Scroll, Watch, Forget: How Short Form Media is Impacting Modern Brains
Ever since 2012, Gen Z and now Gen Alpha have become hooked on short-form vertical videos that are being shared on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. This type of media became even more popular and peaked during the Covid-19 pandemic quarantine. A psychological craving for fast stimulation drives an addiction to these videos, and carefully curated algorithms keep users scrolling, rewiring people’s mind processes.
With the sudden increase in popularity of apps like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts, they are transforming media consumption into quick, bite-sized vertical videos to replace long-form entertainment, taking over digital spaces at an accelerating rate.
Short-form videos began when the app Vine introduced them in 2012; they were slowly gaining popularity, but things got out of control when COVID-19 lockdowns hit, with a 42% increase in people watching short-form video content during the pandemic. And now, over 60% of the global online population is watching short-form swiping videos.
How are people becoming addicted? Well, these apps are built on gathering information on you in order to generate the best algorithm possible that is tailored just for you to keep you hooked, with “For You” being the name of the main TikTok page. They feed you with videos that give you constant dopamine spikes that make it almost impossible to put your phone down, especially because the only thing that’s stopping you from the next reel is just a “swipe” away.
Because the prefrontal cortex is still developing in younger generations, it is increasingly vulnerable to micro-media overstimulation. The constant quick shifts from one video to the next weaken the brain’s ability to maintain focus. This is reducing memory retention and even deep thinking processes. Over time, if this goes on, it makes calm, low-stimulation activities feel unbearable and boring to do because you’re not receiving constant dopamine rewards.
Most Gen Z and Gen Alpha individuals are doing some sort of education, so the more these students become accustomed to 15-second videos, the more they will struggle to read lengthy textbooks or sit through a long lecture. It is becoming harder for them to retain information because their attention spans are decreasing after every scroll, impacting how well they do in classes or even enjoying normal hobbies like reading a physical book.
“I feel like I’m losing a bit of my attention span. Like on a reel it catches your attention quite quickly, but now I don’t have the attention span to even watch a show that’s maybe 3 episodes; it just doesn’t catch my attention anymore as it used to,” said junior Vianka Lago.
However, there are some people on the other hand: “I don’t think it’s affected me that much; I feel like I still have a decent attention span. I can still focus on things when I need to, so I don’t think short form media have really changed that much for me.” said sophomore Santiago Gonzalez on the other hand.
Though some people may feel they aren’t being affected, other students or young people could still be affected, but they just might not realize it. They won’t notice at the moment, but after what only seemed like three swipes could have easily taken an hour of their day.
This recent explosion in social media short-form reels is driven by both human psychology and tech company profits, because young brains crave stimulation and tech companies know how to exploit this desire. They will engineer not just negative but addictive features to maximize user screen time in order to boost ad revenue for profits. There are even studies reporting an incidence of academic procrastination of about 70%.
Short-form media is re-engineering how generations think, learn, and focus, and regaining control begins with intentional online habits. At the end of the day, “Every moment of attention we spend scrolling through social media is attention spent making money for someone else,” as said by Catherine Price.
