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Something really bad happens to your
00:00:02
brain when you watch short form content.
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And no, I'm not talking about your
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attention span and your ability to
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focus. It doesn't take a genius to
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figure out that scrolling through 5 to
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10 second videos is going to scramble
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your brain and make it so that you're
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unable to focus on anything that's
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longer than 5 to 10 seconds. And I'm
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also not talking about the whole
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comparison thing where you're scrolling
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through, you know, the mo the most
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extreme versions of body image or money.
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And you know, we've all heard the quote
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before that comparison is the feat of
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joy. And we've all heard the cliche that
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the average human has an attention span
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of the same length of a goldfish, right?
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These are pretty common pieces of
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knowledge that have swept through modern
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society that we understand. What I'm
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about to tell you is way deeper than
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that and way more sinister. And when I
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figured this thing out a few years ago,
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I haven't looked back or watch short
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form content since. Because if you if
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you understand this thing, it will it
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will petrify you and it will scare you
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to your core, which should in turn stop
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you from actually doing the thing. So in
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order for us to understand how short
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form content basically destroys your
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brain and ruins your life, we need to
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understand a few things about mental
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health, about attention, about emotion,
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and about what short form content
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actually is. Depression and anxiety and
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other mental health disorders like ADHD,
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OD, all these things are rampant. And
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it's no surprise or should come as no
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surprise to you that we are basically in
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a mental health crisis. Um and you know
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pretty much worldwide any modern society
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has a massive issue with mental health
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problems. And there's lots of reasons
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for this. You know we could argue it's
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oh it's because of the modern diet or
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it's because of the microplastics or
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it's the pollution. There's all sorts of
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reasons but social media is a big one.
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Um but specifically short form content.
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And what I'm about to tell you is
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something that no one considers. like
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what you're about to learn something
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brand new that you've probably never
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thought about before that will
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completely shift your perspective on on
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how you deal with short form content. So
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what is attention and what is short form
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content? Well, short form content is
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basically a short video that you're well
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aware of. And at first principle, what
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it basically is is a collection of
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frames strung together that elapse
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before your eyes. And it basically is
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like a component of reality of something
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that's happened in the past captured on
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video that you see. And when you watch
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short form content, when you watch these
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little frames that have been put
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together and you scroll through them and
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you scroll through these pixels, what
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happens is you only watch content that
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goes viral. And so 99% of the short form
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videos that you see in your feed,
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whether this is on Instagram, YouTube,
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or Tik Tok, or wherever else people
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watch short form content these days,
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you're seeing viral content. And what
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you need to understand is that in order
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for something to go viral, it has to
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produce an emotion. And so what this
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means is that the bulk majority of short
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form videos that you see invoke an
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emotional response in you because our
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emotions dictate our attention. And the
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reason that short form content is so
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damn addictive. And the reason why you
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can just scroll for hours and hours and
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hours without even noticing that time's
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going by, there's probably not much else
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on the planet that you can do for hours
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and hours and hours without noticing
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time's going by. Bloody hell. Try and
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just sit and watch a movie for 2 and 1/2
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hours. You can't. You're just checking
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your phone or trying to do things or eat
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snacks. Like it's very hard. But for
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some reason, Instagram reals or Tik Tok,
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whatever, you can just you can scroll
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through that thing. And it's incredibly
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addictive. And the reason is because
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what it does is it invokes emotion. Now
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our emotions by their very nature
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dictate our attentive mechanism that in
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other words they determine where our
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focus and attention goes, where our
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eyeballs, our ears and where our sensory
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mechanisms what they lock what they lock
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on to. And this is really dangerous. And
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here's the rub because in order for a
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piece of short form content to go viral,
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it has to invoke an emotion. Because
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what is virality? What does viral mean?
