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Cognitive and mental health correlates of short-form video use

psycnet.apa.org

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Re: Cognitive and mental health correlates of short-form video use

#11

Post by oceansky »

righthand wrote: post #6
thanhhaimai wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Long form educational YT videos are amazing. It makes my brain work hard, and I feel like I learn more. Short form pop content like TikTok doesn't give my brain enough time to engage the thinking muscle. I think it's better to identify the characteristics of the media we consume, rather than lumping all of them together.

There could be overconsumption effects of short form media that exist in long form certainly. You’re hand waving it away because you prefer long videos. What about all the people using TikTok as a search engine?

May God help them

Re: Cognitive and mental health correlates of short-form video use

#12

Post by ge96 »

goldemerald wrote: post #8

Algorithmically served short form videos is clearly the smoking of our time. I cannot stand the conservative view of "well we don't know the videos cause mental health decline, or if it's simply those with a genetic inclination who seek out short form content.", exactly mirroring the skeptics about smoking causing cancer. I'm hopeful that in 5-10 years (but more likely 20) people will view this AI served, maximally e…

Oh man, they take random people's clips, stitch them together with a voice over and include false information eg. an incorrect fact about an animal

Re: Cognitive and mental health correlates of short-form video use

#13

Post by gblargg »

baxtr wrote: post #10

We have one clear rule at home for the kids: YouTube long format is ok. But: no shorts, no reels, no TikTok. Any short video platform is strictly forbidden. No exceptions.

I'd also ban autoplay of the next video. You have to be involved in choosing the next video to watch (or none).

Re: Cognitive and mental health correlates of short-form video use

#15

Post by andrepd »

foofoo12 wrote: post #7

Totally my feeling too. The formula seems to be: dopamine, dopamine, dopamine, infuriating country dividing content, dopamine, dopamine, dopamine, infuriating country dividing content, dopamine, dopamine, dopamine ...

Whenever I search anything in my native language, and I mean literally any topic, one of the top recommendations (if not the top one, which autoplays by default) is the local far-right party. It's crazy. We've become used to this but it's crazy.

Re: Cognitive and mental health correlates of short-form video use

#16

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

ge96 wrote: post #2

yeah I'm trying to watch less YT, hard for me to just sit in silence and think trying to be more of a producer than consumer, not saying this to look down I'm socially/financially a failure, trying to change my habits

Learn to watch at 2x speed (or faster with an extension). Then use the saved time for productive activities.

Re: Cognitive and mental health correlates of short-form video use

#17

Post by cadamsdotcom »

Short form is no good to consume anyway.

The moment the content gets interesting - the athlete is about to cross the finish line, or the voiceover is about to explain HOW they got the turtle out from the barbed wire - the video restarts!

Then there is a mix of annoyance and curiosity - at the content not going deep enough - and that jolts me out of the addiction loop.

Re: Cognitive and mental health correlates of short-form video use

#19

Post by Boogie_Man »

I recall being flabbergasted the first time I saw someone watching (what I think was) tick tock. An adolescent boy a few rows in front of me at an amphitheater was watching what I believe was comedic content at full volume, but the jump cuts and sound effects were so jarring and constant that even when I focused for a minute and tried to force myself to understand what he was watching, I couldn't follow what was happening.

I can recall being that age and being overwhelmed and exhausted after watching a Pokemon TV show battle sequence, but this has nothing on what I assume is the worst kind of short form content today. "The weed is different now bro".

Re: Cognitive and mental health correlates of short-form video use

#20

Post by the_af »

righthand wrote: post #5
pcthrowaway wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The paper is specifically studying short-form videos like on TikTok or Youtube Shorts , so there would be no implication for videos longer than 3 minutes (the maximum for YT shorts)

I don’t think it’s correct to say there are no implications. The only discernable difference between a short and long videos effects is that one of the videos is capped at 3 minutes. There could be plenty of implication and correlation to high intake watching videos of any length.

I don't know if that's the only discernible difference.

While 3 minutes is indeed an arbitrary limit, the difference between short and long form videos is very noticeable. Long form requires another form of attention, focusing more, more commitment, less distraction; there's even a form of "delayed gratification" (a form of attention that only grownups can provide) in that the payoff isn't always immediate and can sometimes be very delayed.

Short form is like junk food, zero friction, instantly addictive and doesn't require you to really pay attention. Surely the immediacy of attention it needs is completely different to long form video.

I also disagree with your other comment that maybe long form can promote similar consumption habits (you call it "overconsumption"); I don't think anyone can get "addicted" to long form video, it's simply too time-demanding, you don't get a "fix" and the "zapping" effect of quickly moving from one video to the next.

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