The American Psychological Association (APA) has uncovered tangible connections between short-form social media feeds and negative mental health outcomes. In a sweeping study, the professional organization linked the consumption of those short-form videos (dubbed “SFVs” in the report) to an array of cognitive and behavioral issues.
The APA structured its study as a meta-analysis that incorporated findings from 71 different studies. Through that setup, the researchers were able to synthesize data from more than 98,000 participants.
For the parents who are screaming from the rooftops about the danger screens pose to both teens and adults, the APA’s findings are validating. Across the 71 studies, there were consistent negative correlations between excessive short-form video consumption and a variety of ills. “According to this framework, repeated exposure to highly stimulating, fast-paced content may contribute to habituation, in which users become desensitized to slower, more effortful cognitive tasks such as reading, problem solving, or deep learning,” reads the report.
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The researchers separated the studied effects into two categories. The cognitive domain covered outcomes related to attention, memory, and reasoning, while the mental health domain included topics like anxiety, stress, sleep quality, and overall wellbeing.
On the whole, the most significant effects occurred within the cognitive domain. Frequent short-form video viewership was most significantly linked to issues with inhibitory control, with attention issues ranking second on that axis. As for the mental health domain, the most significant negative effects concerned anxiety and stress.
In some cases, there was no perceptible negative correlation between short-form video consumption and undesirable outcomes. For example, despite a lot of hullabaloo regarding social media’s effect on teenage body image and self-esteem, those topics produced negligible correlations in the APA study. Researchers hypothesized that the “diverse content and creators featured on these platforms” may have alleviated potential effects.
So while the study may provide evidence for those who believe that figurative brainrot begets literal cognitive issues, it also offers counterarguments to that position. Social media feeds can definitely be linked to mental health issues, but that link doesn’t tell the whole story. To get a bigger picture, we’ll need to see some more studies — just like the one that recently examined mental health outcomes among creators.
