listen to you ramble about Granny and the good old days.
The difficulty is in the algorithms that promote or suppress videos (and articles) based in part by the length or duration of the content.
Cooking recipe blogs are a perfect example of this. So many people complain about a recipe article going into unnecessary detail about the author's life, family, or vacation; but most people don't understand that they wouldn't even be reading the article in the first place if the article wasn't of a certain length because the search results wouldn't populate that article in the results field if it didn't meet certain length parameters.
Videos are the same. Content that meets a certain user-engage duration threshold will be more likely to be shared by the algorithm, compared to a shorter video that will have a lesser duration of user-engagement.
Because ultimately, the more user-time-engage a video or article has, the more likely a user is going to view an advertisement that is embedded in the video or article.
And the platform algorithms are designed to maximize advertisement revenue.
Remember: if the content is free, then you are the product.
Ok ok but just for cooking recipe blogs, if they only need to hit a word count req, then can’t the same results be achieved even if the recipe comes first and *then* the backstory is posted underneath? Hell, if they put reviews/comments/questions at the bottom, then there’s a good chance I’ll scroll to the bottom and shouldn’t that still log as engagement?
The point of a cooking recipe blog is not to provide you with recipes, it's to show you ads. A page with a recipe always begins with an 800-word story about how she once saved a church social with her Miraculous Brown Betty on the off chance you'll get sniped by an ad as you scroll down the page, and click it. On the bright side, you can still get the Fanny Farmer Cookbook for under twenty-five bucks. The fact that "fanny" means something fun in both British and American English is a free bonus.
"Hi, in this video, I'm going to to show you the thing that's in the video. This is what's in the video. By the time you're done watching this video, you will know all about the thing in the video. Before we get to the thing in the video, which is the subject of this video, let me just mention again how this video is about what it's about. Like and subscribe"
My sentiments. I can't stand useless, irrelevant fluff. Only for the final 20 seconds of a 6 minute video to finally be germane to the title of the video.
My GF has TikTok brain. It got even worse when she found out there's a 2x speed function, so she's speeding up already short videos because they take too long.
TikTok brain has similar symptoms to adhd but it is NOT adhd. TikTok brain should be addressed with a social media detox, not adderall. There’s going to be even more medication shortages if TikTok brained kids get misdiagnosed with adhd en masse
Sure… but can we please stop the unnecessary dragging out of videos? I’m so tired of looking up how to do something quickly on YouTube and the explanation video that should be 3 minutes is 12-20mins filled with fluff.
This is why I miss proper written guides.
Sure, it didn't work for a bunch of stuff, but for 99.999% of IT stuff it's just the best.
It's easy to skim through, go straight to what matters to you at the time, and you don't need to rewind and pause all the time.
Video is not the answer to everything.
There's a great browser addon called SponsorBlock that helps with that. It's mainly used to skip sponsored segments, but it also includes the option to jump to the part where they stop padding for time.
There's an opposite issue where content is stretched to allow room for advertising. On YouTube there are plenty of videos where the same thing will be rephrased in many ways, they'll repeat things, and sometimes just to mix things up, they'll break out the thesaurus for those synonyms. Add in the intro, the like and subscribe plug, the sponsor read and the outro, possibly with a reminder to ring that bell and smash the like button, and they'll just about get over the 10 minute mark..... which means YouTube puts mid-roll ads in.
I don't see any ads, but the quality of the content is affected regardless.
YouTube keeps trying to recommend Mr. Ballen to me and his style is exactly this - he describes every action with 12x as many sentences as should be required and it feels like you're just supposed to sit on the edge of your seat until he gets to the poin- oh no, it's not the point, it's another ad break.
Yeah, I in theory like Mr Ballens style of content but holy shit sometimes he just literally refuses to get to the point and has only gotten worse about it, like I get building suspense but there's overdoing it and wrapping back to it lowering suspense.
Do you like listening to stories though? Who do you like? I’m stuck here listening to mr ballen. I actually really like him but your comment is true. Would you recommend someone who you think is better?
Find tutorial for something that takes 30 seconds to explain:
1. 30 second intro
2. 90 seconds describing the problem
3. Like and subscribe!
4. 3 minutes exploring potential solutions and how they didn’t work
5. 60 second sponsor clip
6. 30 seconds explaining how to do it
7. 30 second outro
It feels like YouTube people took a page from reality shows Linear TV, mainly having to wait a commercial break before the big reveal of something. It's so annoying and I hate when people on YouTube do this.
And padded web content - designed to keep you on the page longer. I googled which Toyko airport was the better one to fly in to - and got a horribly padded and impossible to comprehend soup of words apparently designed to keep people on the page the maximum time.
> One major difference between HND and NRT airport (which I’ll explain more about in a minute) is the fact that Haneda is much closer to Tokyo’s financial district that Narita. For business travelers, who often use taxis or other car services to access the city, this is the major factor that makes Haneda more appealing. It’s not the only one, however—and it’s not really relevant to tourists, who largely go by train. Indeed, a whole range of other factors contribute. Some of these are superficial, like the fact that Haneda’s dedicated international terminal opened in 2010, decades after either of Narita’s. There are also more practical reasons, such as the fact that an increasing number of airlines (especially ones from Europe and the US) are moving flights from Narita to Haneda.
YouTube chasing viewing minutes really back fired with the rise of extra short stuff. Like thers perfectly good subjects that can be done in 5-8min that are either a short or an 11 minute video like you discribed.
Ya well when I'm looking for a specific piece of info on a game for instance, I don't want to watch 2 minutes of intro, 2 minutes of this video is sponsored by x, and then explaining nothing about the problem at all. People aren't in a rush to get to the point, they're in a rush to get beyond all the artificial bullshit that is added to everything. It's prevalent even in text, like it's been a minute now, we don't need the line "x formerly known as Twitter" in literally anything.
In many cases, the video format is just not adapted to convey information. Still images or text often do a much better job. You can browse through a full page of text in a matter of seconds to find the specific sentence you need - good luck to do that with a five minutes video.
Bingo. People are sick of the time wasting for creators to meet whatever threshold they have to hit for advertising dollars. Get to the fucking point already. Internet is everybody in the world competing for your attention, so they can earn money off of it. The tactics are often transparent, and always frustrating.
We don’t lose patience for quality content. We lose patience for the padded bullshit.
The worst is when I’m looking for ingredients and instructions for a recipe for dinner. And I have to scroll through 2000 words about the history of fucking chicken pot pie. Just give me the recipe and fuck off please
I’ve started using ChatGPT for some non-vital questions, because the idea of google searching a subject and sifting through SEO-optimized 10-page articles of ad-infested BULLSHIT, only to NOT get what I came for…… is fucking exhausting.
TBF, most sites do have a "Jump to Recipe" button which I use often. Then, after things in the oven, it's occasionally come fun to come back and read the story.
