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With reels — a short-form video format widely seen as a response to TikTok — now available on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, social media platforms are advancing in their capacity to rapidly disseminate vast amounts of information to users in less than 30 seconds.
While it may seem like a convenience to have such an array of information at your fingertips, how would it impact a media user’s mental health to have social media consumed at even faster rates?
Before TikTok and the rise of reels, studies — including those conducted by the National Library of Medicine (NIH) — indicated that while social media platforms can boost moods via connection to others, the apps were still linked to increased mental health issues and symptoms of attention deficit disorder (ADHD).
“(Social Media) puts an impact on certain young people, causing them to start comparing their accomplishments, aptitudes, or looks negatively. Studies have connected upper levels of social networking comparison to the depressive symptoms of adolescents,” an NIH article Reviewing the Impact of Social Media on the Mental Health of Adolescents and Young Adults found.
While ADHD symptoms and mental health concerns have been commonly studied in regard to social media, today’s reels bring an entirely new arena to users’ minds with an even more rapid consumption of media.
“While I haven’t had TikTok since the pandemic, I quickly learned that every app has its own version of short videos like Instagram reels, and YouTube shorts,” Kayla Shelly said. “I find it difficult to sit through long lectures in classrooms as a direct result of my lowered attention span from spending countless hours watching Instagram reels and falling into the scrolling death trap.
“It feels inescapable.”
Dr. Cara Greene, Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy at CC, has extensively studied political philosophy and critical theory, including philosophies of “alienation” in the modern world.
Greene suggests that social media platforms’ style of communication may desensitize users to intense or traumatic content, like images from the Gaza–Israel conflict, by juxtaposing it quickly with ads or cute cat videos.
“Digital communication translates an inconceivable phenomenon like climate change into bite-size units,” Greene said. “Pieces of information like this can be easily communicated as if it were the same kind of phenomenon as more mundane entertainment.”
According to Greene, rapid consumption of stimuli on social media may lead users to develop a “blasé” attitude (reduced emotional engagement or a sense of detachment) as a protective mechanism against this constant influx of stimuli.
Greene compared this phenomenon to the “blasé” attitude that some city dwellers may develop as a result of the excessive sounds, smells, and sights surrounding them in places like New York City.
“City dwellers are confronted with a huge amount of stimuli: colors, sounds, movements, and demands on their work and social lives,” Greene said. “To maintain a kind of subjective homeostasis, people have to put on this kind of affective armor to not be affected by all of that stimuli in a way that gets in the way with their daily functioning.”
Colorado College students reiterated concerns they have felt from reels on various social media apps, including Greene’s proposals about unintentionally developing blasé attitudes to harsh media.
CC junior Olivia Burkley expressed concerns about mundane ads being placed next to videos of war.
“TikTok definitely concerns me,” Burkley said. “I think it desensitizes people in an unhealthy way. It’s incredibly distressing to see videos of influencers promoting overconsumption followed by videos of war and political propaganda.”
CC sophomore Sabra Catalano shared similar sentiments to Burkley.
“It is jarring to go from something like a fashion or funny post to seeing a post about the war,” Catalano said. “It has desensitized me to the things that are difficult to say.”
CC sophomore Chris Whalen shared that while social media has personal benefits when it comes to raising awareness for issues, community organizing or staying in touch, it is still concerning to see intense media next to day-to-day media.
“I think it’s a lot harder for me to see people post on Instagram about Gaza or other horrific things that are happening and then post a picture of their 5-star restaurant meal or like them doing extravagant things, you know? That just feels so insensitive to me,” Whalen said.
According to Greene, however, younger generations like Generation Z — despite their increased exposure to social media — may be more equipped to reject its effects from their heightened awareness and exposure to the apps.
“I think that because of the intimate knowledge of social media that Gen Z has, they have the kind of granular, insight into how to they push back against the apparatus of social media,” Greene said.
Younger individuals like Burkely have decided to stay off of the apps altogether after gaining awareness of their harmful effects.
“I think social media has largely defined Gen Z as a whole,” Burkely said. “Overall, social media has been negative for my mental health. I decided to stop using Snapchat and Instagram in high school. I haven’t posted on my personal Instagram since 2018.”
While the reels may keep spinning, the voices of Colorado College students echo a collective unease about the potential desensitization fostered by these platforms, and how active users and younger generations will be affected by these condensed media hubs.
“On one hand, I think Gen Z spends too much time on social media and it has had a profound impact on our generation but I don’t know if it’s fair or plausible for us to all ‘get off social media,’” Whalen said. “It seems too ingrained in us and the world at this point for us to ‘go back’ to a time without it.”
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