Addiction to TikToks and Instagram Reels? Here’s What It Might Reveal About Your Childhood

TikTok and Instagram addiction

Addiction to TikToks and Instagram Reels: Short form video content like TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts has taken over as the main form of entertainment for young adults. This is dangerous. It starts with short dopamine hits from the short content and soon becomes an unhealthy addiction. Short form content is 15 seconds to a minute or so. Traditionally we thought the attraction to this type of content was because of short attention span.

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But there’s more to it. A study in Computers in Human Behavior found that negative childhood experiences are at play here. It may be subtle but childhood interactions are pulling the strings.

The researchers surveyed a large group of Chinese University students and found that there’s a higher risk of young adults being addicted to short form content videos if they had adverse childhood experiences that left deep trauma in them.

The negative childhood experience can be mental or physical abuse, complete neglect, dysfunctional family dynamics with frequent conflicts, violence against other family members and so on. This shows that what started as a comfort to distract from family troubles becomes an addiction.

And since this type of content is so short, the mind stays distracted and diverted. The fast pace of these videos helps not to focus on the emotional pain from all the family troubles around them. It’s a temporary relief that helps the children manage their overwhelming feelings. They just ignore the problems and giggle away with the quick entertainment not knowing the unhealthy addiction it’s building.

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Those college students who reported higher life satisfaction despite childhood issues were less addicted to short form video content. The positive outlook and resilience reduced the need to rely on instant gratification from short form video content. The researchers found that those who had lower life satisfaction were more addicted.

So short form video content became a coping mechanism to escape everything that’s triggering them in their homes. And soon the reliance on short form video content like Reels and TikTok to cope with trauma became so desperate that before they knew it, it became an addiction. The researchers called for early intervention in childhood to ensure children have a safe and emotionally safe environment.

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