What does speed watching do to our brains?

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What does speed watching do to our brains?

Thanks for asking.

More and more of us are consuming digital content at increased speed. Whether it's on social media, watching a Netflix series, or listening to a podcast like Do You Really Know, speed watching and speed listening are becoming increasingly common. It's a habit you tend to see more among younger people, who are very active on social media, and sometimes speed things up so that they can consume even more content than they do at regular speed. Are there any risks associated with accelerated content consumption then? Potentially, yes, and it's due to what happens to the brain when you get used to watching or listening to content at accelerated speeds. It can affect a person's concentration, for example. They might struggle to then follow a conversation at a normal speed, because the people they are talking to seem to be speaking too slowly compared with the videos they watch at accelerated speed. Indeed, research published in Computers in Human Behaviour in 2025 suggested that speed watching could negatively impact all aspects of memory performance, i.e. attention, working memory, storage and retrieval, elaboration, and meta-memorial or meta-cognitive processes. Meanwhile, a report by CBC News reporter Ashley Fraser asked whether sped up content was breaking our brains, citing research by University of California researcher Alan Castell.

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In other words, the more we speed things up, the harder it becomes to return to a normal rhythm. Speed watching doesn't cause illnesses, but it may increase anxiety, impatience and even end up affecting our social relationships, in particular at work. If you do find speed watching useful, you should still take breaks, turn off notifications, put content back to normal speed from time to time, and try as far as possible to do only one thing at a time.

Are there any situations in which speed watching is recommended?

Well, watching or listening to a lecture at accelerated speed can give the impression of being more efficient. It's a practice that's pretty widespread among university level students, for example. The Alan Castell research that I mentioned before actually revealed that 85% of students watch their classes at accelerated speed. The problem is that in reality, the brain doesn't always keep up, and the whole exercise can become counterproductive. Instead of saving time, you might end up losing it. That's because in order for us to learn, we need moments of pause to think and retain information. At normal speed, these breathing spaces exist naturally when someone speaks. But at an accelerated speed, they disappear. Yuri Hassan is a neuroscientist at Princeton University. Talking to HuffPost for a 2024 feature on speed watching, he said the thinking is done in the gap between the words. When I'm speaking and I'm taking a moment, I'm thinking and you're thinking about what I'm saying. Without these pauses, working memory, which temporarily stores information in our brain, quickly becomes saturated. As a result, images and information pass by without us having time to process them. There's another possible effect to take into account. A habit of speed watching can make social media platforms even more addictive than they already are. Hassan went on record comparing TikTok to an addicting drug that doesn't require you to think, saying it's easy to start using the platform for just five minutes a day and then end up using it for two hours a day.

There you have it.

Now you know what speed watching does to our brains. In under three minutes, we answer your questions and help you understand the true meaning behind the trends, concepts and acronyms that are making headlines. Listen along and you will really know for sure.