#SocialMedia use is nearly universal among adolescents, with 35% of teens ages 13 to 17 reporting near-constant use. In the #HealthyDialogue podcast, Dimitri Christakis, MD, MPH, compares his research in television programming to short social media video. ja.ma/442EXU3
"fast-paced programming, as opposed to Mr. Rogers, led to shortened attention spans, both in young children and in mice. In many ways, that research has now been recapitulated with the rise of these what are frequently called short reel videos. Your audience, who may not be familiar with TikTok, they were the innovators, if you will, in this space. And we now find these short reel videos everywhere in some format on YouTube, on Instagram, on Facebook, and obviously on TikTok and Snapchat. And what's more, Derek, we now see them on our news programs. We see them on CNN. We see them on the New York Times. Everyone is realizing that the short form videos command attention, but that comes at a cost. It comes at a cost to all of us individually and as a society, I might add, because it has collectively resulted in shortened attention spans, diminished capacity to stay focused, less interest in reading in general. And we're sitting idly by while this happens, but for many of us, it's a clarion call to action. Yeah. So it's the cost that concerns me. I mean, again, some people would say, what does it matter if people are less interested in reading? But it sounds like you're worried that it's making our children less set to be as capable as they might otherwise be as they answer adulthood. Yes, absolutely. I mean, I think this capacity, this kind of capacity for deep focus is an essential human skill. Frankly, I might add, it's one of the things that distinguishes us from our nearest non-human primate relatives. We are able, at least we were, to focus on a very particular problem and develop or engineer high-order solutions to it. But I think giving up that capacity is going to be the undoing of our species. I really do. I think it's something that we need to encourage, engender, foster, and it's never been more important because the ability to rely on AI has conveniently come at a time when people are losing their focus."
💬 Discussion
#SocialMedia use is nearly universal among adolescents, with 35% of teens ages 13 to 17 reporting near-constant use. In the #HealthyDialogue podcast, Dimitri Christakis, MD, MPH, compares his research in television programming to short social media video. ja.ma/442EXU3