Like many of us, I am no stranger to the intoxication of short-form content apps; in the past few years, TikTok has become the primary social media platform for many genz-ers, providing short and snappy content that warps a quick entertainment break into hours of endless doomscrolling. Post-doomscroll, I typically cannot recall the content I absorbed, let alone extract any meaningful and thought-provoking ideas from the shallow and occasionally disturbing posts on my FYP.
TikTok as a vain and numbing entertainment source is nothing new. However, recent research has shown that short-form entertainment risks overarching implications on brain health and concentration, long after we’ve exited the app. One neuroscience study revealed that short TikTok clips activate areas of the brain responsible for addiction and self-control, and can cause significant problems for some users; TikTok fundamentally alters neural pathways in the brain, particularly those controlling attention and the ability to concentrate.
For me, TikTok’s influence has manifested in a particularly irritating context: it has significantly impaired my ability to read. As an English student, this is not ideal and has complicated my studies since A -Levels when the allure of Tiktok took over mainstream entertainment and my screen time. And it seems I am not alone; The Atlantic reports that students at elite colleges such as Princeton and Columbia are perplexed at their professor’s demands they read multiple books a semester, with professors marking a significant decline in their student’s abilities to read and remain diligent whilst reading since the advent of short-form entertainment.
The confusion I have lies in the simple fact that I love to read. I love analysing literature and that passion has driven my educational journey and landed me at St Andrews on one of the best English courses in the country. However, I find reading so much more difficult than I used to, before I had a phone or access to short-form entertainment. As a child, I could read a book in a matter of days; now, taking modules in Comparative Literature and English and set two texts a week, I have to get well ahead in the reading lists before the semester even starts just to finish them on time. I enjoy what I am reading, but my brain just can’t seem to keep up.
The breakdown in reading and the ability to read sensitively is deeply concerning for the future of literature and arts as a whole, particularly when paired with the dawn of AI threatening creative instincts and a cultural decline. People aren’t reading as much as they used to, and this is much more of a serious issue than you may think.
Unlike social media, reading is not just a shallow form of entertainment that we forget about after we close the app; reading invites us to experience empathy for someone in a different position than our own, which throughout history has become an act of rebellion or a tool for social change, from abolitionist writing to contemporary novels. So not only does reading advance our cognitive and critical thinking skills, but has a unique ability to unite people and spark empathy which, in today’s world of rife political division, could not be more indispensable.
Reading is an essential component of a healthy culture and democracy, without which our ability to think critically about information we are fed and to be considerate of others is alarmingly threatened.
Therefore, I encourage you to challenge yourself and set an intention to read more and to read intentionally. I find setting myself times in the day where I am reading and not on my phone has been most successful, as well as reading for 45 minutes at a time before taking a quick break like a walk outside or making a cup of tea. If you’re up for it, you could even try deleting Tiktok for a week and each time you think about opening the app, reach for a book, short story, poem, or a play instead.
I, however, am sticking with the first challenge; as much as I am aware of Tiktok’s consequences and have limited my time on the app, I enjoy those silly thirty minutes scrolling at the end of the day more than I probably should.
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