The Neuroscience of TikTok, and The Psychological Benefits of Slow Media
On one level, this was a concert like any other - there was an audience, a venue, security, and ticket takers. However, when these concert goers together on February 5th, 2024, in the German town of Halberstadt, they had a very unusual musical experience. They didn’t hear a full set of music, and they didn’t witness a live performance of a recent album. In fact, they didn’t even hear a single song.
The audience gathered to hear a single note of music.
The concert—if we can venture to call it that—was a chord change for the longest piece of music ever written, the late John Cage’s appropriately titled piece, As Slow as Possible. The composition is being played on a specially built organ. It began in 2001 and started with 18 months of silence, with the first notes not played until 2003.
The chord change in 2024 was only its 16th note, with the next not scheduled until August of 2026. Slow as Possible has attracted a fervent group of fans, with many attendees for February’s event having booked their tickets years in advance. Those looking forward to the crescendo, though, should not hold their breath: the composition in its entirety is not set to finish until the year 2640.
While As Slow as Possible is extreme in this respect, it provides us with a perspective worthy of consideration: there is immense value in slow media: music, film, or other art that takes its time. There is immense, unappreciated value in experiences with a long incubation period—those which engross and captivate the audience over the long term.
This type of media isn’t just aspirational. Research indicates that it - in very sharp contrast to quick-fire presentation of TikTok - encourages a categorically different psychological state, and invokes an entirely different pattern of neural activity in the brain.
In an era of endless, fast-paced, and immediately gratifying content, slow media may be just the thing.
Slow Media and the Importance of Time
First—what exactly is “slow” media?
If we’re trying to understand the deeper psychology of media, we should move away from the classic distinction of “traditional” vs. “social media.” Instead, we should think about media in terms of the mental states it reliably produces.
When examined through this lens, the specific platform becomes much less important. Consider YouTube, for example. Given its reliance on user-generated content, it is technically a social media platform. But within YouTube, there’s a vast difference in mental experiences. It’s categorically different to become engrossed in an hour-long documentary than to spend that same hour scrolling through 114 YouTube shorts.
When trying to understand how different types of content impact psychological experience, the most important variable is time: how long the content lasts and what it requires of us as we engage with it. Slow media doesn’t mean waiting decades for a single chord progression. Instead, it refers to media that lasts several hours rather than minutes—listening to an entire album (1 hour), watching a movie (2 hours), or reading a book (10–15 hours).
The Psychology of Slow Media and the Role of Working Memory
Why is this an important psychological distinction? As we’ve seen, the brain is incredibly sensitive to the rate of information it receives, because it tracks and holds material over time (via working memory), allowing these traces to shape the interpretation of future events.
At the level of the brain, there exists a clear hierarchy of temporal response windows (TRWs) which are processing experiences that have a different rate of information. That is - quick fire experiences, on the order of seconds, are constrained to the primary and secondary sensory regions of the brain, while slower, more drawn out experiences, taking part over several minutes or hours, require the integration of information over a much longer time frame. These longer TRWs engage “higher order” regions of the brain such as the temporal-parietal junction and medial prefrontal cortex.
Here’s where slow media comes in. In the brain, these slower forms of media engage working memory to a much greater extent. They require us to hold more information for longer periods, engaging the brain’s much longer temporal response windows.
Take a murder mystery movie, for example. At minute 87, you learn that Mike, the man on trial, didn’t commit the murder—his wife, Jessica, was home with him that night and can prove it. This new revelation prompts you to recall earlier details from the story: Jessica despises Mike after learning of his affair. It also raises questions for the final scenes—will Jessica testify, or let her feelings cloud her judgment? And if Mike didn’t do it, who did?
Slow media, like movies, engage these longer temporal response windows. As the story unfolds, your brain isn’t just processing new information—it’s integrating it with everything you’ve experienced in the story so far.
The Psychology of Fast Media and TikTok
Now contrast this with fast media, such as TikTok. Instead of tracking and integrating information over minutes and hours, the average TikTok video is only 40–50 seconds long. Each piece of content is self-contained and understandable within this short period.
