September 19, 2026
You hear it everywhere: on the train, walking in public, your friends’ homes. A soft din of short sound bites following one after another, each long enough to provide a distinct experience and no more, each building an image of a wider aesthetic before being swiped away. Each requires the smallest available unit of the viewers’ time such that all their interstitial moments may be consumed. This is the final form of media consumption in itself, consuming just for the act of it, the same as a man at a buffet eating to bursting, not concerned with taste or nutrition but simply variety.
It is not enough to say that it is unnatural to take in information in this form; plenty of what we do defies nature, and we need not necessarily privilege nature. However, it is different when an act takes advantage of our pre-existing natural desires and repurposes them for different ends. We are social animals; observations of hunter-gatherers reveal that absent modernity we would spend most free time in social activity. This social activity primarily involves the exchange of information regarding the mundane. Repeated exposure to clips does the same absent actual interaction. Furthermore, physical discussion involves both more lengthy buy in and active listening - reducing this act atrophies those muscles. As well, there is an instant gratification involved in swiping from video to video which the material world does not. As one comes to expect gratification such as this in one avenue, they seek it in others such that the world is remade in the face of these substandard desires.
These changes come in the form of other media: movie scenes becoming shorter, BookTok becoming more popular, museums becoming more immersive, and so on. However, the most harrowing is the reorientation of our lives around pure pleasure. That experiencing more and more transcendent events becomes a necessity. It is not good enough to try a dish, one must go to the best place for it. One must find the best photographic view, go to the most exciting concert. We begin to revolve around pleasure maximization. As the pace of the hedonic treadmill increases, everyone is stuck keeping up with each other. Who wants to be the schmuck who didn’t see the Folklore tour? As these experiences have a limited supply, competition becomes more fierce and we spend more resources (waiting in line, etc.) to pursue pleasure rather than finding it in everyday life.
These short form videos reorient our minds around maximizing pleasure which then changes the shape of the real world. We ought to find the beauty all around us.