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Well, it means that it's captured the
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attention of lots of people. And it's
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important to understand
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that where your attention goes is where
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your emotion lies. And if something
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makes you feel something, then you're
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likely to pay attention to it. And
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that's the whole point. And here's the
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kicker. When you scroll through short
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form content, you you think you're
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scrolling through videos and these these
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videos, what you're scrolling through is
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emotions. And every time that you pull
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that lever, every time that little, you
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know, that refresh or every time you
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scroll up, that slot machine mechanism,
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you're invoking a a brand new emotion.
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And so, think about this with me for a
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second here because, you know, one
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minute you're watching a video of like
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um some child's birthday and then he
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gets his head put in the cake and it's
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funny. And then the next video is like,
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you know, it's it's it's some political,
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you know, um thing that just rage baits
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you and makes you a little bit angry.
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and then you're scrolling through
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something about a kid that got over
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cancer and you you feel happy or a
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little bit inspired and then you're
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watching some dude like drive a Ferrari
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and you feel a bit jealous, you know,
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whether it's sadness, anger, anxiety,
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depression, um focus, like inspiration,
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motivation, determination, like there
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loneliness, grief, joy that there's
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dozens and dozens and dozens of emotions
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that your brain has the ability to
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produce. And when you watch a piece of
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viral short form content, it will almost
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always trigger an emotion. And that's
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why you pay so much attention to these
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things. And that's why it's so damn
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addictive because your brain, it likes
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to produce emotion because what emotion
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does is it informs action by its nature.
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It's called emotion. Motion is Latin for
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movement, right? And so what emotions do
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is they create impulse for us to address
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things in our environment. And so, you
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know, for example, if you if someone
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close to you dies and passes away,
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you're you're going to receive that
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information from your sensory
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environment through your, you know,
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through your through your five senses,
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and you're going to register that
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happening on an emotional level, and
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it's going to produce grief or sadness
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or, you know, some anxiety or some
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depression, right? And that's perfectly
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healthy and normal. But the problem is
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with short form content is it's it's
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emotional spectacle gone mad because
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what you're doing is you're scrolling
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through all this stuff and you're
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basically scrolling through emotional
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states. If you really think about it,
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that first principle, that is why you
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are sat here like on your bed like this
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just scrolling and scrolling. You're
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you're scrolling through emotions and
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it's incredibly addictive and it feels
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great to do this. But the problem with
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this is it completely completely
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your brain and it your emotional
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intelligence, your EQ, your emotional
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quotient, which is the measurement of
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your emotional intelligence. This was
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defined by Daniel Gleman. Um he kind of
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wrote the book on emotional
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intelligence. And when we talk about
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emotional intelligence, most people
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think it's about empathy and it's about
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your ability to understand and relate to
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people and talk to them and you know
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your social skills. And that is a large
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proponent of EQ and of emotional
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intelligence. But the other component of
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EQ and emotional intelligence is to do
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with your ability to control your
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impulses and your ability to become
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aware of your emotions and control them
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and manage them. And when you scroll
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through short form content for hours on
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end, you're you're your brain
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because in order for your brain to
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produce an emotion, this this thing
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doesn't come out of thin air. It happens
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on a chemical level. It happens with
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neurotransmitters like norepinephrine,
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dopamine, serotonin, acetylcholine,
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noradrenaline, all these hormones and
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you know neurotransmitters
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um that are firing around your brain.
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For example, in order for your brain to
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produce anger and for you to register a
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stimuli in your environment as that
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makes me angry, your brain has to
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produce norepinephrine. has to produce
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acetylcholine and these things build up
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and build up and then your brain it
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triggers like this emotion in your brain
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and then you feel angry and then you
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know you usually do something with that
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anger that you probably would regret and
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that's what emotion is. It's it's a it's
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a it's a shift in our neurochemistry.
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And for a normal healthy human, the way
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that our brain is designed to work is
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emotions are perfectly normal and
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perfectly healthy because, you know, if
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I'm walking down the street and someone
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steals my phone, um which could well
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happen though I live in London, then
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that should register as on an angry
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level because, you know, that person has
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stolen from me and that's going to
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trigger, you know, that event. my brain
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will just quickly like register that as
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anger, which is perfectly healthy and
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perfectly normal. But the issue with
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short form content is you can't really
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do anything with the emotions you're
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feeling. Have you ever scrolled for a
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couple of hours before only afterwards
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to feel apathetic or depressed or like
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just completely emotionally haywire?
