The thing that really irks me is the explosion of short-form video is paired with deemphasizing links to try and keep people from leaving the site, which means even if you want to just ignore the video content and still use social media as a way to find interesting things to read/look at on the internet it's becoming progressively more difficult.
Agreed 100% with this article, and I don't think you're just someone complaining about change. It's pretty clear that these short-form videos are basically junk food on the internet. What I don't know is how we ever go back. It would require a huge number of people to consciously choose to not get sucked in.
Yeah I've made the conscious effort to be less on my phone. Deleted a lot of social media stuff and the ones I still have, I turned off notifications so I don't get those constant chirps to "pay attention to meee".
I feel I'm better off for it but it required the self awareness to realize this was bad and well, I was never into short form to begin with. If you're a youth, this is all you've ever known and too many adults aren't self aware to see the negative effects so I expect this to not get better.
Rewatching "The Simpsons", there's a lot of cracks at TV for lowering attention spans. Were they right or just being alarmist? I don't know maybe it was but it couldn't do it nearly as bad as internet short form could. For as much Tv as my brother watched (our parents thought it was a big problem), eventually the show would end, something you didn't like would come on and you wanted to do something else, and the culture at the time socially punished you for not going out and interacting with people at all. You'd be called a weirdo or freak for staying in all day looking at the idiot box. Now people will talk about how they *shouldn't* be expected to want to leave the house because of anxiety, which they probably got because they refuse to use their social muscles.
Not to say anxiety doesn't exist but for these folk, it's definitely because they have no offline social lives.
Oddly I find that watching a full TV episode actually *restores* my attention nowadays. Paying attention to a single thing for 20 minutes is actually helpful...
Since the election I've cut my social media way back. I deleted X and Bluesky and found that to be far easier than expected. But getting rid of vertical scrolling video has been much, much, more difficult. Getting rid of tiktok wasn't too hard, but I ended up spending just as much time on Reels. Strict time limits got me off of Reels, but the real issue was Shorts.
Since I was aound 10 or 11 YouTube has been my primary form of entertainment, and I think its made me a more informed and interesting person. I didn't want to give that up entirely or put a time limit on my longform content, but I kept getting sucked back into shorts. The horrifying thing is there's *no way* to disable shorts on the YouTube app, and google keeps agressively killing alternative youtube apps. The browser version is intentionally garbage too, so even though you can get plugins to block Shorts its barely usable.
The best solution I've found so far is Unwatched, a RSS based YouTube player that uses Embeds. But it lacks a lot of features and can be quite clunky for doing anything other than watching your subscriptions. But mercifully this means no more short form video! I did it!
I've been making more art, writing more, reading more… it's been a massive boost in my quality of life. I feel like I have control of my brain back. My media consumption has shifted to Discord, longform video, and my own Plex server. I've also been doing my Korean vocab flashcards a lot more. It's been a win win- but when I need to kill time I really miss the dissociated dopamine drip of Shorts/ Reels/ Tiktok. It's a shame there's no way that I've found to engage with it without it taking over my life.
But also, noticing how much better I'm feeling and how difficult it was to quit, I am now completely convinced that Big Tech is terrible for us. They know they're poisoning our minds. It's the intentional endpoint of the expansion of algorithmic content. They won't rest until they've monopolized every second of our attention. I think it's too late to stop them. All we can do is try to save ourselves.
“Even Substack - which sometimes acts as though it’s the anti-social media form of social media”
Substack auto opens on their twitter clone. And you gotta be real careful when clicking to avoid that Reels clone button. I’m adept at avoiding these now, but I’m a paying customer of this app? Why do I have to wade through social media slop? And it’s infectious. It makes the writing more slop-focused. Sucks to see it enshittified so quickly.
I highly recommend you read the book "Amusing Ourselves to Death" by Neil Postman. Though it was published in 1985, during the heyday of television, the book's thesis is deeply applicable to what you've written here. Neil Postman would be rolling in his grave if he knew just how dominant social media and short form video were in our modern society.
I hate shorts so much that i hacked my phone so the YouTube app won't show them to me. The fact that's not an option YouTube presents is borderline criminal.
one of the more notable things about the TikTok ban is that the fact that it's owned by the Chinese government is only half the problem -- the other half of the problem is that the short-form video style invariably makes people stupider.
People getting *the news* from TikTok is a big problem, and even if you don't assume that it harms Democrats, it definitely changes who the Democrats are -- Democratic voters are currently mad at the party for what are extremely dumb reasons, and people like David Hogg are essentially telling Democrats that to appeal to young voters they have to be a lot stupider.
This brilliantly captures something Iabout the current state of the internet. The carcinization metaphor is perfect - there’s something almost inevitable about how every platform has evolved toward the same addictive format, regardless of what they originally were.
