A field experiment paid thousands of people to give up Facebook and Instagram, and then the researchers tracked where their time went. The answer wasn't TikTok or Snapchat. It was games, YouTube, and the outside world.
Very interesting article although YouTube also developed the “reel function” which mirrors more or less what we all see on Facebook and instagram. Probably an interesting question would be what was the average time the user had on each single video to check whether he was just “simulating” the instagram environment or if he rather switched behavior completely.
I don't know that it wasn't an option, but it may not have been a statistically significant result in their sample. The results presented in the table above show diversion locations that are statistically different from 0.
One of my hypotheses right now is that genAI might end the posting style of social media as you no longer can tell if this was made by the poster or just genAI. I've seen Twitter bots talk to each other, and then I started to ask myself, why am I here.
Youtube also has the feature called 'Youtube shorts' - very similar to what reels are to Instagram. When the shift from Instagram to Youtube is happening, it is important to distinguish whether the users are preferring to watch long form content or just found another alternative to reels with shorts.
I really enjoyed the article thanks! I’ve been using a device called brick that allows me to block the social media apps and not use them at all, it’s been very helpful but I did realize I start using other apps when not using social media like a sudoku app and checking my email more than necessary 😂
According to Netflix’s co CEO Reed Hastings their biggest competitor is sleep. In the attention economy no part of the day is off limits. It’s easy to say their competition is HBO max or Hulu, but it’s more likely Spotify and Instagram.
Instagram is basically a shopping app at this point. It was easy for me to cut back. Sometimes I still go on there but I feel no pain at having reduced my time on there and don’t feel the absence in my life. It was also easy because I really don’t like watching videos on my phone. I liked it when it was photos. If I want TV, I use my TV. Otherwise I read. Don’t like videos on substack either.
Interesting, but only a 30 day follow up period if I read that correctly. Would also be interesting to know if / how that redistributed attention changed over a much longer period of time.
I’m on a social media as an app fast. I still access it from my laptop but I am less likely to scroll there. So far I have replaced my social media scrolling with reading articles on Substack (here). I went from 14 hours on average to 4 hours on average of social media use when I deleted the apps. Time will tell if it’s something I can stick to.
Instagram hasn't been just an app for sharing photos and videos of people you know in real life for a long time now. I'd say that's only a tiny fraction of the content. YouTube isn't all that different. Especially with YouTube Shorts, it probably gives you the same dopamine rush as Instagram.
Very interesting article although YouTube also developed the “reel function” which mirrors more or less what we all see on Facebook and instagram. Probably an interesting question would be what was the average time the user had on each single video to check whether he was just “simulating” the instagram environment or if he rather switched behavior completely.
Why is Substack not an option? I left Meta and most of that time goes to Substack now. And reading books.
I don't know that it wasn't an option, but it may not have been a statistically significant result in their sample. The results presented in the table above show diversion locations that are statistically different from 0.
One of my hypotheses right now is that genAI might end the posting style of social media as you no longer can tell if this was made by the poster or just genAI. I've seen Twitter bots talk to each other, and then I started to ask myself, why am I here.
Youtube also has the feature called 'Youtube shorts' - very similar to what reels are to Instagram. When the shift from Instagram to Youtube is happening, it is important to distinguish whether the users are preferring to watch long form content or just found another alternative to reels with shorts.
I only use YouTube out of everything on that list. I consider my self fortunate and i plan on keeping it that way.
I rely far too heavily on timers, or else I will waste all my time on my phone.
I am lucky. I get bored of my phone and start writing and reading. Starting a film company has freed me from those shackles permanently.
I really enjoyed the article thanks! I’ve been using a device called brick that allows me to block the social media apps and not use them at all, it’s been very helpful but I did realize I start using other apps when not using social media like a sudoku app and checking my email more than necessary 😂
I'm definitely on LinkedIn more than before after cutting out some apps. I think I'm still down overall, though.
According to Netflix’s co CEO Reed Hastings their biggest competitor is sleep. In the attention economy no part of the day is off limits. It’s easy to say their competition is HBO max or Hulu, but it’s more likely Spotify and Instagram.
That's a great example. I completely forgot about him saying that.
Thanks for the article, I enjoyed thinking through this
My new spare time goes to Substack and playing Colonist
Instagram is basically a shopping app at this point. It was easy for me to cut back. Sometimes I still go on there but I feel no pain at having reduced my time on there and don’t feel the absence in my life. It was also easy because I really don’t like watching videos on my phone. I liked it when it was photos. If I want TV, I use my TV. Otherwise I read. Don’t like videos on substack either.
Interesting, but only a 30 day follow up period if I read that correctly. Would also be interesting to know if / how that redistributed attention changed over a much longer period of time.
I’m on a social media as an app fast. I still access it from my laptop but I am less likely to scroll there. So far I have replaced my social media scrolling with reading articles on Substack (here). I went from 14 hours on average to 4 hours on average of social media use when I deleted the apps. Time will tell if it’s something I can stick to.
When I have up tiktok for a bit, I got real into LinkedIn. It was a weird few weeks.
Oh that’s really weird! I do tend to check my email way more than before. 🙂↔️
I went to Pixelfed, but that's more of an anti-Zuckerberg thing
I had never heard of this before. Thanks for sharing!
Instagram hasn't been just an app for sharing photos and videos of people you know in real life for a long time now. I'd say that's only a tiny fraction of the content. YouTube isn't all that different. Especially with YouTube Shorts, it probably gives you the same dopamine rush as Instagram.
Properly interesting! Thanks very much
https://substack.com/@theaudienceedit/note/c-240708840?r=6md23n&utm_source=notes-share-action&utm_medium=web
(1) If a person uses TikTok, s/he is not an adult by definition. So that percentage should be set to 0.
(2) I wonder how much of that time with friends was spent looking at someone else's phone showing social media apps.