Attention Span Attacks

Outline

• Assumption one:
  • Media (especialy "popular" media) takes advantage of neurochemistry by producing extra-ordinarily "engaging" content, utilizing themes like "larger-than-life" emotions, imagery, sounds/music, sex appeal, exageratd action/events, etc.
• Assumption two:
  • "Social media" takes these same physiologically engaging contents but does away with extended continuity and narrative, packing "over-the-top" emotions, imagery, sex appeal, sounds and activities into extremely short clips.
• Assumption three:
  • This media trend is more habit-forming than many other types of media.
• Assumption four:
  • Continued interaction with this media format can actively diminish ones attention span.
• Question one:
  • Could this trend (especially taken to the extreme ^^1^^) be used to purposefully damage/shorten a persons attention span?
• Question two:
  • Is this trend already being used maliciously as a form of attack on an individuals/populations cognition with negative health/economic repercussions?

Hacking/gamifying the release of chemicals of engagement/arousal/pleasure is the purpose of all media. Even a boring picture of the past is attempting to manipulate your consciousness. Art and "entertainment media" can be fun/engaging. Much of the time, there is nothing complex or nefarious going on, things that are funny, sexy, exciting are entertaining to consume. In other instances individuals/corporations want more views for economic reasons, and so utilize these themes because this is what people will watch more of, "paying" with their time and actual money.

This alone could be problematic in the same way that restaurant food, and especially processed food is more physiologically exciting than regular food. The engaging nature of these types of things can lead to overconsumption, addiction and negative health effects.

I have noticed an uptick in a disturbing trend of dual-panel/picture-in-picture multi-video content, especially aimed at kids. These are videos, common on tiktok, that have simultaneous unrelated videos (usually two above/below one another) playing, sometimes with unrelated audio on top of this. For example, there may be two moving frames on screen at once, one showing video game play-through, the other showing "satisfying" [an entire genre of video] pleasing videos of food prep or playing with toys, or just as often funny videos (like slapstick) or extreme sports. I have not studied the genre enough to know if there is a formula, other than that there are two videos simultaneously playing on screen at a time, and they are almost always completely unrelated thematically.

It was not obvious to me at first why this format of media would even exist. On tiktok videos are already less than a minute long, so craming two videos at once into the already

I've noticed children watching these videos, and while one response might be to imagine that this format is catering to the sh [is it for kids attention spans, or is it gaming the dopamine response]

[Is it an explicit attack or just a naive hack to get views. tik tok controversy about use in military, making it illegal, connections to nation state]

[Does the intention matter if it is damaging attention spans, one of the most fundamental tools of human cognition, if not the singular aspect reqired for consciousness?...]

[Finally, is it actually damaging attention spans? Maybe I am like Aristotle decrying paper. If not, then does it matter ,is it just a fad? If it is, is it reversible? Should it be made illegal? If it is just naive gaming of viewership stats, could it be weaponized?]