A couple of weeks ago, my friend and I were in a corner store and while browsing the aisles, we challenged ourselves to come up with the most chronically online candy product. My suggestion was a, “Protein Chocolate Labubu.” I surprised myself with the speed at which I was able to string together a series of internet buzzwords into a product that could be sold on shelves. It was so easy that it made me think “I’ve really got to get off TikTok.”
The rise in short form content, however, has allowed for the wider and speedier circulation of trends, ideas, diets, and fads. While going viral was a big enough deal to get you on daytime television ten years ago, the low-effort nature of short form content allows for hundreds of people to go viral each week. It seems that each day brings a new trend that dominates our for you page and more importantly, our thoughts.
With TikTok’s rise to internet domination, short form content has been prioritized within the social media landscape this decade. Anything longer than fifteen seconds is unbearably drawn out. And with the introduction of the TikTok feature where videos can be watched on double speed, it feels as though even fifteen seconds is pushing what our attention spans can handle.
But while we’re predominantly only consuming content in fifteen second bursts, what kinds of content are we consuming? What exactly is going viral?
You see, fifteen seconds may be too short for a lot of content, but it is the perfect amount of time for an advertisement.
Studies have shown that advertisements have a negative effect on human happiness and self-esteem. They make you feel as though you need what is being sold to you. As you are now, you lack something you need and what do you know? There’s a product out there that you can buy to solve that problem you didn’t even know you had. With videos ranging from fifteen seconds to ten minutes (at the very longest) dominating the online space, it often feels like scrolling through TikTok trends is just scrolling through endless ads.
I can break down my earlier example of being “chronically online”: the Protein Chocolate Labubu, into a set of internet trends that were really pseudo-advertisements that inherently make consumers and TikTok viewers feel worse about themselves to persuade them into buying a product.
Protein has dominated online content related to health and nutrition recently. A widespread protein-panic has overtaken the internet in 2025. Are we getting enough protein? How many grams of protein do I need within a day? Suddenly, a slew of food products featuring high protein ingredients dropped on shelves. From more conventional items like protein bars to the more avant-garde, like protein coffee. Things truly reached a peak in the protein craze when Khloe Kardashian launched a protein popcorn, Khloud, over the summer.
Short-form content provides the perfect medium to advertise certain diets or products based on internet trends. It boils down all of the knowledge and research surrounding things like a high protein diet, into two buzz words, “high protein” which instantly catches viewers attention and keeps them watching for the remaining fourteen seconds. As such, influencer taste tests, recommendations, and rankings of high protein food items have started dominating the For You Page.
But how else do these videos catch attention? By making you feel as though you need to have a high protein diet. As though there is something wrong with you if you don’t. Comparison, the famous thief of joy, enters the chat. Many times, videos promoting these diets begin with influencers showing off a physique that adheres to the society’s idea of an ideal physique or level of fitness. The implicit message being, if you want to look like this, use this high protein coffee creamer (affiliate link in my bio! I make commission!) instead of regular half and half.
But it is not only about how you look, but the material items you own.
Over the summer Labubus, fluffy plush toys with elven features and toothy grins, blew up in popularity. Labubus were the internet-born trend of the summer, frequently spotted clipped onto a mini purse or on the shelves of stores.
Labubus maximized their internet virality by being purchasable via blind boxes. You buy a box not knowing which Labubu it will be. It could be the pink one with the cute ears, or the blue one. It could be the elusive, “secret” Labubu, which is a rare green or brown variation of the plush toy. Regardless, blind boxes make for perfect internet content.Labubu unboxing videos took TikTok by a storm last summer, with some of the platforms top creators posting short videos unboxing.
Labubus were so desirable, that one sold for upwards of $10 000 on Ebay.
But what were these videos but advertisements designed to make you feel bad, or out of the loop, if you didn’t have a Labubu? It felt like everyone was collecting them. I myself would scroll on TikTok through dozens of videos influencers unboxing them, some of whom were ones I had followed for years. I couldn’t escape the feeling that I was missing out on the fun.
We are constantly facing an endless barrage of content that tells us we are not good enough because we don’t look like this or we don’t have x product. All under the guise of “meaningless” short form content. It’s not just our attention spans that are at risk. But our sense of self. Our self-worth and self-esteem are the targets of short form content.
And then on top of that, we are made to feel even worse about ourselves about getting sucked into these traps short-form content ads set so expertly. Though the rise in short form content is a recent phenomena, the patterns of consumption are not. It eventually became “cringe” to have a Labubu. It was a sign that you were spending too much time on TikTok, a visible marker of being “chronically online.” While in May having a Labubu meant being en vogue, by June having a Labubu was uncool.
With the rise of short form content there is no such thing as being “so last year”, now the concern is being “so last week.” Trends are circulating faster than ever, and with that, new insecurities are being generated at lightening speed all for the sake of promoting a product. And with those new insecurities, comes another layer of insecurity at not constantly having a finger on the pulse.
So how do i break out of the loop?
Social media is addicting. Even more so when it’s short-form. Even more so when it’s an ad. These videos are designed to keep you hooked. To keep you watching. Expert advice relies upon the act of getting off of social media in order to improve mental health. Often we hear the same thing over and over again: stop spending so much time on the apps, set time-limits, pick up new hobbies that don’t require your phone. But this is often easier said than done.
Regardless, it can always help to start small. An hour spent not scrolling on social media allows short-form to take up less time, and therefore less power, in your life.