Many children today suffer from this condition.
“TikTok Brains” – Brains Controlled by Short Videos
Last year, when Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok, attended a hearing by the U.S. House Committee on Commerce and Energy, he answered questions about “protecting the data privacy of Americans and the safety of children“.
During the hearing, Shou Zi Chew was asked: “Do your children use TikTok?” His answer was: “No”. This is because both of his children are under 13 years old, and children under 13 are not allowed to use TikTok in Singapore.
The fact that the CEO’s children do not watch TikTok indicates that these “short videos” are not as interesting as they seem. Studies have shown that watching short videos for extended periods has a negative impact on children’s brain development, affecting memory, cognition, concentration, and more.
In an age where AI technology is rapidly developing, children addicted to watching short videos are the first group to be eliminated from the “race” for success.
In an era where AI technology is advancing rapidly, children addicted to short videos are the first to be eliminated from the “race” for success. (Illustrative image)
In recent years, parents have been concerned about their children’s addiction to mobile games. The “2023 Progress Report on Protecting Minors in the Gaming Industry in China” shows: “The consumption levels of games among minors have further declined. At the same time, the issue of excessive gaming among minors has been effectively improved.” The bad news is that most of their free time away from gaming is spent watching short videos.
The fifth national survey report on “Internet Usage Among Minors” indicates that short videos are rapidly penetrating the youth demographic: the percentage of underage internet users regularly watching short videos increased from 40.5% in 2018 to 54.1% in 2022; 32.9% of underage internet users filmed and posted short videos on Douyin, Kuaishou, WeChat, and other platforms in the past year;
From games years ago to today’s short videos, raising a child is like competing with electronic products for parents, fighting to the death for a tiny bit of attention.
Parents who enjoy watching short videos surely understand: once you start watching, you cannot stop; the content just keeps getting more interesting. The flashing screens, rapid pace, and continuous barrage of information provide high-intensity auditory and visual stimulation, causing the brain to release a large amount of dopamine. Just by moving your finger, the system can always push new content to stimulate the brain.
In general, when engaging in activities that require prolonged concentration, such as reading or doing math, we need to use directed attention. This depends on the prefrontal cortex, the command and control center of the brain. However, the prefrontal cortex does not fully develop until around the age of 25.
In other words, these simple, easy-to-understand, and interesting short videos can “bomb” the brain for extended periods, causing a child to lose control and become addicted, without any concept of time.
Initially, a child may only need to scroll for about ten minutes to feel satisfied, but later it may take half an hour or even an hour to feel happy. However, if the brain continuously processes “short, flat, and fast” content, the ability to handle slower-paced content will be altered or damaged.
In 2011, Lillard, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, conducted a study in which 60 children aged 4-5 were divided into three groups. One group watched a fast-paced 9-minute cartoon, another group watched a 9-minute educational science program, and the last group drew with crayons.
Shortly after, all three groups of children were tested for abilities including attention, memory, and problem-solving skills, such as performing a toe touch or recalling a series of numbers in reverse. The results showed that children who watched the fast-paced cartoon lagged behind.
For children aged 0 to 6, the brain develops the fastest and is the most plastic, with the strongest ability to absorb all kinds of information from the surrounding environment and life experiences. Abilities such as language, motor coordination, mathematical knowledge, social habits, and emotional management that are missed during this stage will take increasing time to acquire later.
As the time spent watching short videos increases, the negative impact on children’s brains will also grow, and they will gradually become “TikTok Brains” (brains controlled by short videos).
Why Don’t Other People’s Children Like Watching Short Videos?
Short video blogger Jersey Island Master once shared her daily life with her foreign husband, a Cambridge University graduate, and their three children. In her sharing, there are often scenes that make many parents envious: three children sit together, not playing on their phones or watching TV, but all focused on reading books.
If you watch the video closely, you will see that next to the child reading, there is always a father who is also seriously reading. Moreover, the couple takes their children to the local library weekly, and the family even pulls a suitcase to borrow books.
The “Research Report on Teenagers’ Use and Learning of Short Videos” from the China Youth Research Center shows that the parent-child relationship has a certain impact on children’s behavior in using short videos. Children with heavy academic burdens and poor parent-child relationships use longer and more frequent short videos compared to those with lighter academic loads and better parent-child relationships.
For families living in the digital age, completely switching their lives to an “offline” state is unrealistic. Not every child who watches short videos will become a “TikTok Brain”; many children learn and develop their interests through short videos.
Since interacting with digital content is unavoidable, what parents can do is to cultivate healthy online habits for their children as early as possible.
One expert has proposed a feasible plan: The whole family should set rules together and adhere to them, with penalties for those who violate them.
The family sits down to discuss regulations regarding mobile phone use and the duration of short video watching. Each family member monitors one another; the father supervises the children, the children supervise the mother, and the mother supervises the father, creating a closed-loop system. After a cycle, the family can sit down together to provide feedback and adjust existing regulations. Over time, through regular communication and exchanges between parents and children, the best solutions for their family will emerge.
Experts recommend that teenagers should not use TikTok for more than 60 minutes at a time, a guideline suggested by experts from the Digital Health Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital after conducting extensive research.
This article is from an account specializing in sharing educational issues in China.
