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Perfect Match

 I spent a lot of time in Asian metro train systems recently during commuter hours. During this time, cannot recall seeing a single person of any age reading a physical book. It's possible to see these relics elsewhere in the world but not in large numbers. Just about everyone was glued to their phone completely oblivious to their neighbors. Couples might be in a conversation and not tightly tethered to their phones. Every screen I caught a glimpse of was some form of infinite scroll and Tik-Tok style videos. The form factor makes perfect sense for someone who has a very long and mindless commute. They really need to escape the fact that they are wasting a significant part of their lives just riding trains - easily 3-4 hours a day, door to door. 

The addictive short videos on loop are the perfect way to use that wasted time. It can be argued that non-value time is being recycled in a sense. That would be a wonderful solution except that the nature of the content is such that the person becomes more and more unable to disconnect from it and pursue meaningful things in the time that they do have left. The easy escape from ennui becomes second nature. It made me wonder if this specific type of content came to exist to fill the need in the lives of commuters or it became a match made in heaven without ever intending to be. The use of this form of content among youth in Asia does appear excessive but the rest of the world is not so far behind. 

for underage students, they should be restricted from logging in and using their short video accounts late at night to ensure that they get enough rest time. For adult students, it is recommended to use the short video time every day as a reminder, and the short video software will be temporarily stopped when the accumulation exceeds a certain time on the same day to avoid excessive use of it.

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