This type of comment comes up here a lot, but maybe you should show us what exactly you mean?

Because at least for physics and chemistry, those are topics where, in my experience, you need deep, sustained engagement to make any personal progress on them.

Sure, you can probably learn a few fun facts through TikTok but really what's the point?

There are only 24 hours in a day. The hours you spend doomscrolling through - in the best case - fun facts about physics and chemistry are hours you spend not doing anything of value, like learning about actual physics or chemistry.

I get that you don't need to be doing something super productive all the time, what I'm saying is that I think you're fooling yourself if you believe that TikTok and co. are anything more than the shallowest form of entertainment available.

Can you provide a ranking of entertainment from most “deep” to most shallow please since you seem to be an expert on what entertainment is OK to consume?

I'm not, but I do know you'll be on the safe side if you go read a book that challenges you! :)

Do you agree that differences exist and some things can be better for mental and personal growth than others?

I remember lots of things! Like Nile burning some random thing. Or that British physicist talking to the British shit poster lady.

I think you might have a point..

I chuckled at your reply, because there is truth to it. But in all honesty I did learn proper running form from TikTok.

I also did from some American Olympic athlete. I still don’t go running though.

An interesting difference between physics and metaphysics is that in physics people tend to think fact checking their claims is important.

Until recently, both meta and physics thought that fact-checking claims was important.

I think physics folks are still mostly top notch when it comes to physics, but for metaphysics they fail like everyone else of course.

Aha sorry, it was a play on words. "Meta" the company just fired their fact-checking team, hence the tongue-in-cheek comment

Even if it is recipes and chemistry it's the format that's the issue, it still fries your dopamine and lowers your attention span.

I don't think it's any worse than any other form of media (like reading comments on hacker news instead of reading the article)

It is much worse lol

Videos cram so much stimulation over such a short period of time

Text you still have to read

Or, to spin it around -- given a standard, naive population, why are video platforms so much more successful than text ones?

Hypothesis: video is more addiction, regardless of content

Except I can read much faster than a video can convey information to me, almost always - I suspect the popularity of video to deliver information at least in some part stems from declining literacy. Whenever I have to watch a poor reader read something, I am honestly amazed they can function at all.

Have you used it?

We might not use HN the same way then...

I frequently give up on reading a thread midway down the page because it's requiring *too much focus*, and, get this, I might even interrupt my break and just go back to work early instead!

I don't think that would ever happen on a neverending infinite scroll of hyperengaging video.

Some of it is that for sure. But you could also make the counter argument about long form content. It doesn’t take 20 minutes to explain how to make a cake.

It doesn't take 30 seconds either.

TikTok has been pushing longer form content for a while. 60-90 seconds is plenty for a recipe

Definitely two sides of the same coin, struggle not to have a YT video playing if I’m alone and doing something else that should be enough for my focus.

That is exactly what TikTok does, they are more popular because their tastes algorithm is even better than Shorts for figuring out what you actually want to watch

For me, in reddit (and hacker news), I tend to actually read the actual video, read the comments, sometimes even leave a comment. Much more time spent on an actual item.

For short videos, it is a continuous stream of video's where a new video is automatically started after the last one. This is what makes shorts so horrible. You are forced to watch a new video every 15s to 1 min. Versus actively deciding yourself how long you look on a particular item. It becomes bad as your brain gets trained to loose interest after 1min.

I'm so tired of the Internet turning into the Internet of Faces. I feel like I see faces plastered all over the Internet now, eager to take only ten minutes to explain one minute of information to me.

Probably not a coincidence that the Internet became a lot less nerdy and cool around the time HD streaming was viable. Modern social media shows that people want the next evolution of TV not books.

I highly recommend turning off the autoplay next video option in YouTube. It will enhance your life.

Don't download titkok. It's like Shorts but works a lot better.

Both are like using slot machines but on tiktok you win (dopamine hit) more often - or at whatever rate the house wants you to.