Doomscrolling: Teenagers seeing 708 videos a day
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance.
Now, new research has shed light on exactly how much time some teenagers are spending on TikTok every day. A pool of 21 teenagers handed over their phones for the study, giving first-hand insight into their world of social media. And to discuss these findings, I'm now joined by journalist and consumer columnist with the Irish examiner, Katrina Redmond. You're very welcome to the show. So how many videos per day?
On average, 708 videos per day. It's pretty horrific now, I have to say.
What new research reveals about teenagers' TikTok usage?
Now, I did look at a video online of some of the content they're seeing, and this is just sort of rapid fire, isn't it? It's not long form videos.
No, it's really short. The videos are pretty much timed between 30 seconds to 60 seconds each. The teenagers themselves are stopping for maybe five seconds on each video. If they are watching a video, they're watching it a double time. So they're getting this really rapid endorphin shift, this really, really quick feedback loop where they're feeling great. They keep on scrolling, they keep on scrolling. And this is what they talk about when they talk about doom scrolling. This is what they talk about when they talk about words like brain rot. This is what these young people are watching. And on average, the young people that were sampled were watching for an hour and 41 minutes a day, every day of the week.
And this is just a study of, as you say, these young teenagers, but I'm sure there's plenty of adults out there who are doing exactly the same thing. Do we know how it is? affecting their brains? Do we know how they're feeling when they're not watching TikTok? Because it sounds like it's really addictive.
It is addictive. And I'm saying that from my opinion. And I think it's really important that we chat about this in a realistic manner. There are agencies in the US who have been prosecuting the likes of TikTok and other short form media platforms because the content and the algorithm which has been set up is addictive. The teenagers themselves are reporting and saying that they feel sad, that they feel lonely when they're not using the social media apps. But equally, they're also feeling guilty and they're feeling bad about themselves for spending so much time on the apps.
How many videos do teenagers watch on TikTok daily?
Surely the real worlds that we're all living in, right, where you're going to school, where you're trying to watch a movie that might be two hours long, where you're trying to read a book, it must seem in some ways unbearably slow if you're living in this environment. You're not getting those quick hits.
Well, I think so. And also, you know, we're seeing this in the increase in people using their mobile phones in cinemas. We're seeing this on the telly when we're watching TV shows. Like you're seeing TV shows come up with hashtags before and after the ad breaks. You're seeing people being encouraged to interact with the hashtags. I mean, even obviously we're talking today and we want to encourage people to discuss the topic, but that will be discussed on social media as well. Social media is pervasive and invasive in our everyday life. And it's something that we have to learn to live with. But how do we learn to live that with it in a healthy manner? I'm really reminded, I was actually talking to my own teenagers about it this morning, and I'm really reminded of, does anybody remember the movie WALL-E?
where the two robots and it's all to do with overconsumption and it's all to do with what happens to a planet when it becomes overconsumed and what happens to the people when they consume too much digital media. And actually what happened in that movie, I know it's a cartoon, but the people were basically rolling around in cars and wheelchairs, watching the videos all day long and not interacting with the environment. And when they put those away, their life improved.
Do we know what exactly they are watching and do we know what time of the day they're watching these 708 videos?
So interestingly, and obviously they're not using TikTok or Instagram or any of these short form video apps outside or inside of school hours.
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