Every minute of each day, 16,000 videos are uploaded to TikTok, 138.9 million reels are played on Instagram and Facebook and more than 3 million views are generated on YouTube worldwide, according to 2024 data collected by Domo.
Domo, a business intelligence platform, has released a "Data Never Sleeps" report every year since 2013. The report breaks down how much data is created online each minute, and shows that as the internet population keeps rising, the amount of data users are engaging with follows suit.
All of that raises an interesting question: Are we consuming too much content?
Yes, and it's overwhelming us, says psychologist Gloria Mark.
"When we're overwhelmed with processing so much information, our cognitive resources drain. When they drain, our mind gets fatigued," she tells CNBC Make It. Mark is also a Chancellor's professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine.
"There's a part of the mind that's called executive function, and that has the job of keeping us on track. It helps us with decision making, filtering out distractions and sticking to goals. When the mind gets fatigued, executive function just can't do its job."
The type of content you consume matters
Content is an overarching word to describe anything that is created and shared with an audience. This includes art, books, reels on social media and pictures posted to Instagram.
Creating and sharing information isn't novel, Mark notes, but "what is new is the fact that we have access to this content anywhere, anytime."
There's also the matter of the type of content people interact with online. Mark places content in two categories:
- Short-form vs. long-form, based on the length of the information being shared
- Deep vs. shallow, based on how much the content encourages you to think and engage with it
Short-form, shallow content is what people are mainly consuming when they are mindlessly scrolling on social media.
"A lot of things on social media and things we find in short-form content are designed to shock us or to appeal to very basic emotions, like surprise or anger or [humor]," Mark says.
"These basic emotions keep us on a superficial level when we're looking at this information, as opposed to if you pick up a book or you read a long-form article, then you have time to deliberate and you have time to do deeper processing of it."
While mindless scrolling for a few minutes every now and then is harmless, "the problem is we can't pull ourselves out," Mark says.
And overconsumption of short-form, shallow content is shortening our attention spans.
Mark has been studying attention spans since 2004 and, through her research, has discovered that people's attention when looking at a screen went from an average of two and half minutes in 2004 to an average of 47 seconds in 2016 — which is roughly the length of most videos circulating on social media.
Mindless scrolling makes people less interested in reading books
"When you get into this habit of consuming short-form and shallow content, it's really hard to pull out and take a deep dive into consuming books or long-form articles. I've heard this from so many people," Mark says.
Mark offers up some tips for how to spend more time engaging with longer form content:
- Setting aside time for reading and consumption of information that makes you think
- Choosing books or articles that you can get immersed in
- Reading hard copies to avoid getting distracted by your phone
In your pockets of free time, say on the train, instead of reaching for your phone, "try saying hello to someone," Mark says. And when boredom strikes elsewhere, she suggests you meditate or take a walk outside.
Starting is always the hardest part. But once you start, you start building a habit.Maria Paula Colmenares
To keep up with what's going on in the world, but not get bogged down by shallow content, take a page out of Maria Paula Colmenares' book. After struggling with mindless scrolling, the 22-year-old fashion student became more intentional about the media she was consuming.
"Sometimes I was like, 'Oh, what was the last thing that I saw on TikTok? I don't remember.' That's how meaningless it was," she says.
Colmenares, who goes to school in Italy, compared her experience of spending too much time watching social media videos during a summer off to being "stuck in this echo chamber, which ultimately really does alter the way that you perceive reality."
To gain more control of what she was giving her attention to, Colmenares started limiting her time on social media and using tactics like subscribing to newsletters and sifting through Google Scholar to find essays and articles that aligned with her interests. She also started listening to podcasts and audiobooks while she cleaned or went on walks to get herself back into reading.
On TikTok, Colmenares shares her tools for avoiding mindless scrolling and how she's reclaiming her attention these days. Several of her posts have 500,000 views, especially ones that share the articles, podcasts and books she's consumed throughout the week.
And to stick to her new approach to media consumption, she allocates time each day to read engaging books or articles — typically with a cup of tea.
"I have slowed my mind down to the point where I have been able to connect with myself and with other people so much better. I have so much more clarity of mind. It's not that foggy anymore, because I'm not loading it up with so much," Colmenares says.
"Starting is always the hardest part. But once you start, you start building a habit. It becomes easier and easier."
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