Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Watching TikTok and Instagram deactivates the cognitive control network: Study

rathbiotaclan.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 132 posts

Re: Watching TikTok and Instagram deactivates the cognitive control network: Study

#31

Post by zetazzed »

woodpanel wrote: post #10

Worthwhile to note that “TikTok” here just means the format, not the platform. YouTube has its “shorts”, Facebook, insta, X, et all engage heavily in milking your doom scrolled eyeballs for time and profit.

I uninstalled basically all of these EXCEPT youtube, and that's what I struggle with sometimes now. I find so much great long- and medium-form content on Youtube that I want to keep it around. But I have to admit that I can sometimes fall down a time-wasting rabbit hole with shorts.

The Youtube app now has a "shorts feed limit" under "time management" that will limit your access to the auto-scroll shorts feed to a certain amount per day. Worth checking out!

Re: Watching TikTok and Instagram deactivates the cognitive control network: Study

#32

Post by AquilineFeline »

whatever1 wrote: post #23

I get the TikTok addiction, but before that it was fb, before that was the tv, before that the newspaper/magazines, before that the books, before that table games etc I don’t know it seems that regardless of the technology the brain needs dozing off from reality.

Something feels different with the short form, rapid fire stuff, at least to me

Re: Watching TikTok and Instagram deactivates the cognitive control network: Study

#33

Post by sva_ »

EA-3167 wrote: post #9

The brain is incredibly energy hungry so it evolved to detect situations that don’t require full attention and activates the Default Mode Network. This happens when you’re zoning out to pretty much anything, and indicates that you’re essentially in “low power mode”. My question here is whether the framing of the content in question “shutting off brain regions” is an honest one compared to what I said above. fMRI is a…

This "low power mode" is a myth, the brain pulls a pretty constant amount of power (about 20% of metabolic energy), and most power isn't consumed by the action potential/neurons firing, but rather in keeping the neuron ready to fire.

And the regions involved in the default mode network are actually some of the metabolically most active regions in the brain, involved in memory consolidation, future simulation, theory of mind, and self-narrative; among other things.

Re: Watching TikTok and Instagram deactivates the cognitive control network: Study

#34

Post by thin_carapace »

fl4regun wrote: post #13
thin_carapace wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

define short form content as anything under an arbitrary time threshold, legislate all online providers of short form content to mandate an arbitrary time limit per day for all users, add a law that parents knowingly allowing children to exceed national daily short form content limits are subject to penalty. seems fairly straightforward. but uh, I guess we could all capitulate to giving corporations our biometric dat…

I don't think it's straightforward at all. What's considered "short form content". Just video? Does just audio count? Does a gif count? What if I make a website that uploads videos at 1/10th the speed, and the user plays it back 10x faster so it becomes short form? What if i make a video aggregator website that pulls from multiple different sources so the user gets around the time limit per day per user? What if user…

study each proposed form of short form content regarding impact on cognitive function and select the most destructive forms for legislation.

if you make a website that provides short form content you are subject. why would an aggregator be excluded?

go ahead and let users make multiple accounts. the current, invalid, answer here is biometric provisioning (done not to protect anything but government and corporate interests). personally I don't care if an adult wants to fry their brain, provided that they have been adequately educated as to the extent of what they are doing to themselves. it's why I included the parental proviso, because protection from brain frying is most important during childhood.

Re: Watching TikTok and Instagram deactivates the cognitive control network: Study

#35

Post by [deleted] »

whatever1 wrote: post #23

I get the TikTok addiction, but before that it was fb, before that was the tv, before that the newspaper/magazines, before that the books, before that table games etc I don’t know it seems that regardless of the technology the brain needs dozing off from reality.

[deleted]

Re: Watching TikTok and Instagram deactivates the cognitive control network: Study

#37

Post by gunsle »

whatever1 wrote: post #23

I get the TikTok addiction, but before that it was fb, before that was the tv, before that the newspaper/magazines, before that the books, before that table games etc I don’t know it seems that regardless of the technology the brain needs dozing off from reality.

The Reddit tier mental gymnastics on display here to avoid any kind of acknowledgement of the dangers of short form video specifically is impressive.

Re: Watching TikTok and Instagram deactivates the cognitive control network: Study

#38

Post by santadays »

fl4regun wrote: post #13
thin_carapace wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

define short form content as anything under an arbitrary time threshold, legislate all online providers of short form content to mandate an arbitrary time limit per day for all users, add a law that parents knowingly allowing children to exceed national daily short form content limits are subject to penalty. seems fairly straightforward. but uh, I guess we could all capitulate to giving corporations our biometric dat…

I don't think it's straightforward at all. What's considered "short form content". Just video? Does just audio count? Does a gif count? What if I make a website that uploads videos at 1/10th the speed, and the user plays it back 10x faster so it becomes short form? What if i make a video aggregator website that pulls from multiple different sources so the user gets around the time limit per day per user? What if user…

How about anything that tracks the user's behavior and changes its output based on that behavior specific to that user. If I have a table somewhere in my software that identifies a user and references behavior, not intentional settings, just behavior and that is used to determine what the software does. Make that illegal and a lot of problems go away. To me it is this feedback loop that is insidious.

Re: Watching TikTok and Instagram deactivates the cognitive control network: Study

#39

Post by EA-3167 »

im3w1l wrote: post #19
EA-3167 wrote: post #9

The brain is incredibly energy hungry so it evolved to detect situations that don’t require full attention and activates the Default Mode Network. This happens when you’re zoning out to pretty much anything, and indicates that you’re essentially in “low power mode”. My question here is whether the framing of the content in question “shutting off brain regions” is an honest one compared to what I said above. fMRI is a…

This framing seems like the correct one, but I think that just like being physically sedentary leads to weakness of muscles and joints and health problems, so being mentally sedentary could also lead to a mind that is weakened in the long term, though the weakness could likely be reversed with exposure to exercise.

Now this I can agree with unreservedly.

Re: Watching TikTok and Instagram deactivates the cognitive control network: Study

#40

Post by gunsle »

thin_carapace wrote: post #3

the linked study effectively drills down on aspects of previous work ... "High-frequency SFV [short form video] use was consistently associated with attentional disruption, reduced executive functioning, and emotional dysregulation." "Neuroimaging results revealed reduced activation in the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC) and Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) regions ... when participants viewed personalised TikT…

Absolutely baffling you’re being downvoted lmao. Social media Astro turfing teams working overtime I guess
Post reply on HN