Video content needs to change.
Tēnā koutou e te whānau.
Content as we know it needs to change. This whole approach to keeping people locked in with visual candy and overstimulation is not something I want on my screen. In fact, I want to tell the algorithms that I want less of the picture in picture, AI slop that is created using the same strategies as casinos and other ways of creating a dopamine spike to hook in viewers and make them feel a bit of happiness. There’s nothing wrong with it in small doses, don’t get me wrong. But with the tools I have and the kind of content I want to be making I’ve decided to actively go against what most people in my profession strive for… Virality.
So if you’d like your doom scrolling to look a little different, I’m looking to start creating slow brain content. This is something I’m still putting the pieces together for and as I learn new bits and pieces to this I’ll continue to adapt and change the tikanga to suit. However, at this point in time I’m picturing these as a few grounding principles:
NO AI. This is a big one for me because the more I hear about AI and the way it’s being used makes me feel anxious. Whether I feel like I’m being left behind in a race I don’t actually want to be running or because I can’t see myself or my culture being represented well by it.
It needs to have a mauri. If it has a mauri it has a whakapapa and a way connect Te Ao Hiko to Te Ao Mārama. This dove tails nicely with my next thought…
Be intentional. Never get too lost in the digital realm. The issue with doom scrolling isn’t that you’re doing it, it’s what you’re potentially missing out on as a result. So if you’re on a bus commuting to kura or mahi and your intention is to pass the time, kai te pai tēnā. If you’re missing training or skipping whānau time as a result, perhaps we need something to disconnect us from Te Ao Hiko and back into Te Ao Mārama.
So what does this actually look like. Well like I mentioned there’s a style of content I’ve been intrigued by called “slow brain” content. So rather than hook in the viewer and keep them there with the slot machine techniques. It focuses more on simple, slower, longer form content for those of us that want to stick around and spend some time rather than swiping onto the next because we haven’t had our little kick of dopamine. Who knows, maybe there’s some benefits to a delayed gratification approach to creating content.
Anyway, I’ve enjoyed jumping on and having a wānaka on this with you all. Maybe I’m super out of touch and old now and that’s why I want to discuss things like this. Or maybe there’s a few of us that are keen to improve our digital hauora so it’s a better place to be.
Nō reira, tēnā koutou e te whānau.