Around and Again
Since I have been a long-time proponent (and participant) in longer form content and have for far longer warned anyone who would listen and many who would not about the dangers of high consumption of social media and short-form content, I also take note of stories and studies that discuss these things. This week I have come across, with one from a doctoral dissertation performed in Finland, the other a study from China finding a strong correlation between short-form content consumption and increased loss aversion and addiction, is particularly interesting.
From Finland
Problematic use of social media is linked to depressive symptoms, loneliness and low self-esteem, according to a doctoral dissertation published by the University of Oulu on Monday.
From China
Excessive use of short-video platforms not only impairs decision-making processes but also predisposes individuals to addictive behaviours.
Called it.
Sure, I didn't have an fMRI machine to prove the negative effects on the brain, but it is pretty obvious it would, isn't it? We aren't made to learn in the way that we are consuming content today, but our brains are still learning even if not learning any useful information, or useful habits. Just like our environment shapes how we look, think and behave; the content we consume is making physical changes to our brains and none of it seems to be for the better.
Yet, the majority of people, including parents raising young children, somehow seem to think that that they are not affected by it and it is not a problem. They seem to believe that they are somehow different, unique, and can beat the average. Perhaps it is the reduction in loss aversion speaking.
Or the impaired decision-making mechanisms.
It is interesting to consider I think, because we hold this simple rule that we "learn from our mistakes", but the thing with addiction is, even when we know we are making a mistake, we will keep behaving to fill the desire. Not only this, based on the information in the study, we are also going to be worse at making decisions in the future, and more willing to lose. Essentially, the checks and balances we should be developing through experience are actually weakening, and the wisdom we should be gathering through that experience, is not developing either.
There are those "aging simulators" that will show a person's face at a young age and then what they will look like if they are smokers or heavy drinkers, or out in the sun a lot. I wonder if there will be a simulator that will show what life could have been like give a fully functioning brain. But, for those who are consuming a lot of short-form content and social media, they should expect that their brain is going to function increasingly worse, even though they aren't getting to an age that it would normally start degrading at.
Doctoral researcher Krista Hylkilä also found that people with ADHD symptoms are predisposed to problematic use of social media.
That was a line from the Finnish article, and one that I found a little bit problematic. Are people with ADHD symptoms predisposed to problematic use of social media, or does problematic use of social media manifest ADHD symptoms. It is likely, both. Because while there are some people with ADHD (and we are all on the spectrum remember), someone doesn't have to have ADHD to behave in accordance with the symptoms. Their learned behaviours can mimic the symptoms, without having a predisposed position. I suspect that the massive increase in ADHD diagnosis and medication prescription does not indicate a large increase in ADHD, but an increase in the behaviours used as indicators of the disorder. The treatment might affect the behaviours, but it doesn't remove the external cause.
Technology and the culture driven by it has fundamentally changed the way we live our daily lives and goes against hundreds of thousands of years of relatively slow evolution. Perhaps in a few more hundred thousand years from now we would have evolved into beings that could handle the technology of today, but none of us are at that point yet. We all are impacted negatively when we overconsume social media, short-form content, and the continual chase for a micro dopamine hit from some random event.
Intention matters, and when people are scrolling endlessly, they are not consuming with intention. Instead, they are consuming with hope that something interesting will come into the awareness and provide another hit of dopamine, which is fading faster and faster, increasing the desire and the reducing timeframe required to get the next hit.
As I see it, all of this is obvious and requires no special study or the title of professor to predict. We all should be able to see this happening, and all be able to make changes in our lives in order to limit the damage. But, the majority of us don't because we are addicted to a range of feelings, and look to fill our needs with substitutes that do the opposite of what we actually want. When we are hungry, we are eating junk. When we are thirsty we are drinking junk. When we are lonely we are chasing junk relationships. When we are bored, we are filling our mind with junk.
And we want more.
Making us hungrier, thirstier, lonelier and stupider.
Get off the wheel.
Taraz
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I dunno . I speak to a load of people who spend all day on social media and they know fucking everything. 🤣🤣 .
lols.
Yah. Everything except how to get their life in order.
Exactly. 🤣🤣
The sad fact is that most addictive consumers of social media focus just on the entertainment side, they rarely consume educative and informative content. That erodes their self-control and discipline and makes long form educational content boring to them. They will consume long form content so far it's entertainment. I have friends who spend hours watching sports videos but throw in some educational stuff and they wear out in less than ten minutes. No solution seems to be in sight for this pressing problem.
But even informative content, doesn't really get learned through most of the internet mediums. If you can't apply it to improve your daily life, it is useless.
I deleted Tiktok a while ago and hardly watch YT shorts nowadays. They have a horrible way of sucking you in without providing actual value.
I use YT, only when I need a DIY thing. Intentional search rather than "random discovery" is the way I use the internet.
I have thought about this a lot, having two teenage daughters who use phones, I have been talking to them openly about it, How it is affecting their brains, switching them off from the outside world. I see it happen in myself when I get sucked in and I end up doom scrolling. I am sure my brain sinks a little in size when I do.
It's scary really and my girls tend to laugh me off, when I bring it up.
We can already see the effects it is having, with people more invested in whats happening online that their own lives. Attention spans are dwindling, and then there is the bullying that happens.
I just want to run away into the mountains sometimes x
What do you know, boomer!
(without them understanding that boomers are in their 70s and 80s.
