A YouTube cofounder who helped pave the way for our modern, content-obsessed world is the latest tech whiz to come out against short-form videos because of their effects on kids.
Steve Chen, who served as YouTube’s former chief technology officer before it was acquired by Google in 2006, railed against the TikTok-ification of online life in a talk earlier this month at Stanford Graduate School of Business.
“I think TikTok is entertainment, but it’s purely entertainment,” Chen said during the talk, which was published on YouTube Friday. “It’s just for that moment. Just shorter-form content equates to shorter attention spans.”
Chen, who has two children with wife, Jamie Chen, said he wouldn’t want his kids only consuming short-form content, and then not be able to watch something longer than 15 minutes. He said he knows of other parents who force their kids to watch longer videos without the eye-catching colors and gimmicks that hook especially younger users. This strategy works well, he claims.
“If they don’t get exposure to the short-form content right away, then they’re still happy with that other type of content that they’re watching,” he said.
