'Electronic Drug' Controversy: "I Just Do This After Work, and It's Making Me Stupid" - Short-Form Videos Draw Attention in China

"Can't stop once you start"
Short-form addiction dubbed "electronic addiction"

Amid growing attention on Chinese social media to the claim that “watching short-form videos frequently lowers your intelligence,” a local expert said it was “a temporary effect caused by dopamine depletion.”

According to Dashang News on October 15, many internet users have recently taken to social media to say that after watching short-form content packed with twists and thrills, they feel mentally foggy but cannot stop watching once they start. They call this “digital addiction.”

Expert: “It’s a temporary effect, not a decline in intelligence”

Dr. Zhou Ying, a clinical psychology professor at Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, said that stimulating elements in short-form videos trigger the continuous release of dopamine, but soon overload the brain. When this process is repeated continuously, it can add to fatigue when handling daily life, studying, or work. Dr. Zhou explained, “Feeling dazed and unable to think does not mean your intelligence has declined. It is because dopamine stores have been depleted, temporarily making it feel as though your concentration and comprehension have weakened.”

As short-form videos have surged in popularity in China, viewing time has also skyrocketed. In August this year, ByteDance apps accounted for 41.8% of the total usage time among the top 50 applications (apps) by monthly online usage time in China. Among them, ByteDance’s dedicated short-form video app Hongguo averaged about 125 minutes of use per day, while Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, averaged about 112 to 120 minutes. These figures far exceeded the 82 to 85 minutes spent on WeChat, the country’s leading messaging app operated by Tencent.

Local internet users voice concerns about short-form video addiction on social media

As short-form videos gain popularity in China, more people are speaking out about their addiction. Screenshot from Hongguo, a Chinese short-form video platform.

Indeed, many users have posted on social media that they spend more than 10 hours a day watching videos on the Hongguo app alone. “I turn it on as soon as I wake up and keep watching until the middle of the night,” one user confessed. Another said, “I wish they would introduce some kind of anti-addiction system into the app itself.”

One university student said that, hoping to break free from AI-generated short-form videos, they spent 1,000 yuan (about 200,000 won) on an e-reader and downloaded 30 classic books. But after reading about two pages, their concentration wandered, and before they knew it, they had reached for their phone. “I used to read 60 works of literature or academic papers in a semester, but since getting hooked on short-form videos, reading has become difficult,” they said. Yang, an office worker, also said that when they get home from work, clothes they have taken off and food delivery containers are scattered around, but they end up lying in bed watching short-form videos.

In response to this trend, some internet users have pointed out that “watching short-form videos continuously undermines concentration and patience” and that “the plots of most short-form videos are similar and contain many logical flaws.” Others, however, countered that “watching short-form videos is simply a personal choice, and these days there are many well-made works with high production values.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.