Bullying in schools is useful - because it is face to face. Digital bullying is crazy, as there is no escape, no safe place, even at home.
We can start a commune.
Yes sign me up.
I think I'm pretty active online, but I can't imagine spending the whole day on it. It's just one of my daily activities.
It depends on what you are doing online too, and what you are doing offline also.
I wouldn't judge what others do online or offline, but we are definitely approaching Idiocracy. But that's just one aspect of everything that's going on.
I think you make a really good point about how these habits shape our brains over time. I’ve noticed myself that when I spend too much time on short-form content, it gets harder to focus on deeper tasks, like reading a book or writing something thoughtful. It’s like the brain starts craving the next quick hit instead of slowing down. I agree that intention matters, and it’s tough because even knowing this doesn’t always stop the habit.
People that spend a lot of time on short-form content, are generally pretty boring to talk to, because they don't have much original thought to speak about. They are also generally pretty bad content creators.
That’s an interesting way to put it. I’ve noticed the same—when someone spends most of their time with short clips, their conversations often circle around trends instead of deeper ideas. It’s probably because they’re used to reacting rather than reflecting. Original thought seems to need time and patience, and short-form doesn’t give much space for that.
We need to ask how technology affects behavior, particularly in vulnerable groups such as children. If we ignore these problems now, we are preparing for even bigger challenges in the future.
The challenge is that the parents of the kids now, are also struggling. Hard to impact kids, when parents are messed up.
I remember when I was in school one of my biggest problems was I would rush through my work and end up getting a ton wrong. Not because I didn't know it, but because I was rushing. I wonder how "wrong" people are going to get things when they become so used to only paying attention for a short period of time.
This is something I try to get through to Smallsteps - she rushes too, because it is "easy" for her. I suspect she isn't the only one - though her reason for it isn't screen time. Throw in that risk model and bad decision making change, and it gets to be a big problem. Measure twice and cut once, seems to no longer be a thing.
I've always kind of hated that saying because even when I measure twice my stuff still doesn't come out right. It could just be that I am a horrible wood worker... :) I know what you are saying though. I was a kid before screen time was really a thing, so I can see how that would now compound things to a crazy degree.
Because of this I am hardly on any social media platforms apart from Hive. The worst is tiktok, I have not been on it for more than a year plus, I noticed how I was getting used to watching short content that it was becoming difficult for me to watch long and meaningful content, I was always searching for YouTube short, I had to discipline myself to stop.
I wish more people would switch off from these addictive money-making corporations.
It is indeed a slot machine. They're only gambling with something that is far more precious than money - their time, their agency, their ability to develop and improve as a human.
It is also in the best interests of the platform to keep people pulling the lever - so it gives them some vague content that might not be relevant, but because they can serve another ad or three between, that's fine, they know the person will stay hooked until they get what they want.
So upsetting.
It is upsetting, but it seems that only a few are even bothering to think about it, let alone do anything about it. Kids should not be on any of this, nor should their parents.
Nor should the law makers, who use it to promote their policy, because it is one of the few places that people are "paying attention", I guess.
Social media is designed around human psychology. They designed it so that users will spend more time, interact more, no matter what they do. Naturally, this has created serious problems for human mental health. They don't care about human health; they think the more money they make, the better.
Funny thing is, people think they "know themselves" better than the platforms know them. Trillions of data points disagree.
And yet it seems that the most popular social media is the most addictive kind. And things seem to get shorter and shorter... Even the new social media on Base chain is that way. I looked at it and it is mostly a picture or a video with just a couple words...
The demand will keep increasing. Look it like the drug scene of the 70s, compared to that of now. Cocaine was too expensive, so now they are synthesized cheap drugs that are 100 times more potent and addictive.
In August I started drinking puer tea and my content consumption increased. I'm like Leo Tolstoy, who drank 5-7 cups of tea a day and said that only tea helps him write so much. Only I don't write, I read.
My well-being and energy in the morning are back to what they were 25 years ago. I read mountains of articles, follow links and read even more. Now I have absolutely no desire to drink wine or cognac, I only want tea, which gives me energy and clarity of mind for the whole day. My cholesterol has dropped significantly and I remember my dreams in the morning in great detail. The children ask - Dad, why did you start talking so fast? I haven't told them this secret yet.
Black, white, or green tea?
Wy wife drinks a lot of tea, but I am not sure if she has more energy because of it :D She drinks green tea.
Shu puer - this is a fermented Chinese tea. I didn't experience this effect from regular store-bought green and black tea.
I will look into it for my wife
It's sad how this phenomenon has become globalized due to the misuse of technology, especially anything related to screens (mobile phones, iPads, tablets, etc.).
It’s a scary reality really, wrote in one of my blog. How the phone is a parasite, it drains excessively and still controls our day-day activities.
Best to balance tech and life, could piriotize more of real life interactions.
Balance is the key
Social media makes it impossible to focus and feeds constant cravings for quick hits. What we’re doing is all training our brains to want more but get less
yes. too much junk. at least I get my social fix from hive mostly.. its better and seems more real and beneficial. 🙂😉👍
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It's interesting how I found this post in a moment of my life where I'm trying to reduce social media time because I became aware of the fact that I'm looking at my phone every time I get up and walk from a room to another. And I'm aware it's taking away precious time for other activities.
And I feel lucky to have found Hive where the algorithm mechanisms don't exist and long form content is valued, creates connection between people and give us the chance to say things in a deeper level that web2 media don't allow us to do.