YOU CAN LISTEN TO THIS IN 2X SPEED

Quick, hurry !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For a split second, I thought our attention spans could be starting to repair themselves as TikTok introduced the ability to record and post longer-form content. I sighed with relief at the idea that we, as a society, could now have the brain capacity and time to watch a 10-minute video but alas, I was wrong. This intimate interrupter has us firmly in its grip.

Finding myself in a pretty London-centric viewpoint these days, it’s clear that there’s a real issue with slowing down. No sooner have I stepped foot off the train into Kings Cross from my hometown of York, that I’m weaving through the seas of people and running onto tube carriages. This is a subconscious process and not one I happily partake in, but here we all are – cramming onto tube carriages to avoid a two-minute wait!

You’d think with all this, we’d take time to invest in ourselves at a more leisurely pace, right? Not exactly.

“Hold down to watch in 2x speed” video captions read as content creators inform you on ‘Fashion News you might have missed’ and/or ‘What I eat to stay healthy from a gut specialist’. Now, when first reading this instruction, I would, of course, oblige and do as I was recommended (a complete subconscious feeling when deep in a doom scroll), but the more I have noticed them the more I have started questioning why any of these need speeding up. Am I not here to listen to you talk through your monthly favourites and why they worked for you to assume they will also work for me too? Have I not chosen to take on your recommendations for the best places to eat brunch in East London? Yes. So why OH why am I fast forwarding a *max* two-minute video.

I think it’s an interesting time to find ourselves in a constant rush even when we’re finding time for ourselves. I have a lot of friends who forever listen to voice notes at 1.5-2x speed – not something I can get on board with – to save like, maybe 20 seconds. It goes from this to finding the quickest route to anywhere in the city (usually always 30-40 minutes), to meal prepping your entire week away. It’s a game of how much you can fit into your spare time by being the quickest and most efficient version of yourself. No sooner have you completed your 10-step skincare routine whilst listening to voice notes, that you’re planning your outfits for the week and ordering more Tupperware for your lunches (you took meal-prepping too far).

So, I was wrong. My naïve and hopeful self was routing for our attention spans but all we’re doing is consuming content at a faster speed to, in turn, consume even more. I declared that YouTube would be back for 2025, so I’ll see you over there digesting videos at a slower pace so as not to get bloated with influencer content.

YouTube Recommendations for anyone looking to slow down their content consumption rate: Rachel Nguyen, Lara Violetta, Hitomi Mochizuki, Moya Mawhinney

Love,

Your Treasured Guide