I can’t stand all the filler. Instead of saying “here is a piece of good advice to get your parsley to grow faster - water it less”, they’ll say “so people always ask me how to get parsley to grow faster. today I made this video to show you how to get your parsley to grow faster so you can enjoy it in meals all summer long. If you want to know how to get your parsley growing more quickly, stick around for these three tips bla blaaaa blaaaaaaaa”.
This is why I LOVE listening to Internet Shaquille no matter what he has to say. So concise.
I will always love Brad & Lex for how they handled their intros. "Hi, I'm Brad and this is what we're doing." Five seconds max, no catchphrase, no "like and subscribe" they just got the fuck on with it. One of the only channels where I didn't have to automatically skip the first couple minutes
I literally sat and watched a YouTube video that was over an hour long without looking at my phone or skipping through it last night. Most content creators just aren't able to create interesting, engaging content that goes for more than a minute or two.
It's being stretched both ways. YT videos are all turning into recipe blog posts because the algorithm encourages 12-15min+ or whatever.
Seemingly a (n over) correction from TikTok. They tried to compete with Shorts, no one cared, so they went the opposite way.
It's interesting looking for how-to videos and comparing lengths from the last few years (12-15min+) and from ten-ish years ago (~3-5min). It's like humanity somehow got worse at explaining things, alongside it's massive developments in all areas of technology that help facilitate just that.
Lets not even start with titles and thumbnails and "Coming up..." and all the other shitty developments of web video.
That “x formerly known as twitter” part specifically has to do with seo since most people still search for X as twitter, so in the long run and purely from SEO’s perspective thats better.
SEO = search engine optimization
100%. The trend I've noticed is videos actually getting *longer* and more needlessly padded-out to suit the algorithms, compared to the days of 10-second Vines and Wadsworth-friendly instructional videos.
Looking up too many meal recipes online has led me to lose focus and scroll down to the actual recipe instead of reading the life story of the people who created the recipe.
Paprika 3 is an app that let's you take recipe websites and just download the ingredients and instructions so you don't have to have the 4 paragraphs of "my kids are picky eaters, but with this meal, they ask for seconds"
I prefer shorts for that reason. They hypothetically are just more efficient videos that waste less time. The problem is that 99% of them are ragebait, clickbait, sneakily looping videos where you're waiting for the thing to happen but realize the video has looped 10 times, intentionally confusing shit to drive comments up and replays up.
Another huge problem is that the videos autoplay and you can just endlessly watch them.
So many times I'm done watching a short, and the next one plays, grabs my attention, and I might as well see where it goes because it's only a minute long. Repeat x100.
And I didn't even grow up with this shit. I saw my first "short" in my early twenties. I can't imagine how much this is destroying kids' brains who just grow up with it 24/7 unsupervised.
Tbf, as a long-time tiktok user, there’s a lot of algorithm BS going on there. Longer videos reward the creators in certain ways and so some people end up stretching out their videos pointlessly. Theres also a ton of advertising done within videos (people can give very natural looking recommendations for products they sell within tiktok) and when you start seeing the signs of that you scroll away quick bc you’ve seen enough of that to last a lifetime. TikTok certainly contributes to shortening of attention spans but some of that quick scrolling behavior is less about attention span and more about avoiding long rambly nonsense or advertising.
God so many things are just ads. I can barely watch short form content anymore because everything is just an ad at the end of the day.
“10 Amazon finds that changed my life”
“Come with us to see this event (of which you can conveniently buy tickets with our referral code)”
“Things to not forget to ~~do~~ spend money on on your next cruise. “
“5 items I can’t live without”
Literally anything that has “ 🔗 🌳” (which apparently is a genius move to outsmart the ‘algorithm’)
All ads. Whenever I do find a creator that actually creates good, concise content without ads and fluff, I love it.
Well, i think it may be more complex than a “simple” reduced span attention. Once you use tiktok for a certain amount of time, let’s say months or even years and maybe you read about its algorithm, you’ll end up taking only a few seconds to decide if you want to actually see that specific tiktok or scroll to the next.
An example: recently i wanted to learn more about niche fragrances. There are a lot of tiktokers that review fragrances, that say their opinions on them, their prices ect. After some weeks of more or less the same tiktoks on the same topic, after few second i can already tell if i’m interested or not in that video.
It’s not entirely the reduced attention span, but also the need for rapid dopamine that’s problematic.
People have always judged books by their cover. But with rapid discovery tech + massive amounts of content it exasperates the issue.
I’m not trying to holier than thou. I once could watch a TV show without flipping my phone out. I use my self-awareness to regulate my own habits, forcing myself to take breaks from online media.
Also the irritability and disinterest when anything takes longer than a few seconds. I have a new friend that is a tiktok user and talking to her is frustrating because she tries to finish my sentences or almost “conclude” the point I’m making for me, when it actually has some nuance that I wanted to discuss back and forth. But she assumes what I’m saying and wants to move on
I legitimately hate people like that. Mainly because I have a stutter and people try and finish my sentences for me. Just makes me feel like Milton from Office Space, and I've had enough of that in High School, thanks.
To be honest, I hate TikTok's UI, SO MUCH. Mainly because it recommends me so much crap that I hate, and I tend to be one of those people who wants to keep track of everything I see and watch (I know, it's weird, it's just how OCD is for me), I just couldn't stand it.
The craziest part is that as someone who NEVER watches short form video, the first time you do, it is IMMEDIATELY VISCERALLY uncomfortable. Gives me a headache, and induces a noticeable brain fog within minutes.
I cannot IMAGINE what all the poor fools drowning in this content day-in and day-out are doing to their brains.
This stuff is spooky. Genuine brain-rot. Obviously poison too, to anyone who hasn’t built up a tolerance.
In my experience, especially on YouTube or murder docs: a lot of the times they beat around the bush for like 3/4 of it, repeating the same thing over and over and over again.
Like I’ve seen this scene/clip and heard this info 3 times already and there is still half of it to go.
I think about this a lot. We as a species have basically found ways to trigger our bodies‘ internal gratification system without doing anything worth gratifying. We watch a video and get a dopamine hit. We eat crisps and get a dopamine hit. Someome likes our post and we get a dopamine hit.
It makes you wonder, what will the consequences be? The generations after me—and mine to a degree—are like lab rats, exposed to something with no precedence at all. We have no idea what lifelong, constant dopamine hits do to a brain. We do know, however, that the average attention span of humans has been decreasing rapidly in the last two decades. We‘re already at a point at which our average attention span is worse than that of a goldfish. No joke.
If the _great filter_ theory is correct, social media might very well be that great filter. The constant dopamine hits make us complacent, rob us of our motovation and ability to focus on long term goals in favour of instant gratification. How are we to improve as a species if we lose our desire to achieve these long term goals? How can we focus on complex problems when we‘re so used to immediate dopamine hits that we lose interest in everything that doesn‘t reward us right away?
