The tictoocification of social media has created a landscape that meets shorter videos, which probably has a deep impact on the attention buckles from some of our most tangible communities. The platform has been severely reviewed and even directed for a potential ban on national security problems. Early studies, however, also indicate that TikTok can damage the attention of its users, especially the children and teens that fill the app.
The platform is hosted for an endless stream of films with bit size and delivers entertaining content in as little as 15 seconds. Young people like binge-watch short-shaped content such as tiktok or instagram rolls find it more difficult “to participate in activities that do not offer immediate satisfaction,” said Julie Jargon at Wall Street Journal, An effect she called “Tiktok brain. “
What happens to our brains when we are connected to short -shaped videos?
The pursuit of a reaction in the reward system in your brain is what drives endless rolling through Tiktok videos. The platform is a “Dopamine Machine”, said John Hutton, pediatrician and head of Reading & Literacy Discovery Center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, to jargon. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that the brain emits when it expects a reward. “A flood of dopamine reinforces the desire for something fun, whether it is a tasty meal, a drug or a fun Tiktok video,” Jargon said in another paragraph for Newspaper.
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The feelings of pleasure that dopamine produces will motivate you to search more. “When you browse and turn on something that makes you laugh, your brain gets a hit of dopamine,” said neuropsychologist Dr. Sanam Hafeez to Hurry. “When you see something you don’t like (on Tiktok) you can quickly turn to something that produces more dopamine.” Repeating this cycle can eventually educate your brain to long for the rewards you get from shorter content.
Research on how TikTok specifically affects the brain is in the early stages, but there has been a growing interest among researchers. Results from a 2023 study Published by Guizhou University of Finance and Economics in China and Western Michigan University suggests that videos on Tiktok and similarly short -threatened Youtube shorts engage users through “short showers of excitement”, which can lead to the development of addictive behavior. This study focused on a selection of students and their motives for using short -shaped videos.
Three years ago Science Times cited a study from 2019 published in Natural communication It suggested that our “collective attention buckle” seemed to decrease because of how fast people consumed content on social media. While the study did not “explicitly talk about Tiktok,” the Science Times said that it was “a relevant study that suggests that the app has really affected people’s brains.”
The “particularly reduced attention area” of the Tiktok brain is often compared by neuroscientists with “short, about five seconds of attention to a goldfish,” said neuroscience expert Patrick Porter to Pure wow. The phenomenon can manifest itself as a “reduced patience for tasks that are longer and more complex.” Tiktok can even change how people use their brains: unlike previous generations that “tended to store specific information in memory”, young adults treat more and more brain more like a search engine than a traditional fact -picking system “, Porter said. Shifts can be attributed to The fact that information is so wide and easily available on the Internet.
Why is children’s attention especially at risk?
When young people do activities that require “long -term focus”, such as reading, they use “directed attention”, a function that begins in the prefrontal cortex “, the part of the brain responsible for decision -making and impulse control,” Jargon said.
“Directed attention is the ability to inhibit distractions and maintain attention and to shift attention appropriately,” said Michael Manos, the clinical head of the Center for Nevent and Learning at the Cleveland Clinic Children’s, to the magazine. “It requires skills with higher order such as planning and prioritizing.” The children generally find it difficult to use targeted attention as the prefrontal cortex does not develop until the age of 25. But Tiktok’s ever -changing environments do not require that level of long -term attention. If the children’s brains get used to constant changes, “the brain has difficulty adapting to a nondigital activity where things are not moving as quickly,” Manos said.
Young people experience “a cultural indoctrination” that encourages them to “grow used to and even prefer such very stimulating rapid stage shifts”, Gloria Mark, the author of “attention span: a groundbreaking way to restore balance, happiness and productivity” told Coupled. As a result, it becomes more difficult for them to pay attention to things that do not offer immediate satisfaction. “There are so many strengths together that only reinforce people, especially young people, to have short attention to attention,” added land.
Do social media companies try to raise the issue?
In the case of younger users, some social media companies have tried to implement features to limit their potential to overuse the apps. Tiktok already has made changes To help teens manage their time to browse through videos. The platform does not allow push notifications after 21.00 for users 13 to 15 to 15 and regularly create videos to remind users to pause their rolling, go outsideor have a snack.
While Youtube videos are generally longer than TikToks, the platform introduced a feature called Youtube shorts, which has content that originally maxed out in 60 seconds; Recently extended the maximum length to Three minutes. Google, which owns Youtube, already has features to limit the use for people under 18, for example Turns off autoplay (that jumps you from one video to the next) for children and teens. Reminders of Take a break or settle in is also on the default for users 13 to 17 years. Youtube spokeswoman Ivy Choi told Newspaper That although research on how short -formed content affects young people just starts, the company carefully monitors the results. Youtube will continue to “refine the shorts experience to better meet the needs of youth and their families,” said Choi, “including by collaborating with third -party experts to inform our work.”
