How has short video content affected our brains
Through the 2020’s you might have noticed that it is harder to stay focused these days or remember things, this might have been the cause of short form content. The current trends of TikTok’s and Instagram reels shorter content has scientifically affected our brains.
Back in 2018, a phone app was released called TikTok, this wouldn’t get attention until 2 years later in 2020. The new form of content was interesting sprouting from similar vanes from vine. The shorter content was a lot easier to digest because of the 30 second time window they had, getting straight to the point. This format would later be used for Instagram reels and YouTube shorts, but this would later cause more problems the more it went on with the new term “TikTok brain”.
In a recent study, people who watch shorter content have lower memory and attention spans because of the way they format the videos. The shorter time frame causes videos to spew out information quickly, but this has a negative effect due to our brains expecting information to go out quickly all the time. Short form content has also messed up our dopamine receptors, this has been studied science the 1950’s.
“The renowned American psychologist and behaviorist B. F. Skinner found that when rats received regular pellets as rewards for pressing a lever, they became bored and uninterested in the activity. However, when the pellets were awarded unpredictably, the rats became obsessive, even abandoning their usual activities (grooming, eating, sleeping, etc.) to chase the high of the next big win. In fact, the researchers concluded that continuous positive reinforcement was the least effective reward pattern while variable ratio reinforcement was the most potent.”
Inconclusion, it seems like this form of content is going to keep going on. It is only our human nature to quickly move on to the next big thing in media.
Sources: https://theoxfordblue.co.uk/tiktok-and-the-death-of-the-attention-span/#:~:text=The%20addictiveness%20of%20short%2Dform,choice%20means%20even%20less%20patience