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Like you you can't really it's just you
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just feel really weird and really
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strange. What that basically is is your
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brain's almost got like an emotional
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hangover. So if you if you drink too
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much alcohol, you get you get a
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hangover, right? Where your body's
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breaking down the chemicals in the
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alcohol, i.e. the ethanol and the the
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process of breaking that down doesn't
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feel very nice in your body. Your brain
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has to do the same thing when you
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overstimulate it with too much emotion.
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And all of these chemicals, they build
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up and build up and build up. And you
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kind of, as your brain breaks these
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down, and as your brain has to deal with
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this onslaught of chemicals that you've
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just given it after your mindless scroll
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because you've been scrolling through
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emotions, it leaves you with this
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emotional hangover. And the problem is
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is most people spend their entire lives
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completely overeotional. And what
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happens when you train your brain to
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produce emotional chemicals, it gets
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really good at it. And this is
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how you become sensitive. So, you know,
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if you let's say that you scroll through
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short form content a couple of hours a
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day, what you're doing is you're
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scrolling through emotions for a couple
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of hours a day and you're you're spiking
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chemicals in your brain and you're
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basically just like bringing things up
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and bringing and you're just you're just
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you're just artificially stimulating um
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feeling. And what that does is it makes
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you highly sensitive to these things. In
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the same way that if you um if you ate
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loads of crap food for a long time and
00:09:54
got really sick and you know you you
00:09:56
built up food intolerances, if you ate a
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piece of that food again, then your your
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intolerance is so high that your body
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will just like shut down. Um and this is
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really bad for you. Like really really
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really bad for you. And the reason that
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so many people these days struggle with
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depression, anger issues, ODD, ADD, um
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anxiety, and all these other acronyms
00:10:19
that terrify me. There's so many
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acronyms these days for mental health.
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It's actually quite scary. It's because
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people can't control their emotions
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because their emotions control them
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because they produce so many. It's not
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normal and it's not healthy. And you
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know when you talk to someone that's
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just completely like scattered and fried
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like it's the short form content thing
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man. It's really really bad for
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you. When you drive a car you have
00:10:45
gears. So if you're driving stick or
00:10:48
manual as Americans will call it stick.
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If you're driving manual as we say in
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the UK you have maybe like five or six
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gears in your cup and you know you shift
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through the gears and you try and find
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the highest gear for optimal fuel
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burning and driving efficiency. Watching
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short form content is like driving a car
00:11:02
but trying to shift this gear stick
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every 5 to 10 seconds. You're changing
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the state of the car and the mode in
00:11:08
which it drives. And that's what you're
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doing in your brain as you scroll
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through these things is you're you're
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scrolling your one minute something
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makes you feel happy and then it makes
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you feel sad. Then you feel a bit
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anxious, then you feel a bit lonely,
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then you feel inspired and motivated and
00:11:20
motivated and motivated and then you
00:11:22
feel a bit angry and joyful and then
00:11:24
confused and envious. And your brain, it
00:11:26
can't deal with this level of
00:11:28
stimulation. And so what it does is it
00:11:30
gives you these weird disorders that
00:11:32
that make you the basically it's kind of
00:11:34
its way of like it's like a signal. And
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I'll leave you with this in closing. If
00:11:38
you have mental health problems or if
00:11:40
you have depression or anxiety, it's
00:11:43
worth considering that an emotional
00:11:45
state doesn't just come out of nowhere.
00:11:48
You're not just born with depression and
00:11:49
you're not just born with anxiety. You
00:11:51
might be born with um neurochemical
00:11:54
proclivities towards those diseases, but
00:11:56
the emotional state of feeling that way
00:11:58
I believe you're you're not you're not
00:12:00
born with. A lot of people disagree with
00:12:01
me, but that's just my opinion. There is
00:12:03
science to back whatever you get my
00:12:05
point, right? I'm not being binary here.
