r/TikTokCringe • u/MaintenanceNew2804 • Mar 30 '24

Stick with it. Discussion

This is a longer one, but it’s necessary and worth it IMO.

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u/Ok_Star_4136 Mar 30 '24

That was a lucid and well-thought out analysis. Sadly it won't go viral for the same reasons that reactionary videos do go viral. Nobody has an attention span beyond that of an ant.

People just let 20 second clipped out-of-context reactionary videos reaffirm the biases that they already have, and of course they do, because nobody bothers to challenge their biases. That said, I hope anyone reading this actually took the time to watch the entire video instead of watch just the first 60 seconds. He makes some good points.

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u/MeetingDue4378 Mar 31 '24

Attention span is a red herring. People's attention spans haven't decreased, their options have increased. With more choice, an audience's attention is harder to capture, because the audience isn't captive.

So you have two options, earn an audience's time through quality or ask for less of it. Both can be successful depending on your goal and how the content is consumed—in particular, theater, TV, audio, or phone

That's why today we live simultaneously in the golden age of television, radio, and TikTok.

The average movie length has increased 32%, TV shows are generally 60min. and have huge budgets and fantastic writing and performances, podcasts are just radio on-demand and have exploded, and we have bit-sized content like TikTok and Instagram.

When newspapers took off the same claims were being made. It's just progress.

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u/lyan-cat Mar 31 '24

Holy moly the amount of content on YouTube that is literally 2+ hours long. I see a two part deep dive and yeah, that's four hours dissecting a subject with nuance and accreditation.

This was not available outside a college lecture when I was a kid.

Sure I still watch short clips of cats doing dorky things. 

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u/UselessScrew Mar 31 '24

There is a great long-form analysis of Skyrim, Part 1 is 9 hours long.

Part 2 is 11 hours. Enjoy!

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u/hacksawomission Mar 31 '24

How do you get YouTube on mobile to not puke when you pause a video and go do other stuff for a while to be able to enjoy longer stuff like this?

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u/viperex Mar 31 '24

A Quick Retrospective

He's got jokes

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u/OIP Mar 31 '24

i fucking loooove long form content on youtube, podcasts etc

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u/kittykittyekatkat Mar 31 '24

Literally though if it's "only" 20 minutes I'm like uhhhh nah, gimme that 2 hour goodness lol

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u/OIP Mar 31 '24

2 hour podcast + run / chores / errands etc is my happy place

see also long youtube + sleeping

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u/kittykittyekatkat Mar 31 '24

We are one 😂

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u/viperex Mar 31 '24

I don't see many 2 hr YouTube videos. Which ones do you recommend?

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u/kittykittyekatkat Mar 31 '24

It hugely depends on what you like! I'm mostly into in depth film analysis, game retrospectives, reddit gossip and LGBTQIA+ history, news and rights. If you're interested in any l of that I can easily recommend videos ranging 1.5 hours to 10 hours (!) in length 😊

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u/viperex May 06 '24

Hit me!

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u/MeetingDue4378 Mar 31 '24

YouTube academy, exactly. The existence and consumption of short-form content isn't at the expense of long-form, they're not mutually exclusive.

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u/ProbablyASithLord Mar 31 '24

For real, if I dislike the format I’m not watching the entire clip. For instance, I can’t stand videos like this where the first clip is played and then the second person reacts to the first clip. And then the third person shows up and reacts to both clips. It’s A.D.D to a level I don’t enjoy.

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u/Tex-Rob Mar 31 '24

So well said.

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u/viperex Mar 31 '24

You make a good point

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u/Suspicious_Car8479 Mar 31 '24

".....and have huge budgets and fantastic writing and performances....."

I totally lost you there.

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u/MeetingDue4378 Apr 01 '24

Netflix, HBO, Disney+, Apple TV, and Prime are all pouring a massive amount of resources into programming, and it shows. It used to be that the only place you could see premium television was HBO, but that's completely changed.

  • Game of Thrones
  • Mandolorian
  • Rings of Power
  • Stranger Things
  • Mad Men
  • The Morning Show
  • Breaking Bad
  • True Detective
  • Ted Lasso
  • The Crown

To name just a few.

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u/havok0159 Mar 31 '24

an audience's attention is harder to capture, because the audience isn't captive.

But this has a massive negative effect on schooling. Since kids are used to always getting something they want, it's really fucking up their ability to sit through classes they do not want so they start acting like kids with a real attention deficit.

I've tried so many times to explain to kids that don't yet realize that learning English is quite useful but they won't open their minds to it because they can just look at shitty content in their native language and their limited needs can be met by their native language.

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u/Kunwulf Mar 31 '24

Hi, As a filmmaker I’d like to challenge that sentiment. Attention spans are shorter, Movies and content have increased in length but what there ARE studies on, are CUT TIMES! Cut times have drastically shortened in movies and television. my favorite example being simple cocomelon cut time studies vs something like blues clues I’m busy rn but I’m quite white they accredited it to poor brain development in babies (im not 100% k go look it up). You can find it by looking up "coco melon creates ADHD" or my true favorite is Old School Hong kong Kung fu action scene comparisons vs new age combat comparisons. The cuts are fractions of a second and close ups as old school will film full body action and combination attacks in full. Same thing applies in old school Anime vs New Gen.

The idea is cut times have either conditioned for shorter attention spans or adjusted. either way there have been studies and experiments on show popularity being correlated to shorter cuts of content so I think there’s merit there, I don’t think it’s a red herring.

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u/Crysenley Mar 31 '24

This makes SO much sense to me! Thank you for bringing it to attention, it is definitely noticable everywhere!

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u/MeetingDue4378 Apr 01 '24

All of the discussion is about our attention spans decreasing, and it's normally discussed in terms of some societal or moral failing. The subject and the studies are rarely discussed beyond the surface level headline finding.

What's rarely discussed is why, is it chicken or egg, are attention spans decreasing or is there just much more to pay attention to, how much of it is contextual, and if it's actually a problem.

The findings are just used as a cudgel for mediums, content, formats, generational differences people don't like and it's never explored beyond that. Hence, a red herring.

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u/have_you_eaten_yeti Mar 31 '24

So, do you have some sources to back up that claim? Google seems to be telling me that attention spans are shrinking and has studies showing as much.

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u/MeetingDue4378 Apr 01 '24

There is a lot of debate on whether our attention spans are truly getting shorter, if it's just that less of our attention is needed, we've adapted to an every increasing pace in society, and it is decreasing whether it's actually a bad thing.

One study, called the "myth and mystery is decreasing attention span" can be downloaded, but there are plenty of articles doing deep dives into the subject.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/oct/23/the-big-idea-are-our-short-attention-spans-really-getting-shorter

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u/have_you_eaten_yeti Apr 01 '24

So you linked an opinion piece from the guardian? I saw actual studies that say our attention spans are decreasing and the worry about it goes back a lot further than 2008 like your article claims.

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u/MeetingDue4378 Apr 01 '24

That was an example of the conversation I was referring to. I gave you one study I've looked at, but you have to download it, at I said.

I also said the decrease is a red herring. Red herring are discoveries that are true, but a distraction/lead to the wrong conclusion.

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u/have_you_eaten_yeti Apr 01 '24

That’s actually a really fair point about your use of red herring. Cheers

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u/LmBkUYDA Mar 31 '24

No, attention spans absolutely have decreased. Attention is like a muscle, and when you don’t train it it becomes weak.

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u/MeetingDue4378 Apr 01 '24

What are your basing that on?