"Short-form videos have become one of the dominant ways young people engage with social media. These are clips lasting seconds up to a few minutes, driven by personalized algorithms that are deeply immersive and precisely tailored to users' interests, with endless autoplay and infinite scroll providing no stopping cues. These feature-driven clips are standard in platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts, and are designed to keep attention locked in."
"Across the studies included in the review, higher levels of short-form video use were consistently associated with poorer mental health outcomes, particularly among adolescents and young adults. The most commonly reported associations included: Higher symptoms of negative mood, depression, stress, and anxiety. Higher levels of loneliness and lower emotional well-being. Greater risk of problematic or compulsive use. Lower sleep duration (sleep quality was not measured often)."
Short-form videos are brief, algorithm-curated clips with endless autoplay and infinite scroll that remove stopping cues and create immersive, feature-driven engagement. Platforms decide what users watch next, fostering repeated and often automatic engagement that can shape attention, mood, and motivation, particularly in children and adolescents with developing brains. Seventy studies examined links between short-form video use and mental health, cognition, and well-being and found higher use consistently associated with poorer mental health outcomes. Reported effects include negative mood, depression, stress, anxiety, greater loneliness, lower emotional well-being, increased problematic or compulsive use, and reduced sleep duration, especially when use is frequent or hard to control.
Read at Psychology Today
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