SOCIAL MEDIA IS KILLING LONG-FORM THINKING. AI MIGHT BE WHAT SAVES IT.
How AI Opens Up a Massive Opportunity That the World Is Hell-Bent on Taking Away From You
It all started when I watched people mindlessly scrolling through social media, like they were being controlled by some alien force. What really caught my attention was how fast they'd jump from one video to the next, scrolling and scrolling... and then suddenly, after several minutes, they'd close the app. They'd do something else for maybe two or three minutes. And then they'd just sit there for a few seconds doing nothing, stuck with themselves in that uncomfortable stillness. But suddenly, that feeling would become so unbearable that it's as if a hidden switch flips in their brain telling them to open the app again. And of course they would. Like an addict who knows better but reaches for another hit anyway.
As a behavioral detective (+27 years in this), one of my favorite places to observe this behavior is on airplanes. First, because I can snoop better (now you know), and second, because people apparently have nothing better to do than scroll. And while both men and women fall victim to this evil force, women seem to get it the worst.
It was from those observations that I started firing off questions nonstop, and over time, more patterns began to emerge. For example, why have people become immune to deep, structured knowledge, giving absolute priority to quick, easy, and entertaining content instead? Does it have anything to do with what I'm seeing on planes and in other places?
It's kind of a dumb question because we've always liked getting information that's easy, fast, and entertaining. But now things have gotten completely wild. So the truth is, it's a serious question because it strikes at the core of real learning... something I'm passionate about and, it's worth saying, something that defines the course of humanity. There's a reason Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett's longtime partner, said there's no point in learning isolated concepts. That they're only useful when they're connected to each other, forming a model, a technique that lets you act and build something. And he's absolutely right because that's what it takes to make knowledge useful and applicable. If what you learn doesn't translate into a usable framework, it's like eating empty calories. (It's what happens to our bodies when we consume empty energy; the kind provided by certain foods and drinks that are almost completely devoid of essential nutrients like vitamins, minerals, proteins, or fiber -ultra-processed foods, refined sugars, and alcohol- offering only quick "fuel" with no health benefits, which can lead to weight gain and nutritional imbalances). Well, the same thing is happening to our minds.
That's why now, if it doesn't entertain you, you won't watch it. If it doesn't get to the point, you won't read it. If I don't tell you quickly, you won't listen. And if I don't tell you in a video, you'll bail. The thing these days is that videos over five minutes put you to sleep, and anything over 200 words now feels like reading a dusty encyclopedia.
Is "life moves faster" a good enough excuse?
Is "time is money more than ever" a good enough excuse?
Is it really enough of an excuse?
Look, I get it: there are ten-page articles that feel like they could've been written in three, or 300-page books that could've delivered the same message in 100. But... actually, while that's true in many cases, in many others it's not, because the context they gave you over all those pages helped you understand the guts of the argument. Maybe you didn't realize it, but that's how it works.
And that's where the key to everything lies, because concepts are easy to understand, but models aren't. Models need a deeper, more contextual understanding so we can execute them correctly, and we often don't suspect this.
That's how I started digging and found a new dark and dangerous cave. A digital cave that behaves like a prison cell, built to control us.
But to show it to you, you first need to understand some realities of today.
INFORMATION IS NO LONGER POWER
Who would've thought? For decades we repeated the same mantra: information is power. But that belief has collapsed in the age of AI. Because it's not anymore. Now we all have access to the same summaries, reports, news, data, and tools.
So what now? If we all have the same stuff, how can we gain an edge?
Well, the edge will now be created by whoever understands that information better, whoever better grasps its background and uses it in unique ways to solve problems. In other words, today, simply knowing facts isn't enough. What will truly be valuable is our analytical, critical, and interpretive power, and the resulting ability to turn it into useful solutions. It might seem like the same thing we've always done and needed, but now it's really going to be drastic. (Soon, an article on this).
However, and here's where the connection to everything above comes in, this doesn't bode well for a huge chunk of the population. Which chunk? Well, all those people who binge endless fragments of information, scrolling compulsively. And there are plenty of them: according to various estimates, they represent over 40% of the entire world. Studies show that on average, the world scrolls 2 hours and 21 minutes a day, but in Latin America, for example, it's 3 hours and 32 minutes. That's basically a part-time job. It's truly alarming, and I don't see protests and fires in the streets warning about this nonsense.
But... let's dig deeper. Why doesn't this bode well for all those people? Why have these people been dominated, only to be plunged into a dark and dangerous cave? The reason is dramatic: social media use alarmingly weakens the ability to discern and reason.
This is how millions of people are quietly losing their ability to think clearly, affecting their capacity for deep analysis, processing, and comprehension, without even noticing. Or better yet: it's been put in service of this kind of alien force that controls them. So now that we all have a plate of meat, there shouldn't be any hunger. But half the world has lost their teeth.
THE EVIDENCE
So we're living in the information paradox: we've never had this much access to knowledge, and yet our ability to process it, verify it, and understand it deeply is in free fall. Right when it's going to be needed most.
But listen: it's not that we're becoming biologically less intelligent, it's that we've built a digital environment that punishes depth and rewards impulsivity.
There is strong recent evidence, backed by controlled experiments and meta-analyses, showing that intensive social media use reduces discernment when it comes to evaluating information. It's not that we've permanently lost the ability to discern; it's that the way platforms are designed simply makes us stop applying our "truth filter." It's like they've disconnected our critical brain and plugged us into autopilot. They left us operating in System 1, as Kahneman would say.
There are two angles that explain this:
Sharing blinds reason: There's experimental evidence that the mere act of being in "share mode" on social media (thinking about what to send to others) drastically worsens the ability to distinguish true from false. This is because the brain changes objectives: it stops seeking accuracy and starts seeking social validation. (So now you know how left-wing and right-wing doctrines and social movements spread; it's not that people are blinded, it's that their judgment gets dulled).
