175
They did not in fact find that the shorts are making you dumber. They said it affects your attention span.
Ironically I found this out in the first sentence of the article and then stopped reading.
this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2026
175 points (85.4% liked)
Technology
82070 readers
3516 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Yeah I can't imagine it making me dumber. Most of my shorts are interesting scientific facts/discoveries. Or CSS tips and tricks.
Attention span I can definitely believe.
This may shock you, but most people watch really dumb fucking shit instead of scientific facts.
Then they were already dumb.
Short attention span correlates with low intelligence but short attention span doesn't cause low intelligence.
I can't remember the whole thing but there is a sort of pseudo research paper that got published exactly to demonstrate the difference between correlation and causation. In the paper they "found" that yellow teeth cause cancer.
Of course smoking causes yellow teeth, and cancer. The yellow teeth are correlated, but do not cause.
Wouldn't the knock-on effects of a reduced attention span pretty much look like 'dumber'?
Curious about memes as well.
Those things are ADHD honeypots. I have never experienced something that is so close to hard drugs before.
Yeah cause Ibuprofen
So do stupid fucken click bait headlines.
No.
The study found a correlation between people who regularly consume short-form content and those who scored low on tests measuring impulse control and attention span.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I mean this doesn’t establish a causal link at all, just confirms the obvious fact that someone with attention issues is more likely to consume short form content.
I mean... looking at Shorts and Reels it's definitely not making anyone smarter. There's 0 value to it.
I'd say it depends. I'll admit to spending inconsistent amounts of time a day on shorts. Some days none at all, but some (typically stressful) days I've probably lost 1-2 hours. The content I'm getting is mostly cooking, horror movies/gaming, education, and health and fitness related. Through it I've found content creators with podcasts and have found some motivation to make exercise an achievable part of my daily life.
Is there a sea of toxic bullshit out there? Absolutely. But there's also some freshwater lakes and rivers. It's why media literacy needs to be included in education along with critical thinking.
They said the same thing about Sesame Street in the 1970's
I turned out all right.
Ah, you too live in a trash can and crave cookies?
No shit
No, they are making you dumber. I don't use YouTube/Instagram/TikTok at all nor any other video/short platform.
Same. I'm getting smarter relatively speaking.
I'm sure the title here is accurate summary of the conclusion of the study and I don't need to even check because as a person who doesn't conscume short-form media this confirms something I already know to be true about myself.
eh. good luck. i am already