What particularly resonates is the about market failure and negative externalities. The fact that short-form video “wins” in terms of engagement doesn’t mean it’s actually providing value - it’s just more effective at hijacking our attention systems. It’s like how sugar outcompetes vegetables in taste tests, but that doesn’t make it better nutrition.
The medium is reshaping not just how we consume content, but what gets created in the first place.
I don’t have solutions either, but awareness really does feel like the first step. At minimum, we can try to be more intentional about our consumption and recognize that these interactions are relationship based….if this content was coming directly from a human, would we engage it in the same way? Would it feel valuable to us? If not, why does it feel so via digital platforms?
One thing that’s annoying is you don’t have control over whether it’s shown or not. It’s simply in your feed and sometimes draws you in, which also kind of suggests the companies know people would otherwise turn it off and not see the content.
I guess this can be a new target for European legislation one way or the other and then it’ll be possible to see if people enjoy short videos and will seek them out or are simply happy with them gone.
I jumped on TikTok for a span of about two weeks a few years ago, and deleted it and never went back. I could literally feel it corroding my attention span. The algorithm there was, in my estimation, the best (in terms of delivering content I wanted to see) of any short form video app, and it was entirely too easy to reach for it whenever I had 30 spare seconds. It had to go.
I have had an extreme allergy to any form of continuous play video. I go to great lengths on any app I use to change defaults to avoid continuous infinite play. I want to only ever watch what I specifically chose to watch. I'm the guy who asks the hotel clerk to turn off the ubiquitous lobby tv when I'm the only one in the room (and always getting rejected).
It's probably notable that I developed this allergy back when it was cable tv, and my parents would just leave the TV on when they left the room to do something else for an hour. I couldn't concentrate enough to do my homework when their tv was blaring, so I'd turn it off. I imagine it's possible I wouldn't have developed this allergy in today's social media environment.
I don't think I've ever met someone who has this kind of tendency (and I call it an allergy because I do have physical discomfort when continuous play happens to me); certainly not anyone who describes it as a response to the infinite/continuous play technological aspect, as opposed to people with more political- or Postman-inspired reasons to hate video content.
That being said, I do sometimes (too often!) get sucked into infinite scroll (TM) of text, as reading text doesn't feel like an assault to my senses in the same way.
A friend just sent me this incredible video from 12 years ago - a PSA about 'Vertical Video Syndrome'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dechvhb0Meo
pre-Vine, posting a vertical video was considered a major faux pas! People would yell at you in the comments! Turn the phone!
I remember watching "Tosh.0" (back in like, what '09/'10?) and he was making fun of people who don't turn their phone!
The thing that really irks me is the explosion of short-form video is paired with deemphasizing links to try and keep people from leaving the site, which means even if you want to just ignore the video content and still use social media as a way to find interesting things to read/look at on the internet it's becoming progressively more difficult.
Agreed 100% with this article, and I don't think you're just someone complaining about change. It's pretty clear that these short-form videos are basically junk food on the internet. What I don't know is how we ever go back. It would require a huge number of people to consciously choose to not get sucked in.
Yeah I've made the conscious effort to be less on my phone. Deleted a lot of social media stuff and the ones I still have, I turned off notifications so I don't get those constant chirps to "pay attention to meee".
I feel I'm better off for it but it required the self awareness to realize this was bad and well, I was never into short form to begin with. If you're a youth, this is all you've ever known and too many adults aren't self aware to see the negative effects so I expect this to not get better.
Rewatching "The Simpsons", there's a lot of cracks at TV for lowering attention spans. Were they right or just being alarmist? I don't know maybe it was but it couldn't do it nearly as bad as internet short form could. For as much Tv as my brother watched (our parents thought it was a big problem), eventually the show would end, something you didn't like would come on and you wanted to do something else, and the culture at the time socially punished you for not going out and interacting with people at all. You'd be called a weirdo or freak for staying in all day looking at the idiot box. Now people will talk about how they *shouldn't* be expected to want to leave the house because of anxiety, which they probably got because they refuse to use their social muscles.
Not to say anxiety doesn't exist but for these folk, it's definitely because they have no offline social lives.
Oddly I find that watching a full TV episode actually *restores* my attention nowadays. Paying attention to a single thing for 20 minutes is actually helpful...
Since the election I've cut my social media way back. I deleted X and Bluesky and found that to be far easier than expected. But getting rid of vertical scrolling video has been much, much, more difficult. Getting rid of tiktok wasn't too hard, but I ended up spending just as much time on Reels. Strict time limits got me off of Reels, but the real issue was Shorts.
Since I was aound 10 or 11 YouTube has been my primary form of entertainment, and I think its made me a more informed and interesting person. I didn't want to give that up entirely or put a time limit on my longform content, but I kept getting sucked back into shorts. The horrifying thing is there's *no way* to disable shorts on the YouTube app, and google keeps agressively killing alternative youtube apps. The browser version is intentionally garbage too, so even though you can get plugins to block Shorts its barely usable.
