Social media is slowly destroying my attention span. (Opinion)
As someone born in 2001, I have essentially grown up and evolved alongside social media. My generation was among the first to have internet access at our disposal from birth. I’ve been using the internet longer than I’ve been able to read. I was just a toddler when MySpace, what many consider to be the first true large-scale social media platform, came into the mainstream, though I’m barely old enough to remember its existence. As social media and the internet grew, evolved, and underwent different phases, I did too.
The first social media website I ever used was YouTube. I never posted on it, but I have been actively watching videos on the site for as long as I can remember. Many of us first experienced YouTube through short, funny videos we’d send to friends and family, or hear about at school. I was no exception. It was when I was in middle school that YouTube personalities, “YouTubers” came into existence. Everyone I knew had a favorite YouTuber. Whether they enjoyed sketch comedy, gaming videos, vlogs, or makeup tutorials, we all had a favorite channel to watch when we were bored. People began posting longer videos, webshows came into existence, and with the introduction of mid-roll ads, YouTube became more and more like watching television. These videos kept my attention for the entirety of their 10-30 minute durations. Watching their videos felt like having a conversation, and provided a feeling of company even in the lonliest of days. I became attached to some of these online creators. I was invested in their lives and the content they shared, going as far as remembering their upload schedules so I could tune into new videos, and I wasn’t alone. These creators grew legitimate fan bases. At one point it was a trend for YouTube creators to publish books, several of which hit No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller list. Not only did they have followers and subscribers, they had dedicated fans who did not miss a single weekly video.
I personally think everything changed when short-form video started taking over. Vine was my first experience with this concept; an app where you could only post videos up to six seconds long. The app was a craze at my middle school. Also, it was the first app I ever used where videos endlessly looped. It never stopped. If you finished watching a video, it started over, you’d watch it several times, laugh, and scroll to the next. My friends and I would spend hours doing this. Sometimes in the same room, not even talking, just on our phones watching Vine. Online personalities quickly appeared on Vine, referred to as “Viners“, and they quickly took the spotlight from YouTubers. Everyone around me was suddenly more interested in short-form videos.
Vine had its five minutes of fame and shut down several years later. I like to believe it was mostly because Instagram added a video feature about a year after Vine’s launch. Many Vine creators moved their platform to YouTube, and long-form video was all the rage again. However, a few years later an app came around that would change that yet again: TikTok.
I have a love-hate relationship with TikTok. I was first introduced to it when it was called musical.ly and was an app where tweens would make sped-up lipsync videos to popular songs. I didn’t become hooked on TikTok until 2019 when my friend convinced me to download it so she could send me funny videos on it. Not only did I become addicted to scrolling through TikTok, I became addicted to making videos on it. The trends were easy to follow: lipsync to a short audio track and add funny text over your video to make an original joke out of it. It didn’t require a good camera or fancy lighting like YouTube did. The barrier of entry was low. A TikTok video only took minutes to make and had just as much viral potential.
One thing I’ve noticed is that everything about the TikTok process is faster than it was on YouTube. Videos are shorter, so watching them is faster. On the app, you simply scroll to whatever video TikTok chooses to show you next. On YouTube, you pick what you want to watch next, which sometimes takes a few minutes to decide. Additionally, the rise to fame for TikTok influencers is faster. YouTube growth and progress are slow and steady, as most creators only post one or two long videos per week. Meanwhile, many TikTok creators post several times a day, and when the algorithm favors them, they see overnight success.
However, TikTok fame is short-lived. After initial success and five seconds of fame, you must do your best to follow up with a series of equally successful videos every day to maintain relevancy. Otherwise, a TikTok creator’s fall is just as quick as their rise. Users on the platform simply do not invest their time into individual creators the way YouTube users once did. This is reflected in the dedication of TikTok creators’ fanbases. While YouTube fandoms purchased books and even attended tours and conventions to meet their idols, TikTok meet-and-greet events have seen very little success. I personally attribute this to the fact that on YouTube, you’d spend at least ten minutes per day watching an individual creator. Meanwhile, on TikTok, you only see a creator for a few seconds, a couple minutes max, per day. As a result, there is little interest in meeting these creators in person. Most TikTok users spend the bulk of their time on the “For You” tab rather than the “Following” section. So, creators need to frequently appear on their followers’ “For You” pages to maintain relevancy. When you scroll through hundreds of videos per day, an individual creator’s face gets lost in a sea of strangers, so it’s simply harder to stand out. This creates intense pressure on creators. There is never room for a break. Everything about TikTok from the videos, the time it takes to get from one video to the next, and its creators’ careers is short.
I wrote that entire rant about the evolution of social media to make this point: TikTok is ruining our attention spans. Most videos on the app are under 15 seconds, with the longest of long TikToks being three minutes max. Social media is not what it was during YouTube’s heyday. People don’t want to sit down and watch somebody talk for ten minutes anymore. Instead, they want quick videos with quick punchlines that they can laugh at, send to their friends, and scroll to the next. Why watch one ten-minute YouTube video when you can watch forty fifteen-second TikTok videos in the same span of time? I myself am guilty of this. I feel like I can never sit down and watch YouTube like I once did, I only ever watch it as background noise while I’m doing laundry or cleaning. I even have a hard time watching a television series unless I’m doing other tasks while it plays. TikTok has conditioned my brain into wanting instant gratification. I’ve definitely felt the effects in my everyday life. Studying becomes more difficult when I can’t sit down and look at a paper for more than several minutes at a time. If I can’t even sit through a video longer than three minutes, how could I sit through a college lecture that lasts ninety?
I’m not trying to argue that TikTok is entirely bad, and if you’re a parent, I’m not advocating for banning your kids from using it. TikTok, and social media in general, can be a great way to connect with the world around you. The short nature of TikTok videos has led to information being presented in a quick, concise, and accessible manner. Personally, I have learned plenty of useful information ranging from personal finance to college study tips through brief, simple TikTok videos. Additionally, I have discovered some of my favorite musical artists, movies, and books through discussion videos and succinct reviews on the app. However, our mass consumption of short content means it’s becoming harder for us to yield our attention to longer tasks such as studying or sitting through classes for hours.
Ultimately, social media is a rapidly evolving space. For all we know, this trend of short-form videos on TikTok can be just as short-lived as it was in the days of Vine. When I first joined the platform, TikTok only allowed for fifteen-second videos. Nowadays, there are talks of the app allowing up to ten-minute uploads in the near future, which has me wondering where social media is heading. New apps and sites are constantly emerging and introducing new ways to interact with other users, and no matter what comes next in the evolution of online video: I will be watching.
Nico Gonzalez 