A newsletter for people committed to raising kind, competent children in the digital age.
Is short-form video affecting your kid's focus?
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Hi Reader, 47 seconds. That’s about how long we stay on one screen before switching to something else, according to UC Irvine researcher Gloria Mark. When she started measuring in 2004, it was two and a half minutes. Now think about what our kids practice every time they open TikTok, Reels, or YouTube Shorts. Swipe. Something new. Swipe. Something new. Every few seconds, the brain gets a fresh hit of something new, and it never has to stay with anything slow or boring. That practice seems to show up in the research. A 2025 meta-analysis of 71 studies and nearly 100,000 people found that heavier short-form video use was linked to weaker attention and weaker inhibitory control, which is the ability to pause before acting on an impulse. Those two had the strongest associations in the whole analysis. One important caveat: this research is correlational. We can’t say short form videos cause attention problems. It’s just as likely that kids who already struggle to focus are drawn to fast, frictionless content. For kids with ADHD, that’s the heart of the issue. The kids whose attention systems are already working hardest are the ones most pulled toward the feed, and the feed trains the opposite of what school, reading, and conversation ask of them. So what do we do? We don’t panic, and we don’t ban everything. We protect some slow time:
This is exactly the kind of practical, judgment-free approach I cover in my session, “Wired Differently: Using Tech Intentionally With Your Child,” at the ADHD & Executive Function Summit. It’s a free online event. By signing up, you get access to interviews of 30+ experts to watch on your own time. The summit runs from October 5-11, but spots are limited, so sign up now. In Partnership, Dr. Rupa P.S. My Tech Ready course - Digital Driver's Ed for tweens and their parents - is here to guide you through the tough conversations when you are ready! Tech Positive Parenting, LLC 15466 Los Gatos Blvd, Suite 109-197 Los Gatos, CA 95032 |
Tech Positive Parenting
A newsletter for people committed to raising kind, competent children in the digital age.
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