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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

#21

Post by godelski »

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?

I don't think you're wrong but I think you're being too quick to attack the gp. They're not wrong either. The point you brought up doesn't contradict theirs but adds nuance.

I'm all for nuance. Its also why I'm biased towards long form media as it's more likely to contain nuance, but not guaranteed. The gps specific example of lectures is quite narrow and more likely to have depth. Which is the entire problem of short form media, that we live in a complex world where we can't distill everything into 1-2 minute segments. Hell, even a lecture series, which will be over 10hrs of content is not enough to make one an expert on all but the most trivial of topics.

You're right that we need nuance but you're not right in arguing for it while demonstrating a lack of it. A major issue is we need to communicate, something we're becoming worse at. We should do our best to speak and write as clearly as possible but at the end of the day language is so imprecise that a listener or reader will be able to construct many, and even opposing, narratives. It is more important to be a good listener than a good speaker. I'd hope programmers, of all people, could understand this as we've invented overly pedantic languages with the explicit purpose of minimizing ambiguity[0]

[0] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FN2RM-CHkuI

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

#22

Post by Chabsff »

SlightlyLeftPad wrote: post #9
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

I hate that I can’t use youtube at all without being forced to fed short form video content. Or kids schools referencing youtube content for educational purposes and they are then force fed short form video content.

Honestly, I don't mind the format in principle, and the process that goes from YT's homepage to watching a single one of them is not that bad to me. As long as I get to make a decision that I want to watch something, consciously go "I will click on this thing and watch it" and only then proceed to watch it, then it's _fine_.

It's the algorithmic loop that starts the moment you scroll to the next video that starts playing before you even have a chance to decide whether or not it's something that you want to watch that's abhorrent to me.

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

#24

Post by taw1285 »

This tracks for me. I have deleted TikTok and Instagram but now I find myself browsing X short videos!! Addiction is a crazy thing.

I have a daily 30 minute one way commute. I usually put on a YouTube video about startup or tech talk. But I find myself forgetting it all the day after. I am curious how you go about remembering the content without being able to take notes while driving.

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

#25

Post by Chabsff »

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.

There is a HUGE difference in that the combined short length with the fact that the video starts playing before you even have a chance to make a decision on whether to watch it or not leads you to a "heh! I'm here already, might as well just watch the thing".

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

#27

Post by pcthrowaway »

the_af wrote: post #20
righthand wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 so…

I probably spend 1-2 hours per day watching content on youtube (and much of that is at ~1.5-1.75X speed)

I don't know what qualifies as "addiction", but it is typically where I get my news, where a web-series I watch is released, and where I learn about social justice issues important to me, through video essays.

I'm sure my consumption is very different from that of someone who watches 100 1-minute Tiktok videos per day, but I think it's worth at least questioning how this might also contribute to cognitive performance and mental health.

Though I think a big difference with short-form content is the autoplay functionality (as your sibling commenter mentions). I watch videos which are released by channels I subscribe to, and occasionally (maybe once a week) watch something Youtube recommends to me. So I retain some agency over my viewing habits compared to someone whose decisions are dictated by the algorithm, which also has an incentive to keep people watching as long as possible.

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

#29

Post by unethical_ban »

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.

Sure, but that's beside the point. The discussion here is about the unique qualities of SFV and its affects on attention span and thinking. It's about the instant-reward feedback mechanism of swiping quickly and the ability to ingest a larger narrative. It's about the super-short cuts of video and audio that beg for attention, versus longer, more static content that requires patience, doesn't constantly dump dopamine, and stays on one topic longer.

In short: There are a lot of differences in how long and short videos affect a person, in my opinion.

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