Where It Starts
Short-form media content would be any visual media on any platform that takes less than 60 seconds for the consumer to consume. Learning a new TikTok dance or trend? That stemmed from consuming a short-form media: a TikTok video. Short-form media “release[s] dopamine in the brain” when we consume its content (Zhao & Pierce, 2023). This, in turn, makes us feel rewarded for their service as we feel included and a part of the creator’s life in some way. Then, naturally, all we want to do, whether conscious of it or not, is keep consuming that form of media so we get a hit of dopamine again.
Where It should end
It’s so easy to get stuck in that short-form media loop of scrolling, double-tapping, saving, commenting, and sharing content you’re seeing on TikTok and Instagram as well as on Facebook stories and YouTube Shorts. But, it should end the second you find yourself not being able to complete tasks you were normally able to accomplish. An article titled Why abandoning short-form content could be your best decision states that “the systems are smart, yet cruel because they’re designed to squeeze as much time you can waste out of you.” (Migrditchian, 2023) He argues that while short-form media offers the great positive of offering accesible and convenient content right to our fingertips, it also distracts us from our daily responsibilities and could lead to significant issues affecting our well-being. In essence, it is mentioned how “there are more problems with this type of content outside of the algorithms and fake dopamine” and that those are that it is “mentally damaging” when you aren’t enacting your social skills in a physical social setting given that we are social creatures in nature with a brain that can not differentiate between what is real and fake (Migrditchian, 2023).
Lastly, it must be stopped in that it appears to be the leading factor for why we feel a stronger sense of entitlement than the generations before us, and go about our lives with a relatively low attention span in comparison to those same generations. This is because when we are consuming content from content creators, we are looking up to them, following their teachings, and applying them into our own lives (maybe even creating content ourselves along the mentality of “if they can do it so can I!”). We, of course, do this only if their content is short in length, if its applicable to us which is usually the case considering social media’s algorithm feature, and if their content is of good quality and given entertainingly (whatever that entails).
Where It Ends
This issue isn’t new to us. I’m sure you, as well, have experienced aimlessly scrolling through your social media platforms, engaging with the content appearing on your screen in some way, and then suddenly hours have gone by! With this said, many have tried ending it by promoting a social media-free lifestyle or at least a social media detox day, week or month. Apparently Meta has been sued for its partaking in short-form media addiction that negatively affects the lives of young people. Given that they’re still prevalent to us today, however, Stuck scrolling? Short-form media is the perpetrator shares other ways to combat addiction to short-form media. Those being: putting your social media apps on “restrictive mode”, being conscious of your screen time by maybe adding its widget to your home screen or sidebar, turning off your ringer and notifications on all apps, turning on Do Not Disturb or Sleep Mode, and filling your time with more beneficial ways of using your brain that give you real forms of dopamine among other happy hormones (Zhao & Pierce, 2023). Not sure where to start? Check out my other article titled Hobbies You Should Try If You Haven’t Already.
