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TikTok has turned culture into a feedback loop of impulse and machine learning

(www.thenexus.media)
292 points natalie3p | 8 comments | 10 Sep 25 16:08 UTC | HN request time: 0.482s | source | bottom
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keiferski ◴[10 Sep 25 16:33 UTC] No.45200147[source]▶
Too simple of a narrative. At the same time, YouTube videos are getting longer, and people are watching more YouTube videos on TVs than on mobile devices:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradadgate/2025/02/12/launched-...

So I think we're seeing more of a bifurcation: in-depth longform videos are becoming 30, 40, 60, even 90 minutes long, whereas anything shorter than 10 minutes is being compressed to 30-60 seconds. The most popular video creators are doing both; even MrBeast routinely has videos over 30 minutes long.

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1. crazygringo ◴[10 Sep 25 16:35 UTC] No.45200188[source]▶
Came here to say exactly this. People also listen to individual podcast episodes that clock in at 2 or 3 hours, and are hugely popular.

Movies are getting longer at the cinema too -- what used to be 85 minutes is now 150 minutes.

TikTok has not "won" at all. There's a place for content of all different lengths. The death of the attention span has been greatly exaggerated.

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2. jollyllama ◴[10 Sep 25 16:40 UTC] No.45200271[source]▶
I suppose if I have to share the earth/air/roads with the brainrot plebs, they might as well subsidize my ad-free consumption of long-form podcasts hosted on YouTube.
3. forgotoldacc ◴[10 Sep 25 16:44 UTC] No.45200351[source]▶
With movies, I feel like that's a bit of return to form. I know lots of older greats were around 2-3 hours in length, and I feel like things moved to 90 minutes basically overnight around the 2000s. Though I feel like a lot of long recent movies are more padded, while older 2+ hour movies felt like they had to cut content to make it a reasonable length.
4. koolba ◴[10 Sep 25 16:46 UTC] No.45200386[source]▶
> The death of the attention span has been greatly exaggerated.

Spend 15 minutes with the median 7-30 year old and you’ll think differently. Yes it’s not everybody. But it’s clearly most of them.

5. rglullis ◴[10 Sep 25 16:46 UTC] No.45200388[source]▶
These are definitely not the same. How many people are actually paying full attention to a 3 hour podcast?

The majority will be listening to it while on their commute, or at the gym, or doing chores around the house. My wife (a civil engineer) has a podcast going in the background even while working. I asked her how she actually manages to pay attention to it and she says that it's mostly for the background noise.

> Movies are getting longer at the cinema too -- what used to be 85 minutes is now 150 minutes.

Because these movies are not made for the cinema anymore, but for streaming platforms, where people can consume in the same way they consume their podcasts.

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6. crazygringo ◴[10 Sep 25 16:50 UTC] No.45200442[source]▶
When I do chores or shower or commute, I'm paying attention. It's not background noise. The people are saying interesting things about interesting subjects. If I wanted background noise I'd put on music.

Just because one person uses a podcast as background noise, doesn't mean everybody else is.

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7. loloquwowndueo ◴[10 Sep 25 17:30 UTC] No.45200984{3}[source]▶
> If I wanted background noise I'd put on music.

My dude you’re using music wrong. Noise generators do exist - you can even pick a color for your noise!

8. mystifyingpoi ◴[10 Sep 25 17:39 UTC] No.45201120[source]▶
> where people can consume in the same way they consume their podcasts

It even has a name - "second-monitoring".