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this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2026
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No.
If you have less self control, you’re more likely to consume more short-form video content (duh). But correlation is not causation and the study is not proving that more short term video content is causing less self control. It probably is, but that’s not the finding of the study as the title and some of the quotes imply.
Further, self-control and attention span are not measures of intelligence.
You can be restrained and/or have a long attention span and still not be intelligent.
Neither does impulse control and attention span imply anything about intelligence. Framing it like this is kinda offensive to the many smart people who have a flavour of adhd.
Previous science regarding gaming habits of young kids concluded that those that gamed more then x hours a day had improved problem solving skills, cognitive skills and also lower attention span.
When we're talking science, if you have a certain flavour of adhd which makes you less intelligent, it still makes you less intelligent. Nothing to be ashamed of, and of course the ways they define and test for intelligence are often questionable. But worrying about offending people or making test score equitable goes against the principles of objective science.
There is no flavour of adhd that does this, their intelligence spans the same ranges as any other people. But they do have a lower attention span which is why I referred to them.
The article literally refers to “lower measured attention span” as “being dumber” and thats just unapologetically incorrect. There is no indication of a proper IQ tests being involved.
That said there are so many different kinds of intelligence that we don’t measure or have tests for, being bad a one that does have tests is indeed nothing to be ashamed for, you are correct on that part.
also, short attention span ≠ low intelligence, as the title implies
I can see how a short attention span could foster behavior that leads to lower intelligence. Will be hard to prove scientifically though.
To be fair though, there’s commercial/ad feel to shorts so it’s likely in that zone, though in need of better method to prove it.