No, not at all. And there are more tools than ever to monitor, track, and notify high usage.

PEBKAC or whatever the modern equivalent is these days.

I just avoid shorts or reels or whatever personally. They're short and engaging making it easy to lose track of time.

But yeah you're 100% right my parents (late 50s) have started doing it a lot. I've noticed a lot of teenagers do as well.

I've marked "not interested" on all shorts I've seen, and they were all gone in like 10 minutes.

It seems to also be a switching task issue in our minds. These changes of states takes more effort than playing the next video does or just keeping on what we are doing. It's so much easier for us to keep playing the digital dopamine slot machine that, TikTok, instagram reels, Facebook and YouTube short videos provide.

From a business sense they want to keep your attention, from a biology sense we are safe and don't see a need to move with the random rewards another quick video offers.

It's amazing how well they have refined getting and keeping our attention. We also get rewarded with dopamine from the anticipation of the next story or short video. It gets we don't even really need the next video, just the anticipation is enough to reward us with more dopamine.

I've read doing a simple reverse mental countdown of 5-4-3-2-1 blast off helps us switch gears from another part of the brain. It can also help us get out of bed or off the couch.

This reminds me of "Gum's Gotten Mintier Lately. Have You Noticed?"

Can't say I agree with your example, but I agree in general with the idea. Shorts suck.

100% agree. Same experience here with YouTube and YouTube shorts. I waste far too much time there.

My dad, a boomer, has been watching videos, reading news and listicles, and playing games on his phone more and more lately. 10 years ago, he was still using a flip phone, and just a few years ago (and tbh even still today) needs help using/navigating his phone and there internet.

But yeah, I’ve noticed him getting sucked into it - he probably uses his phone more than I use mine, since I’m on my computer more than my phone (unless we count my phone playing my music in the car and while at work, but that’s not exactly the phone use we’re talking about, so I wouldn’t include that rn).

Similarly, my grandparents, also boomers, are doing more on their phones all the time. For boomers specifically, it could have a little to do with retiring during this age of technology and finally having the time to explore something that seems more difficult for them to grasp.

TLDR: big word dump to echo the sentiment and show that I’m experiencing the same things as you.

Hey, if it's fun/interesting/informative it seems fine to me. If you're turning into a drooling maga zombie watching rage bait then that's on you.

I spend way too much time on Lemmy and YouTube, but I'm not mindlessly scrolling. I'm hunting for specific content.

Install Youtube ReVanced and disable shorts altogether! Doing that saved me years of lifetime haha

I don't watch shorts, for this reason. I tried them when they first started and noticed I was just scrolling video after video, so I stopped watching them. I don't have addiction issues, though.

I've found I've used my phone a lot less, but it might be because I prefer either longer, more essay structured videos, or a good half hour unscripted comedy bit (podcast, video game, whatever). I don't even bother with a lot of stuff under 10 minutes unless it's something like an animation or a skit where that time would be unreasonable. Still though, they're from channels I know, and aren't ones I'm randomly being served. I've gotten more into TV recently because if it, and I read manga when I have a little bit of downtime.

Still though, the way popular web video has gone, it's funny remembering YouTube nuking short videos a decade back when they changed the revenue structure. They already had the videos being made on their platform and actively discouraged them.