Have you noticed how many times you took your phone and watch these reels one after another. Whether you admit or not each one of us waste time in scrolling these reels for hours everyday. And I say time waste because its the most unhealthy form of entertainment and addiction which takes a toll on our mental health. There are many ill effects of scrolling these endless short videos and reels.
They are killing our attention span
The average length of a short video or reel is 15-20 seconds, then the next video appears then the next and so on. During this cycle our mind get exposed to too much different kinds of audio visual information in a very short time. Thus we are not able to concentrate on any particular video i.e. piece of information. And now since watching reels become an addiction, we do this regularly. Thus torturing and training our brain to expose to various different kind of information everyday. This activity on a regular basis results in shortening of our attention span. Since our brain become trained to experience too much audio visual content in shorter time, we will not able to focus on a single task for longer periods.
It makes studies and other tough tasks boring
The audio visual experience from reels results in release of dopamine in our brain. This dopamine spike is responsible to make watching these reels addictive. Now the task like studies or any office projects don't result in that dopamine shots because they are boring, monotonous and requires hard work. Thus you become disinterested. So if you are a student or a serious professional learning something new, these reels are poison for you because they are reducing your brain capacity.
They create fake beauty standards
The female influencers dancing and performing in these reels and videos apply too much makeup and filters in making these reels. Thus they are not real in anyway. Some girls spent hours in makeup to make a 15-20 secs reel.
Hell lot of cringe content promoted
People loves to watch cringe. They subconsciously wants to feel superior. So , when they saw anyone doing stupid things on social media they feel superior in themselves. They think they are smarter when they write bad words in the comment section of the post. But in reality they are triggering the algorithm to further push that content and reach to more people. Then this cycle goes on and the cringe content ultimately goes viral.
Too much information in too little time
When we watch Instagram reels or short videos, the typical length of a video is 15-30 seconds. So we see some audio visual content of 30 seconds then immediately next video automatically plays and it will be of entirely different niche than previous video. So if you scroll reels for only half hour then you might have seen 60+ short videos. So in a short span of time you brain has to process large amount of information. Also while watching different videos of different content type we hardly focus completely on any single video. Thus we are training our brain to reduce focus and attention span.
Addiction cycle and time waste
Social media is highly addictive. Social media algorithms are designed in such a way that entertaining content is pushed more than educational or informative content. Since people scrolls social media because of entertainment purpose, nobody is here to gain knowledge. And there is no limit for entertainment. No matter you spent many hours, you will still need more. Therefore you keep on scrolling and this became a habit which further result in addiction.
Final Thoughts
Short videos are like drugs to our brain. The more you consume the more your brain weakens. Therefore its highly recommended to limit their use otherwise you have to face serious ailments like depression, anxiety and weak memory in the long term.
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