The inattention trap: A big chunk of misinformation isn't shared out of ideological conviction, but out of pure inattention. When experiment participants are presented with a minimal reminder to think accurately, their discernment improves and their intention to share falsehoods drops. This proves the brain works, but the environment (social media) numbs it. Basically, social media acts like a sedative that makes us stupid.
The popular belief is that people share fake news because they're ignorant or because they "want to believe" lies. But what we see is that the scientific evidence points to something I believe is more dangerous: social media induces a cognitive state where truth stops being relevant.
THE EDUCATIONAL DECLINE
While it's hard to measure whether intelligence has gotten worse year after year because of social media (I couldn't find evidence proving that), there are alarm bells going off in the newer generations. Studies from Stanford University consistently show that students have serious problems evaluating sources and applying basic verification practices, like "lateral reading" (meaning, leaving one information source, like a webpage, and opening new tabs to investigate its credibility through other reliable sources). This suggests a worrying level of media illiteracy: we know how to use technology, but we don't know how to read reality through it. And... you already know this is exactly the skill we're going to need most in this age of artificial intelligence.
In summary: Social media has created an ecosystem where speed and interactions displace attention. The result is a world that shares without reading and reacts without thinking.
Basically, we're a society that knows everything... and understands nothing.
THE 30-SECOND CLIP SOCIETY
Here lies the quietest and most systemic danger we face. We've gone from a culture based on text and linear argumentation to one based on short videos and instant emotional impact.
So a video over three or five minutes feels like an eternity, and a text over two hundred words is a tome. The problem isn't just impatience; it's that the reality of models doesn't fit in a minute. And while interesting stuff can fit in that time frame, as I already said, it'll be useless when we go to use that information to execute. Because understanding how the economy works, a biological process, or how to resolve a personal conflict requires detailed explanation, nuances, background, and complex cause-and-effect relationships.
The problem then lies in dopamine and thought fragmentation:
Dopamine vs. Understanding: The short video format (TikTok, Instagram Reels) delivers a feeling of "having understood" (an information pill), but without the cognitive effort necessary to retain and connect that information.
Thought fragmentation: Although 90% of college students use social media as an academic resource and many claim it helps them "learn," there's a gap between accessing a piece of data and building knowledge. True understanding of a system requires sustained attention, which is genuinely incompatible with a feed designed to change topics every 15 seconds.
If you can't tolerate a 15-minute explanation or read a complete essay, you lose the ability to understand complexity. You're left with only headlines, slogans, and caricatures of reality.
THE SEDATED SOCIETY
If we combine lack of discernment with the inability to process complex information, the social result is devastating. We're breeding a "Sedated Society."
A. Vulnerability to Manipulation
A society that can't maintain attention is a society that can't resist demagoguery. And that's the reason why, for example, woke and progressive movements keep going strong.
The triumph of emotion over reason: Since "social media mode" prioritizes interaction, the narratives that win today aren't the true or useful ones, but the ones that outrage or excite.
The loss of cognitive immunity: As trust in institutions and reputable news outlets continues to erode, a vacuum opens up that gets filled by conspiracy narratives and populism. Without the patience to verify, citizens become repeaters of slogans. Basically, minds have been conquered and dominated.
B. Addiction to Easy Dopamine and Functional Ignorance
This is how we end up craving quick stimuli but functionally ignorant about how the world operates.
Passive citizens: By getting used to information "entertaining" us, any important topic that's boring, technical, or complex gets ignored.
The illusion of competence: We think we know because we watched a video, but we lack the depth to question it or apply that knowledge in practice.
The result is devastating: we're a society stuffed with information but starving for truth that, without noticing, has been losing the will to understand the complexity of concepts. And in that abandonment, it hands over the keys to its future to whoever manages to tell it the shortest, simplest, and most exciting story, even if it's stupidly false.
The worst part is that this disaster is happening right at the moment in history when not succumbing to it would give you the most advantages.
It's the cave of horror. A dark place possessed by forces so destructive they seem to come from beyond, and in which humanity sinks while smiling, believing it's happy.
SO NOW WHAT?
Be honest with yourself and pull up your phone's activity report on social media. You're going to be shocked because it probably doubles or triples what you imagine.
Commit to reducing it by 70% or 80%.
Cut down on watching short videos. Ideally to zero.
Start consuming longer texts and/or videos/audio that explain the "how" extensively, those are the models that execution operates under.
SOURCES:
DataReportal. (2024). Digital 2024: Global Overview Report. Retrieved from datareportal.com
Pew Research Center. (2023). Teens, Social Media and Technology 2023. Washington, D.C.
Common Sense Media. (2021). The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Tweens and Teens. San Francisco, CA.
World Health Organization (WHO) / HBSC. (2024). Focus on adolescent mental health and well-being in Europe, central Asia and Canada.
IMDEA Networks Institute. (2021). The digital divide in the era of mobile internet.
Pennycook, G., et al. (2021). "Shifting attention to accuracy can reduce misinformation online." Nature, 592, 590-595.
Stanford History Education Group (now Digital Inquiry Group). (2016-2024). Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Reasoning. Stanford University.
Kozyreva, A., et al. (2020). "Citizens vs. the internet: Confronting digital challenges with cognitive tools." Psychological Science in the Public Interest.
Vosoughi, S., Roy, D., & Aral, S. (2018). "The spread of true and false news online." Science, 359(6380), 1146-1151.
PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). (2021). Misinformation on social media: The role of cognitive and affective factors.
OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). (2022). Readers of the 21st Century: Developing Literacy Skills in a Digital World. Paris: OECD Publishing.
UNESCO. (2024). Global Education Monitoring Report. Paris.