I've heard the causation goes the other way for ADHD.
TV and TikTok don't cause ADHD. They're products that arise to exploit people's attention, and they work excellently on people with poor executive function. TV doesn't cause ADHD, ADHD causes TV.
You can probably train attention span, and there are ways to cope with ADHD (I cope pretty well, and I have only mild symptoms), but it's measurable and it's genetic.
I guess you and I would agree on the conclusion - Treat social media like any other addictive drug: Regulate it, don't let kids get hooked on it, maybe even discourage adults from abusing it.
I think a lot of it comes down to, video and human faces exploit something deep in your brain. Maybe Hacker News just feels high-brow to me because there aren't image macros and constant ":O" clickbait thumbnails like some other sites.
I don't know, the vast majority of teens are users of TikTok, and attention spans are undoubtedly decreasing across the board. Everyone. Yet I don't think the majority of the population had ADHD previously. If the incidence of ADHD was really like the 4-8% in the medical literature, then we would see 4-8% of teens hooked to TikTok, but no, it's a majority (>50%) of teens that are hooked to Tiktok/youtube/instagram.
I could see it go either way, but I think it's important to distinguish that apps/platforms that exploit short attention spans don't exclusively have effect on people with ADHD (nor do all ADHD-diagnosed people neccesarily use TikTok). There's a number of reasons why people might want to seek out short-form content; they're on the go, they can't focus at the precise moment they want to peruse social media, or they want to blow by a huge amount of diverse content in a short amount of time.
That being said, I despise TikTok personally and would even go as far as to say that these short-form content platforms are reinforcing lower attention spans, but does it cause ADHD? I think that's a stretch. What's more likely is that it turns susceptible individuals into "whales" who sink time into it like nobody else. Not just ADHD folks, but those who are lonely or lack socialization too.
TV and TikTok don't cause ADHD. They're products that arise to exploit people's attention, and they work excellently on people with poor executive function. TV doesn't cause ADHD, ADHD causes TV.
You can probably train attention span, and there are ways to cope with ADHD (I cope pretty well, and I have only mild symptoms), but it's measurable and it's genetic.
I guess you and I would agree on the conclusion - Treat social media like any other addictive drug: Regulate it, don't let kids get hooked on it, maybe even discourage adults from abusing it.
I think a lot of it comes down to, video and human faces exploit something deep in your brain. Maybe Hacker News just feels high-brow to me because there aren't image macros and constant ":O" clickbait thumbnails like some other sites.