Can’t wait for time to Tick-Tock; need TikTok

One of today’s New York Times articles discussed the decline of some of the top social media apps.

What particularly stood out was the quote: “Meta’s cash-cow social media apps — Facebook and Instagram — are in decline, with younger users abandoning them for apps like TikTok.”

So what is so great about TikTok? The article continues: “TikTok has what every social media company wants — a big, engaged user base, a format that keeps people scrolling for hours and an iron grip on youth culture and the entertainment industry.”

I’m sure many of us have noticed a social trend toward “shorter, sweeter videos.” I for one love watching “summaries” of films on YouTube; I just don’t have time to watch full-length movies anymore. Yet watching TikTok clips, I can go on for hours — almost the same amount of time as a good old movie!

Are we simply losing attention span? Or is this a psychological thing, where we think we made a more efficient use of our time (to relax, ironically) when we’ve watched multiple, short clips vs. a long feature film? Or is it just an addiction to quick and fast shorts?

Regardless, what does this suggest for video games? What are the implications for long, story-based games that take hours, days, perhaps even weeks to complete? Games that come to mind are Limbo, Little Nightmares, or Rusty Lake games. Would they die off like Facebook and Instagram and become replaced by shorter, bursts-of-stimuli games?

Link to article: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/26/briefing/social-media-twitter.html