Reeling Us In
Many years ago, I felt the power of Vine. I’d even go on to YouTube to watch compilations of the six second videos stitched together.
After being acquired by Twitter, Vine died without it realizing the fruit of its invention. Sure, it had 200 Million users but the impact would come much later when major social platforms and TikTok would come out with their own short videos.
The allure is fantastic. People get to the point faster and they are punchy, entertaining, and often funny. They are like a shorted version of Mr. Beast videos (except for the short videos that Mr. Beast makes as well).
What I worry is that shorts and reels fill in the attention gap that would normally cause people to leave apps and sites and do more productive things with their time. They are the fatty, salty, sweet equivalent of attention. In the food industry, they’d call it “craveability”.
Worse, and now I may sound like an old curmudgeon, is that these videos and entertainment are the baseline for children consuming media today. What will happen to our attention and focus on unpacking complicated problems?
There is an opportunity to help develop this skill and those who do will be the ones who lead.
