The Fast & Curious: Why Tampa Bay area residents watch social media videos at twice the speed

TAMPA - We asked, and Tampa Bay area residents answered: Have you ever watched a social media video at two times normal speed?

The answer? Yes. And those responses came from people ranging in age from 16-to-42 years old.

Social media platforms allow users to hold down the screen while a video is playing, which will make the video play at double speed.

"I watch most videos like that," Jayla Owens, 16, told FOX 13. "If they're longer than 30 seconds, they're getting fast-forwarded."

Jamai Banks, 42, admitted to watching social media videos in double time, too.

"Mine would be more because I'm just kind of busy," Banks said. "And maybe somebody told me about (the video), and I want to get (to) what they were talking about."

As for why Owens does it?

"Short attention span," Owens said.

University of South Florida psychology professor Paul Atchley teaches a class on how the human brain interacts with technology.

What they're saying:

"I think when people say -- particularly within the context of social media -- that they have a short attention span, I interpret that to mean they're willing to give not much of their attention to that particular source," Atchley told FOX 13. "Not that they couldn't if it wasn't important, but that they really don't want to bother, because frankly, what they're looking at on TikTok isn't really all that important. It's interesting at the moment, but it's not worth spending a lot of their attention on."

READ: Social media use triples depression symptoms for pre-teens: Study

People seem to make a choice when it comes to social media, he added.

"It's less of a discussion of what their brain is capable of and more of a discussion of what they're willing to actually do," Atchley said.

In fact, researchers with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found in a 2023 study that younger adults can watch lecture videos at faster speeds without significant deficits in memory and that these faster speeds did seem to reduce mind-wandering in general.

A 2022 UCLA study also found that students appeared to retain information "quite well" when watching lectures at up to twice their actual speed.

"I don't use TikTok, (but) I've seen a few of the videos," Atchley said. "Most of the information on there seems to be pretty simple. And so, watching it at double speed probably doesn't lead you to losing much."

Local perspective:

Just ask Tampa Bay area residents – they’ll tell you how they watch videos at twice the speed and retain the information!

"Context clues," Owens said. "I watch Netflix movies like that, too. I skip through the whole thing."

"I think they just process the information faster, so they want to hear people talk faster," Suzie Huynh, 29, said. "If you watch some of these videos, they are talking so slow, it's crazy. So I get it."

"I think it’s a thing, and I think it's crazy, but we're all doing it," Kat Olivencia, 33, said of the speed-watching trend.

So, whether it’s normal speed or double time, social media is charging ahead and always adapting to keep whatever attention you’re willing to give.

"If consuming social media at two times the speed means that you're on social media half the time, then it's a positive," Atchley said.

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