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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

#3

Post by pcthrowaway »

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

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)

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

#4

Post by thanhhaimai »

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

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.

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

#5

Post by righthand »

pcthrowaway wrote: post #3
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

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.

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

#6

Post by righthand »

thanhhaimai wrote: post #4
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

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?

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

#8

Post by goldemerald »

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 engaging, content in the same way we view smoking now: disgusting and horrible, but adults should be allowed to do what they want. I can easily imagine kids/teens sharing their illicit access to shorts much in the same way they share vapes/cigarettes, which would be a much more preferable situation than the unlimited use we see today.

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

#9

Post by SlightlyLeftPad »

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.
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