Last week, I reheated my coffee for the third time. The oven was not the problem. I just kept getting sucked into Instagram reels. Funny enough, but there are several messages hidden in this scenario. Interesting thing is also that I had seen about 50-60 reels, but I don’t remember any of them clearly. And I know many of us can relate to this type of situation.
We unlock our mobile to spend 2-5 minutes, and somehow end up spending half an hour or even several hours scrolling through reels/shorts. I’ve also seen people just scrolling, not even watching the 10-15 second reel they’ve opened. And what I do is quite strange, watching them at 2x speed, just ending every 10-15 seconds in less time. Meaning that we do not want to pay too much attention to the smallest second. It’s become a kind of habit that we can’t seem to get out of, which is actually a little scary.
This issue is bigger than just thinking of it as entertainment. Youngsters in particular spend hours watching reels as well, burying their ability to pay proper attention and think. It’s as if we are seeing what the algorithm is showing us, but are swallowing it with our eyes.