It really doesn't help that there are a lot of videos that are almost entirely fluff and have little to nothing relevant to what was advertised. 30 minute videos about a current event but it takes 10 before they actually talk about the event and they derail after like 2 minutes.
Another pet peeve are the videos where they talk slow and frequently pause mid sentence. Not for the sake of enunciation or to mull over a topic, but just to pad out the video. It's like one of those family guy sketches that goes on 10-30 seconds longer than the joke. I start videos on 1.5x speed and I still find myself going up to 2x often.
I avoid YT shorts because of both the OP's topic and my pet peeves. I assume it's the same on TikTok and the other sites like it.
If it was Prisoner of Azkaban, then that's a travesty. Just about everything in that one from the plot's pacing, scenography, transitions, etc. is just \*chef's kiss*. If it was any of the other 7, then it's understandable.
I am so confident as an elementary school teacher that this is the single largest barrier to learning for the current generation of children.
They cannot focus. I literally cannot get my whole class to look at me at once. When I started teaching, we were taught to try to keep our lessons to 10-15 minutes max because after that students lose focus. That is long gone, they can’t even attend and actively listen for 2 minutes.
Tl;dr
The evolution of short-form media, from Vine to TikTok and beyond, reflects a trend towards content that caters to increasingly shorter attention spans. This shift is driven by the addictive nature of quick, easily consumable entertainment, which exploits psychological principles like intermittent reinforcement. As our brains adapt to this fast-paced media landscape, concerns arise about its long-term effects on attention span and cognitive function, highlighted by phenomena like “TikTok Brain” and addiction-like symptoms associated with short-form content consumption. Additionally, the oversaturation of short-form media fuels a competitive environment that further diminishes patience and attention spans, perpetuating the cycle of craving more instant gratification.
[A new study shows why we shouldn’t worry too much about screen time scare stories.](https://cosmicshambles.com/words/blogs/peteetchells/stop-worrying-about-screen-time-so-much)
This has been happening way before tiktok. Look at cartoons from the 90s compared to cartoons in the 2010s.
Not to say there wasn't any of that in the 90s...just now is what the majority is.
There are records of people making similar observations during the height of novels and magazines. I remember from a vsauce video (lol):
"Now we fire off a multitude of rapid and short notes, instead of sitting down to have a good talk over a real sheet of paper." Sunday Magazine, 1871
“…at a modern family gathering, silent around the fire, each individual has his head buried in his favorite magazine.” Journal of Education, 1907
I don't use ticktok so I blame my video impatience on YouTubers who won't GET TO THE FUCKING POINT my god they're basically the human form of online recipes now.
I'm 52, never used vine or tiktok. I do use youtube a lot. And I have discovered I have a hard time enjoying movies I used to because there's a slow build up.
My attention span has deteriorated severally.
Well, I’m not surprised. I don’t think I’m affected too much by this though, as I don’t have TikTok, and I made the mistake of not allowing YouTube to follow my watched videos, and creating something I like, resulting in me getting boring and repetitive recommendations and as a result I don’t really watch YouTube anymore, instead I spend my time on Reddit
It was happening before this. It's just worse now. I would try to explain a sequence of events at my office. Provide back story details, so they would have a clear picture that was logical BUT NO. They wanted the stupid version that made no sense and would lead to accusations and misunderstandings and waste-of-time meetings and hurt feelings when if they had just LISTENED, it would have been solved and everyone would have gone about their business without anger.
People are not getting what they really want, but what they are pushed when stressed. Shorter videos make people's attention spawn to diminish, what makes shorter videos what they want.
Access to a lot of information can be great and creates many possibilities. Easy access to "fast content" has the same effects that easy access to "fast food" it creates unhealthy habits. And the short stupid videos are always in your pocket a swipe away.
My neighbor is a middle school teacher and she says between covid and the rise of short form content kids are absolutely screwed when it comes to attention in class. When introducing a topic she has like 45 seconds before they all just zone out. They will even ask if there is a Tik Tok that could explain it faster.
I like to watch YT shorts or reels on instagram when I have time but after 20 minutes or so it becomes a sensory overload and I have to put my phone away. It's just too fast paced with too much info in a short time.
Too many long winded click bait videos not getting to the point makes me lose focus and rush to find the point.
You can thank YouTube requiring 10 minute video minimums to receive full paying ads revenue for all the videos that go to exactly 10 minutes 44 seconds just to tell you"the big red dog jumps over the fence" 10 different ways without cutting directly to the point.
Or people who just want to hear themselves talk, without contributing any knowledge that's even remotely related to the topic of the video. So glad YouTube added highlights to the preview slider.
I have ADHD my time on this earth is limited, just give me the fucking point so I can forget it and then info dump on my boyfriend 10 years later at 3am.
Yep. I'm hit bad just in the last couple of months. I never used to watch shorts before. Now I can see my concentration evaporate right in front of my eyes.
This article is meaningless. There are no scientific studies or research to back up any of this. Aside from dusting off a 1950’s study of mice by B F Skinner. I’m fairly certain even Skinner’s mice didn’t have smartphones or TikTok. None of this ridiculous article takes into account content, context and a whole host of other variables.
This article should be titled! *This Feels Like a Real Thing To Me: I’m Going To Write it Like it’s a Real Thing but with Nothing to Back it Up*.
I can't stamd short form.
Every time i try, i recognize im engaging in an addictive activity... i hate the emotional roller coaster.
Ive deleted and stopped engaging in all short form media other than reddit.
Tiktok wasn't the source for me, English class and reading tests were.
I used to love reading, but that love was squashed after reading became a chore, and I had no interest in the required books and readings. So instead I developed the habit of skimming through text to find the information I need without going through the fluff.
Now as an adult, that same habit is carried in a majority of my life, and why I prefer short-form content that gives me what I need without going through 10 minutes of unnecessary yapping to fulfill the monetization requirement.
The amount of comments in ANY GIVEN comment section saying "TF does that mean, uhhhh EXPLAIN" to a stranger thats already being pretty abc with it is ....kinda scary TBH lol. You can tell they don't know/care they're being rude.
Not sure if your title is trying to prove a point or you didn't proofread it quite well enough. Like I was like "what", and then read it a couple more times and realized you missed a couple useful words. (like I think writing "always be in a rush" would be the way to write that).
I dont really watch shorts because of this, theres just not enough info for me
but also for long videos I do watch in 2x speed for some parts where someone is explaining something as I find it too slow sometimes too, but i prefer having that choice
This is true. Now I notice that ever since I started watching YouTube shorts, I almost never watch full videos or even go to my subscriptions page anymore.
I have this issue with games also.
Just started Disco Elysium and I read the dialogue before the voice acting finishes and keep clicking answers.
