The Week
By Theara Coleman
August 17, 2023
TikTok’s mind-boggling popularity has led to growing interest in how the social media platform impacts the brain, especially in the kids and teens who populate the app. In addition to concerns about its effects on mental health, some early studies suggest it could be changing their attention spans. The platform hosts an endless stream of bite-size videos, delivering entertaining content in as little as 15 seconds. Young people who binge-watch short-form content like TikTok or Instagram Reels find it harder “to participate in activities that don’t offer instant gratification,” Julie Jargon wrote in The Wall Street Journal, an effect she called “TikTok brain.”