I'm so Tired of TikTok

YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, TikToks... My goodness, these stupid little videos are addictive. You can just scroll from one right into the next infinitely, wasting away minutes, then hours. It's like eating pizza rolls--because they're bite sized, you don't realize that you've actually have six servings until you're laying in bed that night with acid reflux and regret.

I never downloaded TikTok because I have heard so many people talk about what a time waster it is. Besides that, my impression of the platform was that it was mostly teenagers talking about mental illness and doing dance challenges. That doesn't sound particularly interesting to me. But the platform has exploded, and now it's not just Gen Zs and Gen Alphas using it. There are moms making bentos for their kids, nutritionists and dermatologists giving health and beauty advice, and popular millennial youtubers posting their own original short-form content. I still haven't downloaded the app, though, because I don't want to waste my time being sucked into an intentionally addictive algorithm.

But it doesn't matter. Short form content is now the king of the internet. We saw it coming with the novelty of Vine in the mid-2010s, and now it's here in full. Every platform has its own bottomless pit of videos less than two minutes long, and they're advertised to you right in the middle of your usual content feed. On my YouTube homepage, I see two lines of normal length content, then a full row of tantalizing, clickbait Shorts. On Instagram, I only have to scroll through about 7 posts on my feed before I'm offered a line of Reels that I can snort. Unfortunately, I am not immune to this advertisement. I see some short video clip that looks intriguing (a tasty mug cake recipe, a unique makeup look, advice from an OBGYN on how best to exercise while pregnant, etc.) and invariably, I click. My time is whittled away into nothing, and suddenly it's one am.

The most annoying thing about all of this, though, is the obnoxious, repetitive, often irrelevant, "trending" audio clips that are put over every stupid video! I know two lines of Sam Smith's song "Unholy" because they keep using it in Instagram Reels that have nothing to do with an adulterous father. It's so frustrating to have ten seconds of a song you've never listened to stuck in your head because some baker wanted to seem hip and cool in their cake icing video. It almost feels like music artists purposely write these "relatable" lines into their songs in the hopes that it will become a trend on TikTok. "It's me, hi, I'm the problem it's me," seems like a quote from an old Vine already, so it's almost impossible to imagine that Taylor Swift didn't write those lyrics knowing that a million people would use them in their dog-shaming or self-deprecating TikToks. It feels like there's no genuine creation anymore, just viral internet trend bait.

I need to practice more self control so that I quit falling for the catchy YouTube Shorts titles and the fascinating Instagram Reel clips that I scroll past while pursuing the content that I actually wish to see. If I don't fall into the Instagram Reel pit, I probably spend less than thirty minutes on the platform each day. I use YouTube a lot, but I'd rather watch one thirty minute video that's trying to make a point than thirty two-minute videos that just recycle the same memes and jokes and audio clips until everything swirls together into an undistinguishable mush. I long for the return of long-form supremacy but in the meantime, I'm going to stop the endless scroll of short-form content, at least, until I see a thumbnail that really catches my eye.