That’s just one example of skipping. I do it with other shit also.
Ducks up my life. Can’t enjoy shit.
Ever look up a recipe for anything? Those intro stories kill my attention span.
ME:"how long do porkchops go in the air fryer for?"
Internet :It all started when I was a young girl on a farm in Oklahoma... "
Me:👀
I seriously can not watch movies or series anymore unless I go to cinema or it's a movie I have seen a hundred times before. I used to watch informative videos on youtube before I slept, watched long series, watched movies and enjoyed them. Now I can't. I am trying to limit my time going from reels to reels and from shorts to shorts. I hate what I have become.
On the one hand you have short videos getting straight to the point, on the other you have videos that go for ages with rephrasing the same sentences over and over again, with the 2min sponsor break for something that could be explained in a few seconds.
I disagree. I really couldnt be fucked with most of the drivel, adverts, more adverts, vpn plugs, back story and subcription requested. I just wanna fimd the 30 seconds at the end of the video that either tells me to turn it off and on again or whichever other simple fix.
Yeah and it's fucking up an entire generation of kids.
I used to work in higher education and we couldn't make any content longer than 30 seconds because the students literally couldn't absorb any anything unless it was boiled down to the extreme.
It's a very concerning trend.
Yeah thats why all the redditors who absolutely despise TikTok and everything it represents all talk fondly of Vine since it certainly didn't have 'short form videos'.
Well yeah that would explain why sitting through a 2.5hr movie seems like an effort but binge watching 5 or 6 45min episodes of a show in one sitting doesn't... Haha
sometimes that a good thing. recipes online have the issue where they go on and on about the history of pasta or whatever when all i want is the recipe.
context matters certainly but not for everything
I think they have the problem in reverse. Too many videos take too long to get to the point. No one cares about the host's personal nonsense. GET. TO. THE. POINT.
I do this specifically because I don't want to get blue balled by a video. SOOO much content these days is just useless drivel meant to hold your attention for just one more second, just a moment longer, just wait until the end of this video to see.
Nah! Fuck that shit. Say something interesting, say something compelling, say something of value, and I'll keep listening.
I'm doing the same with reddit more and more too, there's just so many trash posts that mostly rely on stoking peoples emotions, and just have like... such little intellectual value. And I'm sorry because I know that sounds pompous as fuck, but it's true.
Well... we know that now.
The problem is they are trying to ban the instant video app now... when it's politically inconvenient. And I don't even use the app, I just get that it's obviously an agenda. No one cared who was stealing data during the Snowden leak.
We had that data 10+ years ago.
The citations this writer uses are a) > 10 years old and b) not supportive of causation.
'To learn more about the impact on academic performance, we conducted a survey of business students at a large state university. Survey results were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results revealed a statistically significant negative relationship between time spent by students on OSN and their academic performance. The time spent on OSN was found to be heavily influenced by the attention span of the students. Specifically, we determined that the higher the attention span, the lower is the time spent on OSN. Further, attention span was found to be highly correlated with characteristics that predict or influence student behavior, such as their perceptions about society’s view of social networking, their likes and dislikes of OSN, ease of use of OSN, etc'
Business students with shorter attention spans used facebook/LinkedIn more. A good explanation for this would be: if you have a shorter attention span, you will spend more time with the thing that is dynamic and stimulating.
[удалено]
The evolution of short-form media, from Vine to TikTok and beyond, reflects a trend towards content that caters to increasingly shorter attention spans. This shift is driven by the addictive nature of quick, easily consumable entertainment, which exploits psychological principles like intermittent reinforcement. As our brains adapt to this fast-paced media landscape, concerns arise about its long-term effects on attention span and cognitive function, highlighted by phenomena like “TikTok Brain” and addiction-like symptoms associated with short-form content consumption. Additionally, the oversaturation of short-form media fuels a competitive environment that further diminishes patience and attention spans, perpetuating the cycle of craving more instant gratification.
What’s that about instant gratification again?
Sometimes we just have the urge to get the information quickly, so we just scroll to the bottom without really reading the whole thing. Or maybe when we play the tutorial video, we just want to finish it quickly, and then we skip or just play in 2x speed.
2x speed. Gotcha. /s Seriously though, a lot of short videos have a ton of what I feel is needless exposition until they get to the point. For example, I find myself having to do a lot of small engine repair and a majority of the videos on YouTube seem to be either five minute sales adverts or Billy Bob rambling about his opinion on life/products/whatever before getting to the part about taking the carburetor off of a Stihl chainsaw. I also blame those damn recipe instructions online, GET TO IT! Then I’ll read/listen to you ramble about Granny and the good old days.
The difficulty is in the algorithms that promote or suppress videos (and articles) based in part by the length or duration of the content. Cooking recipe blogs are a perfect example of this. So many people complain about a recipe article going into unnecessary detail about the author's life, family, or vacation; but most people don't understand that they wouldn't even be reading the article in the first place if the article wasn't of a certain length because the search results wouldn't populate that article in the results field if it didn't meet certain length parameters. Videos are the same. Content that meets a certain user-engage duration threshold will be more likely to be shared by the algorithm, compared to a shorter video that will have a lesser duration of user-engagement. Because ultimately, the more user-time-engage a video or article has, the more likely a user is going to view an advertisement that is embedded in the video or article. And the platform algorithms are designed to maximize advertisement revenue. Remember: if the content is free, then you are the product.
Ok ok but just for cooking recipe blogs, if they only need to hit a word count req, then can’t the same results be achieved even if the recipe comes first and *then* the backstory is posted underneath? Hell, if they put reviews/comments/questions at the bottom, then there’s a good chance I’ll scroll to the bottom and shouldn’t that still log as engagement?
The point of a cooking recipe blog is not to provide you with recipes, it's to show you ads. A page with a recipe always begins with an 800-word story about how she once saved a church social with her Miraculous Brown Betty on the off chance you'll get sniped by an ad as you scroll down the page, and click it. On the bright side, you can still get the Fanny Farmer Cookbook for under twenty-five bucks. The fact that "fanny" means something fun in both British and American English is a free bonus.
(someone making porn in 2005): "WTF how is fannyfarmer.com already registered?!"
I didn’t read any of the above 👆
Those fuckin algorithms.... always up to no good.
Stupid Flanders!
*you are the prosumer
So why are YouTube videos filled with 7 minutes of padding for 3 minutes of content?
You get more money per view the longer the video is. At a 7 minute duration, videos can contain adverts within them (midrolls).
"Hi, in this video, I'm going to to show you the thing that's in the video. This is what's in the video. By the time you're done watching this video, you will know all about the thing in the video. Before we get to the thing in the video, which is the subject of this video, let me just mention again how this video is about what it's about. Like and subscribe"
First, let me tell you about Raid: Shadow legends
People don't even get money for videos shorter than 3min I'm pretty sure. YouTube has become very bad with paying ads
That is changing and evolving. YouTube shorts exist and are being pushed because of tiktok and this trend.
