New study: fast-paced videos produce morons full of self esteem
Dec 16, 2025
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From the Independent, via cryptogon.com:
“Excessive usage of TikTok and Instagram Reels is damaging cognitive performance, the American Psychological Association has said in a recent study.”
“Data from 98,299 participants across 71 studies found that the more short-form content a person watches, the poorer cognitive performances they had in terms of attention and inhibitory control—meaning the more complex they found it to focus.”
“Researchers found that ‘repeated exposure to highly stimulating, fast-paced content may contribute to habituation, in which users become desensitized to slower, more effortful cognitive tasks such as reading, problem solving, or deep learning’.”
“In short, researchers said it can contribute to brain rot. It concluded that short-form video use was ‘associated with poorer cognition (attention, inhibitory control, language, memory, and working memory) and most mental health indices except body image and self-esteem’.”
I love that last part—the person is screwed up in every possible way, except for body image and self-esteem.
“I know nothing and I’m great.”
You can extend the study’s findings out to movies as well. These days, they feature hundreds or thousands of fast cuts. You’re looking, in the space of a few seconds, at a burning building, a ship blowing up, the President on the phone, a guy robbing a grocery store…
Movies originally concentrated on the art of editing to simulate the act of human perception:
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