No matter how long you watch, there’s no accumulation of relevant details over time, and no engagement of the brain’s working memory system. The constant stream of short, disconnected videos, does not, therefore activate these longer temporal response windows (TRWs). Fast media is resigned to the immediate and the sensory. No sooner does one video end than another begins—leaving little trace of memory or personal impact in its wake.
The experience of TikTok bears an eerie similarity to that of Clive Wearing, the man who, due to severe brain damage, suffered from one of the most extreme cases of amnesia ever recorded. He could neither recall anything beyond the last minute nor form new memories. He effectively existed, in psychological totality, in a series of completely disconnected, sixty-second bursts.
The Deeper Psychological Value of Slow Media
These experiences with media are different—that much is clear. But are these kinds of experiences better? More enjoyable?
As we’ve seen, fast-paced media doesn’t provide us with fulfillment or deeper enjoyment. In fact, it doesn’t provide us with much of anything. Ironically, research indicates that it’s exactly these kinds of media that make us feel bored and sap our sense of meaning. The faster the pace of the media—especially when we’re swiping through it ourselves—the more bored and dissatisfied we become.
Katy Tam of the University of Toronto, one of the lead researchers pioneering these studies, describes this common form of media consumption as “digital switching.” Whenever we feel a hint of boredom, we swipe to the next piece of content. However, her work suggests that this coping mechanism actually makes us more bored, not less. As she distills, “Digital switching may make the content of online videos seem meaningless because people don’t have time to engage with or understand the content.”
The solution? Resist the impulse to switch to the next piece of content. Instead, weather the small sense of boredom that may arise. Be patient and become engrossed.
This means engaging with longer-form, slower content that activates the brain’s longer temporal response windows—media with a longer marination period that challenges our working memory. These immersive experiences are associated with much greater enjoyment and a deeper sense of meaning.
Tam’s research supports this idea of longer, slower media. As she points out, “If people want a more enjoyable experience when watching videos, they can try to stay focused on the content and minimize digital switching. Just like paying for a more immersive experience in a movie theater, more enjoyment comes from immersing oneself in online videos rather than swiping through them.”
Final Thoughts on The Psychology of Slow Media
These findings highlight a key insight: the richness of our experiences is tied to our willingness to invest time and attention. Slow media invites us to slow down, engage deeply, and allow the content to unfold. While the quickfire experiences of fast media provide immense appeal, the most meaningful experiences are rarely the quickest or the easiest to consume.
John Cage’s As Slow as Possible might seem an odd listening experience, but it reminds us of this in the most literal way. The audience that gathers for a single chord change is not there for instant gratification but for an experience that engages the mind beyond the passing moment—a reminder that the deepest rewards come not from speed or immediacy but from the willingness to linger.
Photo by Nathan Dumlao via UnSplash
About the author
Matt Johnson, PhD is a researcher, writer, and consumer neuroscientist focusing on the application of psychology to branding. He is the author of the best-selling consumer psychology book Blindsight, and Branding That Means Business (Economist Books, Fall 2022). Contact Matt for speaking engagements, opportunities to collaborate, or just to say hello
References for Digital Music and Consumer Behavior
American Psychological Association (August, 2024) Swiping through online videos increases boredom, study finds, APA
BBC World (Feb 5th, 2024) John Cage: Organ playing 639-year-long piece changes chord, BBC
Hasson, U., Yang, E., Vallines, I., Heeger, D. J., & Rubin, N. (2008). A hierarchy of temporal receptive windows in human cortex. Journal of neuroscience, 28(10), 2539-2550.
Honey, C. J., Thesen, T., Donner, T. H., Silbert, L. J., Carlson, C. E., Devinsky, O., ... & Hasson, U. (2012). Slow cortical dynamics and the accumulation of information over long timescales. Neuron, 76(2), 423-434.
Lerner, Y., Honey, C. J., Silbert, L. J., & Hasson, U. (2011). Topographic mapping of a hierarchy of temporal receptive windows using a narrated story. Journal of neuroscience, 31(8), 2906-2915.