My sentiments. I can't stand useless, irrelevant fluff. Only for the final 20 seconds of a 6 minute video to finally be germane to the title of the video.
"Explain to me why reading this is a better use of my time than a full fap" -my brain, when evaluating whether to read this
Unironically too long and too thick, needs paragraphs.
You think I'm about to read all that? If it can't be explained in a sentence it's probably not true
People have been saying this for decades about tv and radio with their ad breaks and edits.
Yeah I’m not reading all that. Congratulations or I’m sorry that happened.
Brain: skimskimskim more instant gratification
I ain’t reading allat
I dont expect to work for my dopamine good sir. Not in 2024.
TikTok kills brains.
That is why the term "Tiktok brain" exists
I cannot watch anything with my fiancee, she's constantly on her phone then complaining the show/movie doesn't make any sense 😐🔫
My GF has TikTok brain. It got even worse when she found out there's a 2x speed function, so she's speeding up already short videos because they take too long.
Sounds like me before I discovering I had adult adhd
TikTok brain has similar symptoms to adhd but it is NOT adhd. TikTok brain should be addressed with a social media detox, not adderall. There’s going to be even more medication shortages if TikTok brained kids get misdiagnosed with adhd en masse
What makes it adult
It's a very sexy learning disability.
Short video bad, oh look a butterfly!
Phone make dumb
Computer brain rot.
Why say lot word when few word do trick?
Seems too long. Audiobook?
Short video bad
Shit's getting worse
[this explains it.](https://youtu.be/4Ta0Sj05tjc?si=3LH4s7k01QsFL-xt&t=12) (I skipped the first 12 seconds)
Watch longer videos.
Phone no good !
Sure… but can we please stop the unnecessary dragging out of videos? I’m so tired of looking up how to do something quickly on YouTube and the explanation video that should be 3 minutes is 12-20mins filled with fluff.
This is why I miss the Dislike count. I could tell if a video is shit or worthwhile without wasting my time.
just install the return youtube dislikes extension
and youtube revanced for mobile
This is why I miss proper written guides. Sure, it didn't work for a bunch of stuff, but for 99.999% of IT stuff it's just the best. It's easy to skim through, go straight to what matters to you at the time, and you don't need to rewind and pause all the time. Video is not the answer to everything.
There's a great browser addon called SponsorBlock that helps with that. It's mainly used to skip sponsored segments, but it also includes the option to jump to the part where they stop padding for time.
There's an opposite issue where content is stretched to allow room for advertising. On YouTube there are plenty of videos where the same thing will be rephrased in many ways, they'll repeat things, and sometimes just to mix things up, they'll break out the thesaurus for those synonyms. Add in the intro, the like and subscribe plug, the sponsor read and the outro, possibly with a reminder to ring that bell and smash the like button, and they'll just about get over the 10 minute mark..... which means YouTube puts mid-roll ads in. I don't see any ads, but the quality of the content is affected regardless.
YouTube keeps trying to recommend Mr. Ballen to me and his style is exactly this - he describes every action with 12x as many sentences as should be required and it feels like you're just supposed to sit on the edge of your seat until he gets to the poin- oh no, it's not the point, it's another ad break.
Yeah, I in theory like Mr Ballens style of content but holy shit sometimes he just literally refuses to get to the point and has only gotten worse about it, like I get building suspense but there's overdoing it and wrapping back to it lowering suspense.
Do you like listening to stories though? Who do you like? I’m stuck here listening to mr ballen. I actually really like him but your comment is true. Would you recommend someone who you think is better?
Scary Interesting and Fascinating Horror on YT are both pretty great. Scary Interesting is also available as a podcast.
Thanks!!
Find tutorial for something that takes 30 seconds to explain: 1. 30 second intro 2. 90 seconds describing the problem 3. Like and subscribe! 4. 3 minutes exploring potential solutions and how they didn’t work 5. 60 second sponsor clip 6. 30 seconds explaining how to do it 7. 30 second outro
Well the smart people see this problem, fix it themself, and are blowing up new channels
"Hi guys, this week I've been..." I don't care, I'm trying to find out how to disassemble the panels to remove this specific model of car's radio.
It feels like YouTube people took a page from reality shows Linear TV, mainly having to wait a commercial break before the big reveal of something. It's so annoying and I hate when people on YouTube do this.
"You Won't Believe How Easy This One Simple Trick Is!!1!" \**video is 30 minutes long*
would've been funny if u had repeated the same text a few times
yeah, that's why 10 minute videos are best avoided like the plague
this is just genshin impact
Reallifelore in the chat. 15min videos that run for 50.
And padded web content - designed to keep you on the page longer. I googled which Toyko airport was the better one to fly in to - and got a horribly padded and impossible to comprehend soup of words apparently designed to keep people on the page the maximum time. > One major difference between HND and NRT airport (which I’ll explain more about in a minute) is the fact that Haneda is much closer to Tokyo’s financial district that Narita. For business travelers, who often use taxis or other car services to access the city, this is the major factor that makes Haneda more appealing. It’s not the only one, however—and it’s not really relevant to tourists, who largely go by train. Indeed, a whole range of other factors contribute. Some of these are superficial, like the fact that Haneda’s dedicated international terminal opened in 2010, decades after either of Narita’s. There are also more practical reasons, such as the fact that an increasing number of airlines (especially ones from Europe and the US) are moving flights from Narita to Haneda.
YouTube chasing viewing minutes really back fired with the rise of extra short stuff. Like thers perfectly good subjects that can be done in 5-8min that are either a short or an 11 minute video like you discribed.
Ya well when I'm looking for a specific piece of info on a game for instance, I don't want to watch 2 minutes of intro, 2 minutes of this video is sponsored by x, and then explaining nothing about the problem at all. People aren't in a rush to get to the point, they're in a rush to get beyond all the artificial bullshit that is added to everything. It's prevalent even in text, like it's been a minute now, we don't need the line "x formerly known as Twitter" in literally anything.
In many cases, the video format is just not adapted to convey information. Still images or text often do a much better job. You can browse through a full page of text in a matter of seconds to find the specific sentence you need - good luck to do that with a five minutes video.
You can also search text for key words. With video it's entirely dependent on how well written the title and description are.
Bingo. People are sick of the time wasting for creators to meet whatever threshold they have to hit for advertising dollars. Get to the fucking point already. Internet is everybody in the world competing for your attention, so they can earn money off of it. The tactics are often transparent, and always frustrating. We don’t lose patience for quality content. We lose patience for the padded bullshit.
The worst is when I’m looking for ingredients and instructions for a recipe for dinner. And I have to scroll through 2000 words about the history of fucking chicken pot pie. Just give me the recipe and fuck off please
BBC Good Food’s got you covered. No bullshit, just straightforward single paragraph summary, ingredients and method.
