Does TikTok destroy our brain?
In psychology, the human mind is considered to be a cognitive skim because of the tendency of people to think and solve problems in the simplest and least demanding way possible. It is a phenomenon that is present in the brains of all people, regardless of their intelligence. Just as a financial miser is reluctant to spend earned money, the human mind is reluctant to get rid of the energy supplied to it. We come to a very interesting point - despite the fact that the brain accounts for only 2% of our body weight, it consumes as much as 20% of energy, which makes it the most energy-consuming organ in our body - so, evolutionarily, we try to avoid spending precious energy as much as possible.
In today's world full of readily available energy, this creates a problem because although our brain is constantly nourished, it tends to act in primitive way. Okay, but why TikTok? That’s simple this is our nature: beautiful people, memes, curiosities given in short videos. Overall, a lot of easily digestible information for our brain. On the surface, the possibility of such a rapid flow of information from the phone to our brain may seem like a good solution, but we are dealing here with the so-called goldfish effect - consisting in reducing our attention through social media. In a world full of fast and easily accessible information, our brain gets used to this and loves it, and that's what's addictive.
This effect can be easily tested thanks to a simple experiment. Try to get your brain used to watching TikTok regularly for a month, then try reading the entire book at once. Probably after a dozen or so minutes of focusing on one activity, your brain will die of boredom, waiting for such quick and easy access to information to return. Ok, TikTok is bad for keeping our concentration, but it's not the only source for stupid videos on the internet. Someone may ask what about YouTube. In the case of this medium, the information looks a bit different. This difference is due to the fact that the videos in this case are 10 to 20 minutes long. This fact requires focus from the recipient to understand what the creator wants to convey to us. On TikTok, this focus is not required, because before you know it, you are already watching the next video. In a word, there is no time or place for your own thoughts or reflections.
End of Part I
Thank you for your attention, in the next part I will try to present how the media make money on the increasingly popular phenomenon - the attention economy.
In today's world full of readily available energy, this creates a problem because although our brain is constantly nourished, it tends to act in primitive way. Okay, but why TikTok? That’s simple this is our nature: beautiful people, memes, curiosities given in short videos. Overall, a lot of easily digestible information for our brain. On the surface, the possibility of such a rapid flow of information from the phone to our brain may seem like a good solution, but we are dealing here with the so-called goldfish effect - consisting in reducing our attention through social media. In a world full of fast and easily accessible information, our brain gets used to this and loves it, and that's what's addictive.
This effect can be easily tested thanks to a simple experiment. Try to get your brain used to watching TikTok regularly for a month, then try reading the entire book at once. Probably after a dozen or so minutes of focusing on one activity, your brain will die of boredom, waiting for such quick and easy access to information to return. Ok, TikTok is bad for keeping our concentration, but it's not the only source for stupid videos on the internet. Someone may ask what about YouTube. In the case of this medium, the information looks a bit different. This difference is due to the fact that the videos in this case are 10 to 20 minutes long. This fact requires focus from the recipient to understand what the creator wants to convey to us. On TikTok, this focus is not required, because before you know it, you are already watching the next video. In a word, there is no time or place for your own thoughts or reflections.
End of Part I
Thank you for your attention, in the next part I will try to present how the media make money on the increasingly popular phenomenon - the attention economy.