this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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I saw an interview of a professional on this matter. Unfortunately I don't remember his name but the points he made were thought provoking.
Today we consume more and faster media than ever, but few people ever spent all their time reading alone quietly or even watched TV focusing solely on the program. We listen to radio or a have conversation simultaneously. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors listened to each other's stories while doing small tasks in their homes. Conversations between people flow and change subjects constantly. Almost like TikToks.
The point is that it's nothing new that we engage in a combination of activities and like to surround ourselves with multiple or fast paced sources of information and stimulation.
My personal view is that TikToks being short or fast paced isn't an issue. But there are other aspects that worry me. Social media videos cause many people to develop various degrees of parasocial relationships with the creators, and the content satisfies the need for actual relationships and can make real life and people seem boring.
I'm going to point to a large number of 2 hour + Youtube videos. I can't tell you who's watching them, or if more people are, but there wasn't anything like that 25 years ago. I'll also point to podcasts and the plethora of 3-6 hour or more - isn't Joe Rogan's like 8 hours long? And it's one of the most popular ones.
There's more novels today than ever before, and people reading via Kindle Unlimited and just up and buying them.
Prestige TV is often 60 minutes or 90 minutes, in comparison to 42 being a "normal hour long broadcast show".
There's more kinds of content, but I disagree that the length of consumed media in general is getting shorter and shorter.
I remember seeing something basically disproving the claim that our attention span is getting shorter. Brb searching the source
The Pomodoro Technique has been well known for a while, and things like Vine, TikTok, Shorts are essentially the polar opposite of this and training your brain to be less focused.
TikTok was absolutely chosen because it's the current bogyman, but those types of short content are basically the enemy of your long term focus.