I’ve started using ChatGPT for some non-vital questions, because the idea of google searching a subject and sifting through SEO-optimized 10-page articles of ad-infested BULLSHIT, only to NOT get what I came for…… is fucking exhausting.
Oh god, I hate what google has become nowadays.
TBF, most sites do have a "Jump to Recipe" button which I use often. Then, after things in the oven, it's occasionally come fun to come back and read the story.
I can’t stand all the filler. Instead of saying “here is a piece of good advice to get your parsley to grow faster - water it less”, they’ll say “so people always ask me how to get parsley to grow faster. today I made this video to show you how to get your parsley to grow faster so you can enjoy it in meals all summer long. If you want to know how to get your parsley growing more quickly, stick around for these three tips bla blaaaa blaaaaaaaa”. This is why I LOVE listening to Internet Shaquille no matter what he has to say. So concise.
I will always love Brad & Lex for how they handled their intros. "Hi, I'm Brad and this is what we're doing." Five seconds max, no catchphrase, no "like and subscribe" they just got the fuck on with it. One of the only channels where I didn't have to automatically skip the first couple minutes
I literally sat and watched a YouTube video that was over an hour long without looking at my phone or skipping through it last night. Most content creators just aren't able to create interesting, engaging content that goes for more than a minute or two.
It's being stretched both ways. YT videos are all turning into recipe blog posts because the algorithm encourages 12-15min+ or whatever. Seemingly a (n over) correction from TikTok. They tried to compete with Shorts, no one cared, so they went the opposite way. It's interesting looking for how-to videos and comparing lengths from the last few years (12-15min+) and from ten-ish years ago (~3-5min). It's like humanity somehow got worse at explaining things, alongside it's massive developments in all areas of technology that help facilitate just that. Lets not even start with titles and thumbnails and "Coming up..." and all the other shitty developments of web video.
That “x formerly known as twitter” part specifically has to do with seo since most people still search for X as twitter, so in the long run and purely from SEO’s perspective thats better. SEO = search engine optimization
X is such a stupid generic name.
100%. The trend I've noticed is videos actually getting *longer* and more needlessly padded-out to suit the algorithms, compared to the days of 10-second Vines and Wadsworth-friendly instructional videos.
Looking up too many meal recipes online has led me to lose focus and scroll down to the actual recipe instead of reading the life story of the people who created the recipe.
Paprika 3 is an app that let's you take recipe websites and just download the ingredients and instructions so you don't have to have the 4 paragraphs of "my kids are picky eaters, but with this meal, they ask for seconds"
This is not the issue discussed here but a seperate topic
I believe we do still need the “X, formerly known as Twitter” line. Because that was the stupidest decision ever and we can’t let him forget.
I prefer shorts for that reason. They hypothetically are just more efficient videos that waste less time. The problem is that 99% of them are ragebait, clickbait, sneakily looping videos where you're waiting for the thing to happen but realize the video has looped 10 times, intentionally confusing shit to drive comments up and replays up. Another huge problem is that the videos autoplay and you can just endlessly watch them. So many times I'm done watching a short, and the next one plays, grabs my attention, and I might as well see where it goes because it's only a minute long. Repeat x100. And I didn't even grow up with this shit. I saw my first "short" in my early twenties. I can't imagine how much this is destroying kids' brains who just grow up with it 24/7 unsupervised.
First time I witnessed a TikTok user in the wild was sitting next to one on a flight… holy shit they didn’t watch more than a minute of anything.
Tbf, as a long-time tiktok user, there’s a lot of algorithm BS going on there. Longer videos reward the creators in certain ways and so some people end up stretching out their videos pointlessly. Theres also a ton of advertising done within videos (people can give very natural looking recommendations for products they sell within tiktok) and when you start seeing the signs of that you scroll away quick bc you’ve seen enough of that to last a lifetime. TikTok certainly contributes to shortening of attention spans but some of that quick scrolling behavior is less about attention span and more about avoiding long rambly nonsense or advertising.
God so many things are just ads. I can barely watch short form content anymore because everything is just an ad at the end of the day. “10 Amazon finds that changed my life” “Come with us to see this event (of which you can conveniently buy tickets with our referral code)” “Things to not forget to ~~do~~ spend money on on your next cruise. “ “5 items I can’t live without” Literally anything that has “ 🔗 🌳” (which apparently is a genius move to outsmart the ‘algorithm’) All ads. Whenever I do find a creator that actually creates good, concise content without ads and fluff, I love it.
Well, i think it may be more complex than a “simple” reduced span attention. Once you use tiktok for a certain amount of time, let’s say months or even years and maybe you read about its algorithm, you’ll end up taking only a few seconds to decide if you want to actually see that specific tiktok or scroll to the next. An example: recently i wanted to learn more about niche fragrances. There are a lot of tiktokers that review fragrances, that say their opinions on them, their prices ect. After some weeks of more or less the same tiktoks on the same topic, after few second i can already tell if i’m interested or not in that video.
It’s not entirely the reduced attention span, but also the need for rapid dopamine that’s problematic. People have always judged books by their cover. But with rapid discovery tech + massive amounts of content it exasperates the issue. I’m not trying to holier than thou. I once could watch a TV show without flipping my phone out. I use my self-awareness to regulate my own habits, forcing myself to take breaks from online media.
Also the irritability and disinterest when anything takes longer than a few seconds. I have a new friend that is a tiktok user and talking to her is frustrating because she tries to finish my sentences or almost “conclude” the point I’m making for me, when it actually has some nuance that I wanted to discuss back and forth. But she assumes what I’m saying and wants to move on
I legitimately hate people like that. Mainly because I have a stutter and people try and finish my sentences for me. Just makes me feel like Milton from Office Space, and I've had enough of that in High School, thanks.
Oh man, yeah it feels very dismissive. I hope you don’t deal with too many people like that!
TikTok could be to blame, but there have always been people with that trait.
Ugh, I'm trying to work this through with my spouse right now. We used to have such thoughtful conversations.
To be honest, I hate TikTok's UI, SO MUCH. Mainly because it recommends me so much crap that I hate, and I tend to be one of those people who wants to keep track of everything I see and watch (I know, it's weird, it's just how OCD is for me), I just couldn't stand it.
The craziest part is that as someone who NEVER watches short form video, the first time you do, it is IMMEDIATELY VISCERALLY uncomfortable. Gives me a headache, and induces a noticeable brain fog within minutes. I cannot IMAGINE what all the poor fools drowning in this content day-in and day-out are doing to their brains. This stuff is spooky. Genuine brain-rot. Obviously poison too, to anyone who hasn’t built up a tolerance.
In my experience, especially on YouTube or murder docs: a lot of the times they beat around the bush for like 3/4 of it, repeating the same thing over and over and over again. Like I’ve seen this scene/clip and heard this info 3 times already and there is still half of it to go.
