Live data from Hacker News

Watching TikTok and Instagram deactivates the cognitive control network: Study

rathbiotaclan.com

81–90 of 132 posts

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

#81

Oh, and only these two social media sites? Or we're only going to headline echo that it is TikTok? Why does this smell like out of control propaganda?

They’re the most popular short content ones?

Write this headline about Mastodon and no one would read it.

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

#82

I haven’t read the study, but I’ve read the comments so far. I wonder if this mechanism is the same mechanism that impacts, say, swipe-focused dating websites, as well? And Twitter feeds with super-short messages. A lot of the most viral modern tech has been bite-sized content feeds of various types.

They definitely all play off emotions and have their own way to tapping into addictive behaviors. Youtube doom scrolling, reading endless reddits, etc. Lots of apps trying to get you hooked.

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

#83
post #78

dlPFC deactivation is observed in a lot of immersive tasks. There are a lot of tasks that do this. Playing video games, as one example https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/4-431-26797-2_11 Interpreting fMRI results like this article does is almost always wrong. Different activities produce different patterns of brain activity. You could put someone in an fMRI machine, have them do virtually any activity, and the…

And that's leaving aside the question of what it would affect. Elasticity/learning? Would it result in forgetting, or losing skill? Apart from the problem that I (and others with me) have with the "area X does Y" school of neuro-cognition, measuring changes in activity does not measure changes in connections, synapses, or tissue. It is possible that inhibiting certain brain areas for a longer period will change e.g.…

Only thing I took away from it was, "No wonder the algorithm is the golden goose"

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

#84

dlPFC deactivation is observed in a lot of immersive tasks. There are a lot of tasks that do this. Playing video games, as one example https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/4-431-26797-2_11 Interpreting fMRI results like this article does is almost always wrong. Different activities produce different patterns of brain activity. You could put someone in an fMRI machine, have them do virtually any activity, and the…

Agreed, link should definitely be changed (or just the post removed)

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

#85
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now that is what I call a series ahead of its time! Also saw it as it came out, had totally forgotten about that word.

I was young, and it was like a fever dream. I couldn't believe that was on TV. It was pretty darn subversive.

Like other really good satire it keeps predicting things it wasn’t trying to.

We’re living down to it.

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

#86

dlPFC deactivation is observed in a lot of immersive tasks. There are a lot of tasks that do this. Playing video games, as one example https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/4-431-26797-2_11 Interpreting fMRI results like this article does is almost always wrong. Different activities produce different patterns of brain activity. You could put someone in an fMRI machine, have them do virtually any activity, and the…

I have seen a lot of reports of studies that imply completely different conclusions based upon the same reported data.

This could equally be reported as tiktok puts the mind at ease.

Or tiktok reduces brain activity related to anxiety.

"Related to" is a term that seems to be capable of supporting an unlimited load.

While this podcast episode is not about this particular research, it could have been.

https://www.changetechnically.fyi/2396236/episodes/17378968-...

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

#87
post #44

It used to be that reading books made you an intellectual. In the age of TikTok and shorts being able to watch a movie for 2 hours makes you an intellectual.

I’d posit that we just puritanically glorify anything perceived as difficult, regardless of the correlation with “intellect.” I’m fine not having the same attention span as people who had to less stuff to do hundreds of years ago.

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

#88
post #33
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…

It’s not that simple.

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.12.503715v1

It’s task-specific.

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

#89
I don’t have tiktok now, but years ago I downloaded it (i think before it was called musically), I used it for a day or two, and I remember after an hour or so of using it I get nauseous like how you might get on a boat, not severe enough to puke but still not comfy that you need to go for a walk or something to feel better. I deleted it and never used it again. And I don’t use any mainstream social media either since all bow have these shorts, if it’s not text based like rss or hn, it will be YouTube on videos at least 20min duration.

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

#90
post #44

It used to be that reading books made you an intellectual. In the age of TikTok and shorts being able to watch a movie for 2 hours makes you an intellectual.

I’d posit that we just puritanically glorify anything perceived as difficult, regardless of the correlation with “intellect.” I’m fine not having the same attention span as people who had to less stuff to do hundreds of years ago.

[dead]
Post reply on HN