While you wait for food to be prepared, on your way to work, or before bed, you may try to fill the void and kill boredom by watching short videos on social media, most notably TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook.
If you think that one clip is only a minute long, that's fine, but you end up staying for hours in this case without feeling.
Besides the extreme waste of time caused by these short clips, over-watching them negatively affects the mental and psychological health of children and adults alike.
Learn about the impact of short clips and how important it is to control your views.
The pursuit of quick pleasure
A study published by Springer suggests that technology in general can damage young people's ability to appreciate things that bring a sense of gratification after they are used to watching clips that are only minutes long, sometimes just seconds.
Jessica Griffin, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine, told Very Well Health, "Short videos like candy give a boost of dopamine released by the brain's pleasure centers and promote satisfaction, and that push often causes us to want to do more like kids in the candy store."
A 2021 study published by Science Direct found that watching clips selected and curated specifically for you by algorithms activates reward centers in the brain more than watching random videos.
See clips selected and curated especially for you by algorithms that activate reward centers in the brain (Shutterstock)
Unbearable Movies
Researchers coined the term "TikTok Brain" to refer to the impact of excessive viewing of short clips on human perception and overall mental performance, until movies became unenjoyable for children and they considered them unbearably slow and boring.
In this regard, the Wall Street Journal confirmed that excessive viewing of short videos on TikTok harms children's brains, noting that this negative impact is reflected in their cognitive abilities and concentration during the study.
A study found that increased boredom in children and adolescents is associated with increased exposure to technology, which subsequently leads to digital addiction.
Your attention shrinks
Psychiatrist Griffin stated that indulging in an endless amount of short videos can lead to problems with attention, concentration and short-term memory.
A survey conducted by TikTok and quoted by Wired showed the extent of the damage caused by short clips, with nearly 50% of the platform's users reporting that they can no longer watch clips that are longer than a minute long, describing them as "exhausting and stressful" despite their interest in the subject of the video.
Researchers from the Technical University of Denmark also pointed out in a study that the hashtag in 2013 continued to lead with an average of 17.5 hours, but in 2016 the most engaged hashtag remained for only 11.9 hours on average.
Symptoms resembling drug addiction
The endless streaming of clips is addictive in itself, as users expect to encounter interesting clips in any second and cannot stop browsing.
A study published in 2015 found that internet addiction causes drug-like symptoms, including loss of control, withdrawal symptoms, inability to reduce use, and other negative consequences.
A 2013 study published in the European Journal of Radiology showed that online gaming addiction leads to structural atrophy in the brain's prefrontal cortex.
Impact on reading skills
Visual content is always superior to online text, as our brains can process visual data faster than long texts.
With the videos watched all the time, reading skills are significantly impaired, especially in children, especially in those who use platforms that do not contain any written content, such as TikTok.
Internet addiction causes drug-like symptoms (Shutterstock)
How to improve attention span
After learning about part of the impact of short clips on you, it may now become clear to you why you should control your views and try to mitigate their negative impact on you, and to help you regain your focus and improve your attention span, these tips are:
Reduce distractions
Avoid anything that may affect your concentration while doing a certain task, sit at your desk, turn off your phone notifications and stay away from any other distractions, with practice this becomes an effective way to increase your attention span.
Avoid multitasking
Although multitasking makes you feel like you're working hard, it actually increases stress levels and can lead to more mistakes.
Therefore, focusing on one task ensures that all your mental powers remain focused on one thing instead of many distracting things, and this helps you improve your attention.
Drink water or chew gum
Drinking water and staying hydrated contributes to enhanced thinking skills and general cognition.
Research published by Scientific American found that chewing gum raises concentration levels, and researchers said that chewing gum increases the flow of oxygen to the areas of the brain responsible for attention, leading to increased alertness and attention.
Sports
Exercise seems to be an ideal solution to most problems, as it not only improves your physical and mental health, but also positively affects cognitive performance and mental health and helps develop self-control skills.