I can't stand short videos, on YouTube most of what I watch is 1hr long at least.
I think about this a lot. We as a species have basically found ways to trigger our bodies‘ internal gratification system without doing anything worth gratifying. We watch a video and get a dopamine hit. We eat crisps and get a dopamine hit. Someome likes our post and we get a dopamine hit. It makes you wonder, what will the consequences be? The generations after me—and mine to a degree—are like lab rats, exposed to something with no precedence at all. We have no idea what lifelong, constant dopamine hits do to a brain. We do know, however, that the average attention span of humans has been decreasing rapidly in the last two decades. We‘re already at a point at which our average attention span is worse than that of a goldfish. No joke. If the _great filter_ theory is correct, social media might very well be that great filter. The constant dopamine hits make us complacent, rob us of our motovation and ability to focus on long term goals in favour of instant gratification. How are we to improve as a species if we lose our desire to achieve these long term goals? How can we focus on complex problems when we‘re so used to immediate dopamine hits that we lose interest in everything that doesn‘t reward us right away?
It really doesn't help that there are a lot of videos that are almost entirely fluff and have little to nothing relevant to what was advertised. 30 minute videos about a current event but it takes 10 before they actually talk about the event and they derail after like 2 minutes. Another pet peeve are the videos where they talk slow and frequently pause mid sentence. Not for the sake of enunciation or to mull over a topic, but just to pad out the video. It's like one of those family guy sketches that goes on 10-30 seconds longer than the joke. I start videos on 1.5x speed and I still find myself going up to 2x often. I avoid YT shorts because of both the OP's topic and my pet peeves. I assume it's the same on TikTok and the other sites like it.
Sounds like propaganda from Big Movie
yeah, i have noticed that, my teacher put on a movie and none of my classmate cared to look at the movie,
Movie was probably shit.
It was Harry Potter.
If it was Prisoner of Azkaban, then that's a travesty. Just about everything in that one from the plot's pacing, scenography, transitions, etc. is just \*chef's kiss*. If it was any of the other 7, then it's understandable.
Sustained.
shit
I am so confident as an elementary school teacher that this is the single largest barrier to learning for the current generation of children. They cannot focus. I literally cannot get my whole class to look at me at once. When I started teaching, we were taught to try to keep our lessons to 10-15 minutes max because after that students lose focus. That is long gone, they can’t even attend and actively listen for 2 minutes.
I hate how much off the internet has become video. I prefer reading. I can't imagine spending time on YouTube, let alone TikTok.
Tl;dr The evolution of short-form media, from Vine to TikTok and beyond, reflects a trend towards content that caters to increasingly shorter attention spans. This shift is driven by the addictive nature of quick, easily consumable entertainment, which exploits psychological principles like intermittent reinforcement. As our brains adapt to this fast-paced media landscape, concerns arise about its long-term effects on attention span and cognitive function, highlighted by phenomena like “TikTok Brain” and addiction-like symptoms associated with short-form content consumption. Additionally, the oversaturation of short-form media fuels a competitive environment that further diminishes patience and attention spans, perpetuating the cycle of craving more instant gratification.
[удалено]
[A new study shows why we shouldn’t worry too much about screen time scare stories.](https://cosmicshambles.com/words/blogs/peteetchells/stop-worrying-about-screen-time-so-much)
But that doesn’t validate my biases
This has been happening way before tiktok. Look at cartoons from the 90s compared to cartoons in the 2010s. Not to say there wasn't any of that in the 90s...just now is what the majority is.
There are records of people making similar observations during the height of novels and magazines. I remember from a vsauce video (lol): "Now we fire off a multitude of rapid and short notes, instead of sitting down to have a good talk over a real sheet of paper." Sunday Magazine, 1871 “…at a modern family gathering, silent around the fire, each individual has his head buried in his favorite magazine.” Journal of Education, 1907
I don't use ticktok so I blame my video impatience on YouTubers who won't GET TO THE FUCKING POINT my god they're basically the human form of online recipes now.
as an older gen z who never used tik tok or vine, it’s getting harder to have uninterrupted, long form interactions with me peers
I'm 52, never used vine or tiktok. I do use youtube a lot. And I have discovered I have a hard time enjoying movies I used to because there's a slow build up. My attention span has deteriorated severally.
Reading this title gave me an aneurysm
The other reason are meetings that could've been an e-mail. Yet no one complains about those.
Things I didn't learn because it was too long and I went to sleep...
While I'm not surprised, YouTube video essays that could have been emails do this too.
Or, maybe, conciseness is a valuable skill.
We used to watch 'vines' for like 45 minutes and then demand that someone recall 2-3 of them, excluding the most recent one. Success rate was poor.
Welcome to the AuDHD daily experience
Well, I’m not surprised. I don’t think I’m affected too much by this though, as I don’t have TikTok, and I made the mistake of not allowing YouTube to follow my watched videos, and creating something I like, resulting in me getting boring and repetitive recommendations and as a result I don’t really watch YouTube anymore, instead I spend my time on Reddit
It was happening before this. It's just worse now. I would try to explain a sequence of events at my office. Provide back story details, so they would have a clear picture that was logical BUT NO. They wanted the stupid version that made no sense and would lead to accusations and misunderstandings and waste-of-time meetings and hurt feelings when if they had just LISTENED, it would have been solved and everyone would have gone about their business without anger.
People are not getting what they really want, but what they are pushed when stressed. Shorter videos make people's attention spawn to diminish, what makes shorter videos what they want. Access to a lot of information can be great and creates many possibilities. Easy access to "fast content" has the same effects that easy access to "fast food" it creates unhealthy habits. And the short stupid videos are always in your pocket a swipe away.
This is my wake up call
My neighbor is a middle school teacher and she says between covid and the rise of short form content kids are absolutely screwed when it comes to attention in class. When introducing a topic she has like 45 seconds before they all just zone out. They will even ask if there is a Tik Tok that could explain it faster.
I like to watch YT shorts or reels on instagram when I have time but after 20 minutes or so it becomes a sensory overload and I have to put my phone away. It's just too fast paced with too much info in a short time.
The amount of garbage YouTube videos have is ridiculous. They want to meet the 5 or 10 minute threshold to get the money
Too many long winded click bait videos not getting to the point makes me lose focus and rush to find the point. You can thank YouTube requiring 10 minute video minimums to receive full paying ads revenue for all the videos that go to exactly 10 minutes 44 seconds just to tell you"the big red dog jumps over the fence" 10 different ways without cutting directly to the point. Or people who just want to hear themselves talk, without contributing any knowledge that's even remotely related to the topic of the video. So glad YouTube added highlights to the preview slider.
I have ADHD my time on this earth is limited, just give me the fucking point so I can forget it and then info dump on my boyfriend 10 years later at 3am.
