Why Even Resist?
My generation, Gen Z, and about everybody else too, seems to be hopelessly addicted to short-form video algorithms. Every single person my age that I know laments about letting hours slip by unnoticed, watching videos for less than ten seconds at a time, hundreds and hundreds of times in succession. The videos are hand-picked by a program designed to maximize the time the user stays on the app and thus minimize the time they spend doing anything else. This is probably not good.
I have never scrolled on a short-form video platform. I’ve obviously seen short-form videos around, from the New York Times app to the top of the YouTube search, but I ignore them. I suspect this makes me part of a small minority. I watch YouTube semi-regularly, but I have recommendations disabled; I watch in my browser’s Private mode anyway so every search is direct to the video I want to see. I use Reddit for my allocated 25 minutes per day before my browser blocks it, which keeps my use of Reddit productive, usually for local news and hobbyist groups.
I won’t act like this makes me a better person. For one, it makes me out of touch. I often find myself asking “is that a TikTok thing?” when my friends make jokes I don’t get. As well, my media consumption is still largely entertainment gratia entertainment. So why do I draw a line? Why do I resist?
Purpose. Entertainment shouldn’t be something you hook into to become a receptacle for advertising.
Choice. I don’t want to surrender the choice of what videos I watch to a purpose-designed addictive algorithm. I like choosing what I do.
Addiction. The addictive chemical response to the habit of scrolling has led to the human experience being flattened down to the short moments between drowning in a sea of dopamine. Hours and hours throughout the day spent wallowing neck-high in chemically addictive content available instantly. Scrolling while eating and while using a urinal. While in bed alone and while in bed with someone else. Seeing everyone else around me, not just young people but those of all ages, fall into this habit is disheartening.
I wonder where this trend will take us. What is the next frontier of the attention economy?