00:12:07
But your emotional state is an output.
00:12:10
It is a production. And as Newton said,
00:12:14
for every action there is an opposite
00:12:15
and equal reaction. So we can imagine
00:12:17
that our emotional state is effectively
00:12:19
a reaction which means that something
00:12:20
had to happen for that to happen. Things
00:12:22
don't you don't just produce emotions
00:12:24
for no for no reason. Now you might do
00:12:26
if you've got like chronic schizophrenia
00:12:28
or you know you've got some real
00:12:29
problems but you probably don't have
00:12:31
those issues. And it's worth considering
00:12:34
that the output of your brain which is
00:12:37
your emotional state is the result of an
00:12:39
input which is the the only input that
00:12:42
our brain has to produce outputs is
00:12:44
information from our environment.
00:12:46
sensory information that our senses, you
00:12:50
know, like it projects into our senses.
00:12:52
We digest that in our brain and our
00:12:53
brain produces these outputs and our
00:12:54
behavior. And your behavior is dictated
00:12:57
by your emotions as well, which is a
00:12:58
whole another thing. And so, just think
00:13:00
about this for a second. Has it ever
00:13:02
occurred to you that the reason that
00:13:03
you're so emotionally is because
00:13:04
of what you're consuming? It's like, you
00:13:07
know, it doesn't take much of a genius.
00:13:09
go and go and binge watch like a really
00:13:11
really sad emotional TV series for a day
00:13:15
and see what happens to your brain. Like
00:13:16
you get you can temporarily contract
00:13:18
like depression and like become
00:13:21
chronically sad if you watch too much
00:13:23
sad stuff. Of course, how the hell of
00:13:25
course it makes sense. Like, you know,
00:13:27
if you if you spend your entire day um
00:13:30
watching content about, you know, um the
00:13:34
Holocaust and you know, every tragedy
00:13:36
under the sun, then you're going to end
00:13:38
that day feeling very, very sad and
00:13:40
you're going to have an a depression
00:13:41
hangover, basically. And this is it
00:13:44
should become as no surprise to you, but
00:13:46
the reason short form content is so
00:13:47
deadly is because it forces your brain
00:13:49
to deal with multiple emotions at once.
00:13:51
And it forces your brain to break down
00:13:54
these chemicals and deal with different
00:13:56
things and and that's how you become ill
00:13:58
and that's how you become sensitive. And
00:14:00
you know how easy people are to trigger
00:14:02
these days where it doesn't you can just
00:14:04
it's just like you can almost just poke
00:14:06
them in the axiom and what by axium I
00:14:07
mean like a belief system like a oh like
00:14:10
you know any any just insert a political
00:14:12
statement here people will just fly off
00:14:14
a handle. That's not normal. It's not.
00:14:17
And the same thing with how some people
00:14:20
these days like you know the the
00:14:22
slightest smallest thing can set them
00:14:24
off into tears or the slightest smallest
00:14:27
thing can just give them a panic attack.
00:14:28
Like this is not normal. Like your brain
00:14:32
is pretty emotionally robust and it's
00:14:34
it's not built to, you know, have these
00:14:35
issues. Some people do by default, sure,
00:14:38
but you're probably not one of those
00:14:40
people. And so if you are sensitive to
00:14:42
emotions and you're highly sensitive to
00:14:44
emotional turbulence, all these mental
00:14:46
health disorders, then remove short form
00:14:48
content because it's not doing you any
00:14:50
good. And if you keep scrolling through
00:14:52
it, then as far as I'm concerned, you're
00:14:54
just an idiot. And I don't want to judge
00:14:55
you, but a lot of people, what the hell?
00:14:58
How the hell what do you expect to
00:15:00
happen? Right? Anyway, that's it.
00:15:02
Together.
