4 ms·

It's more about providing shots of dopamine without requiring the ability to pay attention for longer than 30 seconds, combined with a decent ranking algorithm.

by rsj_hn 5y ago

It's more about providing shots of dopamine without requiring the ability to pay attention for longer than 30 seconds, combined with a decent ranking algorithm. If you are not used to consuming entertainment in bite-sized pieces then you wont enjoy it, regardless of how old you are. It's just that the proportion of people who expect entertainment to consist of half minute segments is much higher among the young than the old, and if you do fall into that group, you will really struggle being able to handle even a 15 minute youtube video, let alone a 40 minute broadcast show or a 3 hour play. In that case, you don't have many good video consumption options besides TikTok, so you will spend a lot of time there, even though I don't think it's addictive. What I really wonder about is the future of sports -- what will they do to make, say, baseball appealing to people with those types of attention spans. I wouldn't be surprised if there are some big upheavals in the sports world over the next two decades.

2939223 5y ago
Sports are the last worry in a society where 30 seconds attention spans are endemic.
honzzz 5y ago
I was also surprised that you are worried about sports - that is one of the last things I would worry about. I worry that our reward systems are being hijacked. We are more and more trained to seek short dopamine bursts. The problem is that this is short term satisfaction that creates chronic boredom in the long run. Just notice how you feel after two hours of watching "funny" videos or whatever is your poison. Don't you feel like it's not funny anymore but you keep watching anyway just to escape the creeping sense of emptiness? Lately, I keep thinking about what Erich Fromm said about people becoming robots, although he meant it in a different context: "But given man's nature, robots cannot live and remain sane, they become 'Golems', they will destroy their world and themselves because they cannot stand any longer the boredom of a meaningless life."

by rsj_hn 5y ago

2939223 5y ago

Sports are the last worry in a society where 30 seconds attention spans are endemic.

honzzz 5y ago

I was also surprised that you are worried about sports - that is one of the last things I would worry about. I worry that our reward systems are being hijacked. We are more and more trained to seek short dopamine bursts. The problem is that this is short term satisfaction that creates chronic boredom in the long run. Just notice how you feel after two hours of watching "funny" videos or whatever is your poison. Don't you feel like it's not funny anymore but you keep watching anyway just to escape the creeping sense of emptiness? Lately, I keep thinking about what Erich Fromm said about people becoming robots, although he meant it in a different context: "But given man's nature, robots cannot live and remain sane, they become 'Golems', they will destroy their world and themselves because they cannot stand any longer the boredom of a meaningless life."