The first time I encountered Reels I thought this is mildly interesting. So I watched, and I watched, and I watched. I got hooked quickly, but they were all empty calories.
Whatever the repetitive first two seconds implied was present never came to pass. Gradually I came to hate myself as I wasted so much time clicking and swiping. We should be able to block content such as this. I block TikTok by way of not installing the app. Zuckerberg doesn't give me that choice on FB, it's part of it.
So my only recourse is to quickly scroll past whatever looks like a Reel, and take the FOMO hit instead.
I agreed with everything you said right up until the last paragraph or so.
Definitely appreciate the desire to lee government / the state out of meddling in personal preferences, but as you’ve said there are some incredibly addictive qualities to short form video content. If short form video content is anywhere as addictive as alcohol, cigarettes, gambling or drugs (and I think in many ways it is) then it’s something you can’t expect people to resolve on their own with a bit of polite hectoring, especially not when a majority of the population are themselves addicts.
Edrith has a piece on Substack where he goes over six things the state could do to limit social media use short of straight up banning it which I think are worth considering, eg ban continuous scroll, require a 20 second delay before the next video plays, remove algorithmic feed and replace it with chronological feed of who you follow.
These feel very reasonable and would go a long way to reducing the addictiveness without restricting freedom. We have limits on every other kind of media (eg age ratings on film and limits of what can be on TV pre watershed). We can do the same for reels. Not only can we, but we should.
This video is only tangentially related to this, but I did find it interesting and reading your post reminded me of it. A very interesting theory that falling birth rates are connected to the rise of smartphones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lFXmDk-tps
They are truly pernicious and basically what Adorno described as the culture industry but taken to its logical conclusion! Mechanisation of leisure, satisfying created false needs through comfort etc etc.
Thanks for this, James. I only discovered Reels a couple months ago and know exactly what you mean about what really becomes an addiction -- and that's really the way to treat this, like booze or smokes or too many Big Macs. Just STOP is the way I've handled these addictions in my life. No other way, really. We know what's there now and what a time waster Reels is. Cheers.
And I forgot to add, before I wrote my earlier post, that Reels showed me the death of a woman after she had been thrown off the edge of a bridge, or something like that. Apparently a bungee jump type thing gone wrong. It later appeared on my BBC news app, so I know it was genuine.
The first time I encountered Reels I thought this is mildly interesting. So I watched, and I watched, and I watched. I got hooked quickly, but they were all empty calories.
Whatever the repetitive first two seconds implied was present never came to pass. Gradually I came to hate myself as I wasted so much time clicking and swiping. We should be able to block content such as this. I block TikTok by way of not installing the app. Zuckerberg doesn't give me that choice on FB, it's part of it.
So my only recourse is to quickly scroll past whatever looks like a Reel, and take the FOMO hit instead.
I agreed with everything you said right up until the last paragraph or so.
Definitely appreciate the desire to lee government / the state out of meddling in personal preferences, but as you’ve said there are some incredibly addictive qualities to short form video content. If short form video content is anywhere as addictive as alcohol, cigarettes, gambling or drugs (and I think in many ways it is) then it’s something you can’t expect people to resolve on their own with a bit of polite hectoring, especially not when a majority of the population are themselves addicts.
Edrith has a piece on Substack where he goes over six things the state could do to limit social media use short of straight up banning it which I think are worth considering, eg ban continuous scroll, require a 20 second delay before the next video plays, remove algorithmic feed and replace it with chronological feed of who you follow.
These feel very reasonable and would go a long way to reducing the addictiveness without restricting freedom. We have limits on every other kind of media (eg age ratings on film and limits of what can be on TV pre watershed). We can do the same for reels. Not only can we, but we should.
This video is only tangentially related to this, but I did find it interesting and reading your post reminded me of it. A very interesting theory that falling birth rates are connected to the rise of smartphones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lFXmDk-tps
They are truly pernicious and basically what Adorno described as the culture industry but taken to its logical conclusion! Mechanisation of leisure, satisfying created false needs through comfort etc etc.
Thanks for this, James. I only discovered Reels a couple months ago and know exactly what you mean about what really becomes an addiction -- and that's really the way to treat this, like booze or smokes or too many Big Macs. Just STOP is the way I've handled these addictions in my life. No other way, really. We know what's there now and what a time waster Reels is. Cheers.
Agree with this. I simply don't watch short form video at all for the reasons you set out, and support regulation to reduce it.
Every time I go to use YouTube it tries to make me watch these shorts. I just want to switch them off!
Already left Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok as they were total time wasters.
But traditional YouTube can actually be useful.
And I forgot to add, before I wrote my earlier post, that Reels showed me the death of a woman after she had been thrown off the edge of a bridge, or something like that. Apparently a bungee jump type thing gone wrong. It later appeared on my BBC news app, so I know it was genuine.
Now what sort of person would post that?