The best solution I've found so far is Unwatched, a RSS based YouTube player that uses Embeds. But it lacks a lot of features and can be quite clunky for doing anything other than watching your subscriptions. But mercifully this means no more short form video! I did it!
I've been making more art, writing more, reading more… it's been a massive boost in my quality of life. I feel like I have control of my brain back. My media consumption has shifted to Discord, longform video, and my own Plex server. I've also been doing my Korean vocab flashcards a lot more. It's been a win win- but when I need to kill time I really miss the dissociated dopamine drip of Shorts/ Reels/ Tiktok. It's a shame there's no way that I've found to engage with it without it taking over my life.
But also, noticing how much better I'm feeling and how difficult it was to quit, I am now completely convinced that Big Tech is terrible for us. They know they're poisoning our minds. It's the intentional endpoint of the expansion of algorithmic content. They won't rest until they've monopolized every second of our attention. I think it's too late to stop them. All we can do is try to save ourselves.
“Even Substack - which sometimes acts as though it’s the anti-social media form of social media”
Substack auto opens on their twitter clone. And you gotta be real careful when clicking to avoid that Reels clone button. I’m adept at avoiding these now, but I’m a paying customer of this app? Why do I have to wade through social media slop? And it’s infectious. It makes the writing more slop-focused. Sucks to see it enshittified so quickly.
I highly recommend you read the book "Amusing Ourselves to Death" by Neil Postman. Though it was published in 1985, during the heyday of television, the book's thesis is deeply applicable to what you've written here. Neil Postman would be rolling in his grave if he knew just how dominant social media and short form video were in our modern society.
Add Spotify.
We remove tiktok from kids phones they started wat thing tiktok videos people were cross-posting on Spotify. Unbelievable.
I hate shorts so much that i hacked my phone so the YouTube app won't show them to me. The fact that's not an option YouTube presents is borderline criminal.
one of the more notable things about the TikTok ban is that the fact that it's owned by the Chinese government is only half the problem -- the other half of the problem is that the short-form video style invariably makes people stupider.
People getting *the news* from TikTok is a big problem, and even if you don't assume that it harms Democrats, it definitely changes who the Democrats are -- Democratic voters are currently mad at the party for what are extremely dumb reasons, and people like David Hogg are essentially telling Democrats that to appeal to young voters they have to be a lot stupider.
This brilliantly captures something Iabout the current state of the internet. The carcinization metaphor is perfect - there’s something almost inevitable about how every platform has evolved toward the same addictive format, regardless of what they originally were.
What particularly resonates is the about market failure and negative externalities. The fact that short-form video “wins” in terms of engagement doesn’t mean it’s actually providing value - it’s just more effective at hijacking our attention systems. It’s like how sugar outcompetes vegetables in taste tests, but that doesn’t make it better nutrition.
The medium is reshaping not just how we consume content, but what gets created in the first place.
I don’t have solutions either, but awareness really does feel like the first step. At minimum, we can try to be more intentional about our consumption and recognize that these interactions are relationship based….if this content was coming directly from a human, would we engage it in the same way? Would it feel valuable to us? If not, why does it feel so via digital platforms?
One thing that’s annoying is you don’t have control over whether it’s shown or not. It’s simply in your feed and sometimes draws you in, which also kind of suggests the companies know people would otherwise turn it off and not see the content.
I guess this can be a new target for European legislation one way or the other and then it’ll be possible to see if people enjoy short videos and will seek them out or are simply happy with them gone.
I jumped on TikTok for a span of about two weeks a few years ago, and deleted it and never went back. I could literally feel it corroding my attention span. The algorithm there was, in my estimation, the best (in terms of delivering content I wanted to see) of any short form video app, and it was entirely too easy to reach for it whenever I had 30 spare seconds. It had to go.
So right on, JJ. I'm a text guy so not that addicted
I have had an extreme allergy to any form of continuous play video. I go to great lengths on any app I use to change defaults to avoid continuous infinite play. I want to only ever watch what I specifically chose to watch. I'm the guy who asks the hotel clerk to turn off the ubiquitous lobby tv when I'm the only one in the room (and always getting rejected).
It's probably notable that I developed this allergy back when it was cable tv, and my parents would just leave the TV on when they left the room to do something else for an hour. I couldn't concentrate enough to do my homework when their tv was blaring, so I'd turn it off. I imagine it's possible I wouldn't have developed this allergy in today's social media environment.
I don't think I've ever met someone who has this kind of tendency (and I call it an allergy because I do have physical discomfort when continuous play happens to me); certainly not anyone who describes it as a response to the infinite/continuous play technological aspect, as opposed to people with more political- or Postman-inspired reasons to hate video content.
That being said, I do sometimes (too often!) get sucked into infinite scroll (TM) of text, as reading text doesn't feel like an assault to my senses in the same way.
I will say that I’ve noticed spending too much time reading articles does also make it harder to read books - ie kills my attention span.