4 ms·
I don't know, the vast majority of teens are users of TikTok, and attention spans are undoubtedly decreasing across the board. Everyone. Yet I don't think the m
by ceasesurthinko 5y ago
I don't know, the vast majority of teens are users of TikTok, and attention spans are undoubtedly decreasing across the board. Everyone. Yet I don't think the majority of the population had ADHD previously. If the incidence of ADHD was really like the 4-8% in the medical literature, then we would see 4-8% of teens hooked to TikTok, but no, it's a majority (>50%) of teens that are hooked to Tiktok/youtube/instagram.
- smoldesu 5y agoI could see it go either way, but I think it's important to distinguish that apps/platforms that exploit short attention spans don't exclusively have effect on people with ADHD (nor do all ADHD-diagnosed people neccesarily use TikTok). There's a number of reasons why people might want to seek out short-form content; they're on the go, they can't focus at the precise moment they want to peruse social media, or they want to blow by a huge amount of diverse content in a short amount of time. That being said, I despise TikTok personally and would even go as far as to say that these short-form content platforms are reinforcing lower attention spans, but does it cause ADHD? I think that's a stretch. What's more likely is that it turns susceptible individuals into "whales" who sink time into it like nobody else. Not just ADHD folks, but those who are lonely or lack socialization too.