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.
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."
TikTok seems like a next generation YouTube though. What it adds, in addition to an easy and addictive way to watch, is a remix culture empowered by the ease of creating new videos. Dancing is a fine example. When someone creates a new dance other TikTokers try it out or put their own twist on it.
I think highly of TikTok. It's creative. The algorithm powering the feed is compelling. I personally uninstalled it because I'd get caught up using it and spend more time than I wanted on the app - but it's doing a lot right.
I've read this and they must have some really brilliant people working there because they are able to confidently stream you whatever is next that keeps you hooked. There's no home page for you to pick and choose. You're just getting one dopamine hit to the brain right after the other.
> TikTok seems like a next generation YouTube though.
YouTube seems to incentivize longer content which seems to be the wrong thing to do. I can watch a short TikTok video and feel that I actually learned something without the time commitment.
For me I think it's two factors:
1) Quick out if you don't like it. Load the next thing is really quick and easy to do. Just flick up and boom it's the next thing. Right now there are no ads or interruptions. It's really easy to move on from something you don't like.
2) The algorithm is really good. I don't know enough about it, but it consistently shows me stuff I want to see. I can't explain it more than that.
I also don't feel like it boxes me in the same way Youtube does. Youtube shows me nearly the same thing I have already seen and liked. Tiktok pulls up a good variety (sometimes from creators with single digit followers) that I am interested in.
You become like the lab rat hitting the lever over and over again to get a pleasure spike from the electrode wired to its brain.
I’ve found that my attention span and willpower have been decimated in the last few years. I can barely make it through a few pages of a book without reaching for my phone. I’m not sure if the (over)stimulation caused by apps like TikTok are the cause, but it seems plausible.
Incidentally, this is what HN upvotes on my comments are for me. I tried to abandon the use of smartphones entirely, but HN is the one addiction that I can't seem to kick. Even YouTube was easier to kick, and that one wasted a lot more of my time.