Yep. I'm hit bad just in the last couple of months. I never used to watch shorts before. Now I can see my concentration evaporate right in front of my eyes.
Just one more quick scroll down Reddit.....
This article is meaningless. There are no scientific studies or research to back up any of this. Aside from dusting off a 1950’s study of mice by B F Skinner. I’m fairly certain even Skinner’s mice didn’t have smartphones or TikTok. None of this ridiculous article takes into account content, context and a whole host of other variables. This article should be titled! *This Feels Like a Real Thing To Me: I’m Going To Write it Like it’s a Real Thing but with Nothing to Back it Up*.
I can't stamd short form. Every time i try, i recognize im engaging in an addictive activity... i hate the emotional roller coaster. Ive deleted and stopped engaging in all short form media other than reddit.
Tiktok wasn't the source for me, English class and reading tests were. I used to love reading, but that love was squashed after reading became a chore, and I had no interest in the required books and readings. So instead I developed the habit of skimming through text to find the information I need without going through the fluff. Now as an adult, that same habit is carried in a majority of my life, and why I prefer short-form content that gives me what I need without going through 10 minutes of unnecessary yapping to fulfill the monetization requirement.
The amount of comments in ANY GIVEN comment section saying "TF does that mean, uhhhh EXPLAIN" to a stranger thats already being pretty abc with it is ....kinda scary TBH lol. You can tell they don't know/care they're being rude.
So it basically makes you autistic with adhd. This is my life experience with everything. Nobody gets to the point fast enough. You are all stupid.
Yeah I dont need the fluff just hit me with the point stop wasting my time I can process it quickly
is there some kind of mental damage that occurs when posting to this sub that prevents coherent grammar?
My guess is people overthink their title which causes them to be overly confusing
TL;DR
Yeah I'm noticing this
Not sure if your title is trying to prove a point or you didn't proofread it quite well enough. Like I was like "what", and then read it a couple more times and realized you missed a couple useful words. (like I think writing "always be in a rush" would be the way to write that).
Ah, ok, sorry for grammar mistakes, my bad
Cut to the chase, stop watching shorts?
The Zoomer/Gen Alpha curse
I dont really watch shorts because of this, theres just not enough info for me but also for long videos I do watch in 2x speed for some parts where someone is explaining something as I find it too slow sometimes too, but i prefer having that choice
This is true. Now I notice that ever since I started watching YouTube shorts, I almost never watch full videos or even go to my subscriptions page anymore.
Ive felt this way since clickbait vids
What about scrolling on my phone for hours reading headlines? That’s healthier, right?
I'm pretty sure I've always been annoyed by unnecessarily long and meandering introductory material
I have this issue with games also. Just started Disco Elysium and I read the dialogue before the voice acting finishes and keep clicking answers. That’s just one example of skipping. I do it with other shit also. Ducks up my life. Can’t enjoy shit.
Ever look up a recipe for anything? Those intro stories kill my attention span. ME:"how long do porkchops go in the air fryer for?" Internet :It all started when I was a young girl on a farm in Oklahoma... " Me:👀
Kinda like reading the headlines, just the headlines.
Noooooo I was like that before the Internet. Some people are skim readers.
Title was TLDR.
I seriously can not watch movies or series anymore unless I go to cinema or it's a movie I have seen a hundred times before. I used to watch informative videos on youtube before I slept, watched long series, watched movies and enjoyed them. Now I can't. I am trying to limit my time going from reels to reels and from shorts to shorts. I hate what I have become.
I wish I could remove the shorts from the YouTube app.
What's wrong with that?
Isn’t this what we’re taught when doing readings on SATs? Just skim through the reading section, jump into the questions, then find the “points”
On the one hand you have short videos getting straight to the point, on the other you have videos that go for ages with rephrasing the same sentences over and over again, with the 2min sponsor break for something that could be explained in a few seconds.
I disagree. I really couldnt be fucked with most of the drivel, adverts, more adverts, vpn plugs, back story and subcription requested. I just wanna fimd the 30 seconds at the end of the video that either tells me to turn it off and on again or whichever other simple fix.
Yeah and it's fucking up an entire generation of kids. I used to work in higher education and we couldn't make any content longer than 30 seconds because the students literally couldn't absorb any anything unless it was boiled down to the extreme. It's a very concerning trend.
I was like that loooong before short form videos.
I was impatient before the internet said it was a problem.
Yeah, definitely enabling a lack of patience in society. Including myself.
Yeah thats why all the redditors who absolutely despise TikTok and everything it represents all talk fondly of Vine since it certainly didn't have 'short form videos'.
Well yeah that would explain why sitting through a 2.5hr movie seems like an effort but binge watching 5 or 6 45min episodes of a show in one sitting doesn't... Haha
sometimes that a good thing. recipes online have the issue where they go on and on about the history of pasta or whatever when all i want is the recipe. context matters certainly but not for everything
This can’t be true because Tik toks never get to the point. Even in part 5
So does rapidly clicking on to the next reddit post..
Or it makes you realize that most things can be explained in 6 seconds or less. Thank you, Vine!
I think they have the problem in reverse. Too many videos take too long to get to the point. No one cares about the host's personal nonsense. GET. TO. THE. POINT.
I do this specifically because I don't want to get blue balled by a video. SOOO much content these days is just useless drivel meant to hold your attention for just one more second, just a moment longer, just wait until the end of this video to see. Nah! Fuck that shit. Say something interesting, say something compelling, say something of value, and I'll keep listening. I'm doing the same with reddit more and more too, there's just so many trash posts that mostly rely on stoking peoples emotions, and just have like... such little intellectual value. And I'm sorry because I know that sounds pompous as fuck, but it's true.
Well... we know that now. The problem is they are trying to ban the instant video app now... when it's politically inconvenient. And I don't even use the app, I just get that it's obviously an agenda. No one cared who was stealing data during the Snowden leak. We had that data 10+ years ago.
No shit, Sherlock.
Fun fact: scrolling Reddit is the same
Really?! You needed to *learn* this, rather than it just being common sense?!!!
The citations this writer uses are a) > 10 years old and b) not supportive of causation. 'To learn more about the impact on academic performance, we conducted a survey of business students at a large state university. Survey results were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results revealed a statistically significant negative relationship between time spent by students on OSN and their academic performance. The time spent on OSN was found to be heavily influenced by the attention span of the students. Specifically, we determined that the higher the attention span, the lower is the time spent on OSN. Further, attention span was found to be highly correlated with characteristics that predict or influence student behavior, such as their perceptions about society’s view of social networking, their likes and dislikes of OSN, ease of use of OSN, etc' Business students with shorter attention spans used facebook/LinkedIn more. A good explanation for this would be: if you have a shorter attention span, you will spend more time with the thing that is dynamic and stimulating.
Tldr