The Contentious Problem with Attention

Written by Daniel Zhang | Edited by Suhaan Suharno

Photo by Ingo Joseph

The meteoric rise of short-form video platforms in recent years has sparked growing concerns about modern media’s effects on health in an increasingly digital society. Impacts to human attention span, in particular, have garnered attention after a 2015 Microsoft study found that attention spans have decreased from 12 seconds to around eight since the beginning of the 21st century [3, 4, 5]. Overall, research on the subject thus far suggests that the shortening of attention spans negatively affects both mental and physical health.

Short-form video platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts have exploded in popularity, with TikTok usage alone rising from 21 percent to 33 percent since 2021 among adults in the United States. A study from Ahejiant University indicated that Tiktok’s content recommendations algorithm is associated with addictive patterns, which was seen when it was compared to a random series of videos [6]. A recent study found that short-form video addiction directly contributes to habits of academic procrastination [7]. According to this study, people get into a habit of repeatedly checking their phone to experience “small pleasures” caused by hormonal shifts, leading to task procrastination and shorter attention spans. Another study also finds that media consumption in general appears to contribute to poor attentional behavior [1]. These studies collectively illustrate that social media and short-form videos have a negative effect on mental wellness.

Gloria Mark, a professor of informatics at UCI, has been a trailblazer in the study of modern media’s impact on physical health. Mark notes that negative consequences of attention switching could include increased stress, as a study demonstrated an increase in heart rate from attention switching behaviors [5]. However, it remains important to remember the novel nature of this topic in science. A study by the University of Queensland notes that highly controlled and fine-tuned experimental conditions used to study an isolated part of the brain cannot be used to generalize the long-term impacts of technology on attention [2]. Essentially, the limited scope of current research cannot be applied to broad conclusions. 

For now, the concern over our shrinking attention spans is far from conclusive. Technology grows faster than the research supporting our knowledge of its long-term impacts. However, the research that has been done suggests that the shortening of attention spans likely has a negative impact on human health. Every clip of a video, combined with the hormonal impacts and algorithm strategies of social media, creates a snowball effect that implicates addiction with large impacts on human health.

References:

1. Cardoso-Leite, P., Buchard, A., Tissieres, I., Mussack, D., & Bavelier, D. (2021). Media use, attention, mental health and academic performance among 8 to 12 year old children. PLOS one, 16(11), e0259163. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0259163
2. Lodge, J. M., & Harrison, W. J. (2019). The Role of Attention in Learning in the Digital Age. The Yale journal of biology and medicine, 92(1), 21–28.
3. Mark, G. (n.d.). Why our attention spans are shrinking, with Gloria Mark, Phd. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/attention-spans 
4. McSpadden, K. (2015, May 14). Science: You now have a shorter attention span than a goldfish. Time. https://time.com/3858309/attention-spans-goldfish/ 
5. Moulton, C. (2024). Squirrel! why attention spans seem to be shrinking and what we can do about it. Northeastern Global News. https://news.northeastern.edu/2024/01/23/decreasing-attention-span/ 
6. Su, C., Zhou, H., Gong, L., Teng, B., Geng, F., & Hu, Y. (2021). “Viewing personalized video clips recommended by TikTok activates default mode network and ventral tegmental area” NeuroImage (237), https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811921004134?via%3d Ihub 
7. Xie, J., Xu, X., Zhang, Y., Tan, Y., Wu, D., Shi, M., & Huang, H. (2023). The effect of short-form video addiction on undergraduates’ academic procrastination: a moderated mediation model. Frontiers in psychology, 14, 1298361. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1298361