this post was submitted on 11 May 2025
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ADHD memes

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Some people say they are addictive, but to me shorts are an absolute nightmare, I despise them, I hate them, I'm allergic to them.

The ultra quick cutting, the often chopped style, the accelerated voice talking at you without pause or mercy even at 1.0, the subtitles in the center that I cannot disable. It's an attack on my senses, pure overstimulation.

My wife sends me couple of shorts each day and sometimes it's even interesting content-wise, but I absolutely hate this horrible format, procrastinate watching them and wish back a world where this form of media did not exist. It all started even before shorts in the way people did videos, and somehow it spiraled into this kind of hell scape.

Anyone else feeling like this?

EDIT: thanks everyone, now I feel validated, thought maybe I'm the odd one with so strong negative feelings about them! And sorry about the confusion about pants and stocks (that provoked some funny answers though so no regrets). Yes - as you have all figured out, I'm talking about the annoying short videos almost everyone seems to be addicted to.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Shorts are cancer and vertical videos need to die.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

PLT: some plugins of YouTube revanced allows you to remove anything related to shorts from your YouTube android app. So you can spend more time on regular-sized videos c:

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Youtube Shorts Block for Firefox and Chrome

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Sometimes I get clickbaited into watching one because yt doesn't let me hide them forever (is there an extension for that maybe? Surely it's doable with css or something), and they've been alright. Though the ones I clicked on have only been from one creator and I don't mind fast talking (not sped up) and those didn't have the fast cuts.

I also really don't get the appeal of the format. I've been sent shorts from other creators and it just feels worse than the same thing as a proper video. It doesn't overload me because it's essentially how my brain operates anyway, but that's also why I want things that make me take a break from constantly thinking in overdrive by simply being slow.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I use a Firefox extension called Youtube-shorts Block that does what it says in the name. I think my ADHD brain rejects them for the same reasons a lot of other people are mentioning here...

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

No portrait-orientation video is worth watching.

Edit about the article of clothing: men's legs and feet look weird and so I don't like going out in public without long pants and shoes.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

I like some Shorts. Long-form videos are great, but way too often I see 15+ minute videos about a topic that shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes to discuss.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

yes. There is a youtube extension called unhook (?) which lets you remove them from pretty much anywhere on the site.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The only thing I like about them is that there's no ads.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I wasn't sure if this post was about the media format or the piece of clothing, but my answer is the same for both: They're annoying and of limited use, and I absolutely hate them.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

No idea, never watched them. Now that I think about it, I've been watching less and less youtube this last months to a point I think I wouldn't miss it much if it went subscription only or I couldn't block ads.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I detest them. Some science YouTubers have begun using them too, and too often they’re either just cut from longer videos I’ve already seen - and hence wasting my time until I realise that - or they contain no explanation at all because of the length.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Worse: my wife watches shorts on the TV, wasting 75% screen real estate

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They should create vertical TVs. It's insane, but at the same time, it would be actually less wasteful.

Being forced to watch hours of vertical videos on a horizontal screen is probably one of the rings of hell.

When one of your relatives films a family event for half an hour in portrait mode and later shows everyone on the TV.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Couldn’t tell you as I don’t watch them.

I couldn’t care less about the stupid shit on there people provide as “content”.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

I like them. Sometimes I want to watch videos, but not get super involved in a longer production. Plus, youtube shorts, at least, often have links to the main video they were clipped from, which I'll throw into my "watch later" playlist.

Not everybody likes shorts, and that's fine, but I make them work for me.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Don't have a cow, man

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

I'm glad to find other people with similar experiences to mine trying out short form video. I tried TikTok a few years ago when I realized how big it was and that I was missing out on entire cultural touchstones but I just couldn't. Too much music I don't like, too much randomly clicking and hoping I like a video, too much visual and audible noise.

Seriously why can't I just see the title and uploader of a video before I click? What if I don't want to watch this person or this particular video? Why do I have to decide while watching the video instead of relaxing with a bit of silence between videos?

Honestly the whole UI was just mentally and visually exhausting. I think I made it about 20 minutes of trying to get into TikTok before I finally just said "not for me" and gave up entirely

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I refuse to browse/watch shorts directly; probably because I know I'll get sucked in to it for several hours, but I also know there's very little useful/valuable info there. I will however occasionally watch other typically gaming YouTubers, reacting to collections of shorts.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

I quite like shorts, but I only watch specific videos. I watch woodworking and Minecraft build videos to see if the technique is something that I'd want to try myself, and then either watch the longer version, or find other ways to try it out.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I used to feel that way, they didn't have the depth I wanted.

My wife has sent me so many tiktoks that I got used to it.

Now I still don't watch them, but because I'd get stuck in them. Whatever my wife sends, and specific ones from content people I know make quality, and that's about it. Once you get past them being presented in a new way, they're more addicting to ADHD brains.

I will say that if you were gonna pick your minute long vertical video platform, tiktok is the best one, YouTube the worst, but Facebook and Instagram are a lot closer to YouTube shorts than tiktoks. I'm reasonably confident it's because YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram see it as a way to extend your stay on a platform with other content, while tiktok focuses on it exclusively. Their algorithms are doing different things.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I can't get over how it feels like it wants to take over my senses.

I also hate voice messages. I ingest content on my terms and at my pace, thank you very much. And both rambling voice messages and short, absurdly dense but still shallow videos both disrespect me in different ways. One is usually too slow for my attention, the other too fast.

There are no videos or podcasts that are addicting to me, I like reading and writing more than listening. My ADHD brain can't listen unless you talk to me in the right way to get and hold my focus, i.e. interesting information presented at the right pace.

Reading lets me be me - I can skim it, I can re-read it, I can find it later.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

I feel you. I used to be the same. I got used to audiobooks in the same way, but only because I had to, when I had my kid, and I couldn't spare the hands to read. I could, however, get some sport headphones, bone-conducting, so I could hear the baby if she cried but could hear my book without disturbing her, and once I was used to that, that became my preferred way to read.

Maybe that made me more adaptable.

Either way, if you don't need to adapt, there's no harm in not adapting. Live your life, you'll adapt when/if you need to.

[–] zipzoopaboop 2 points 1 month ago

I seriously thought you were talking about pants until like halfway through and was going to be like shut your mouth.

But yeah the majority of short form content sucks ass

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

I've watched enough of them that I can tell which ones are good within the first 2 seconds. The YT algorithm is crap and gives me a lot of garbage to swipe past anytime I open Shorts.

The way I see it is to choose a normal length video, say 30 minutes of content, and watch that, or to scroll through Shorts for 30 minutes and maybe find a few good ones. It's a terrible tradeoff.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I have no idea what you're talking about.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I believe they're talking about YouTube shorts.

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