Claim: Tiktok is making attention spans shorter

Question

https://www.arcurrent.com/opinion/2022/03/25/tiktok-is-shrinking-our-attention-span-with-every-swipe/

I find that when sitting down to do homework or something, my attention span runs out much quicker than it used to. I'm interested in seeing if apps like TikTok and the maximum length of videos being 1-3 minutes has trained people who use this app frequently to lose interest in things longer than that amount of time. There seems to be a little bit of back and forth about whether more people are getting diagnosed with ADHD now than before or if apps like TikTok is the issue.

Comments

@cocopeachhh @amtapia1 nice work on your fact-checks. You've included an explanation and source links. Don't forget to add a rating, such as "true, not misinformation." For more information on ratings, please see the sidebar of this page.

---

I do think that TikTok has an effect on people's attention span, however it is not as dire or drastic as we think. Personally, I do not have the app, but I find myself browsing other social media sites more than I should. Most grown adults are not on the app as much as young adults and kids. This may be due to lack of discipline.
I included an article that explains more: https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/34138/20211025/tiktok-bad-brain-constant-social-media-streaming-narrows-collective-attention.htm

---

@Jrud future fact-checks, please use the "answer" button rather than "comment" on a claim so that your fact-checks can be upvoted and be chosen as the best answer. Good job providing an explanation and details as well as a source link. Don't forget to add a rating next time.

---

I get what you're saying—it's like we’re getting used to content that's bite-sized, so longer tasks, like homework, feel way harder to focus on. TikTok and similar apps train us to expect constant quick rewards, which might make focusing on anything that requires more time seem dull by comparison. There’s debate about whether this is leading to more ADHD diagnoses or if it's just that ADHD is being more widely recognized.

---

I think that the article is mostly correct however the information is travelling through a game of telephone. What I mean by this is that the article is citing an article from "The Science Times" and they are citing most of their information from an article in "The Independent" who cites an actual study that has been done. The research is reliable but most of what the article is saying is information that doesn't come in a reliable way. Instead of citing studies they are citing non-peer reviewed articles.

Answer 1

Although many individuals believe that TikTok and similar short-form video apps are shrinking our attention spans, the science behind this is far from settled and not fully proved. Some research does suggest that frequent heavy viewing of short, fast-paced videos contributes to difficulty remaining focused on longer tasks, and that users themselves have felt more easily distracted. This indicates that TikTok and similar apps may contribute to reduced attention control. But most of the research is correlational — showing a relationship, but not compelling evidence of directly causing shorter attention spans due to TikTok. No large, long-term studies have yet confirmed lasting effects or shown that this is true for everyone who uses TikTok. And this would make the claim that TikTok is “shrinking our attention span with every swipe” understandable, and partly borne out by the earliest evidence, but it remains too strong an assertion to say definitively true for everyone.