Does watching videos instead of reading decrease the brain function? Or Does the brain become lazy watching videos?
In: Biology
It depends on the writer’s writing style and/or on the video maker’s presentation style, along with the audience’s learning style.
Many people learn better when information is presented visually.
Many people learn better when information is presented verbally/textually.
Many people learn better when information is presented in combinations of styles.
([Learning styles infographic](https://elearninginfographics.com/wp-content/uploads/7-DIFFERENT-TYPES-OF-LEARNING-STYLES.png))
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Afaik, it’s sort of a ‘you get used to it’ thing. (Warning: Long post ahead)
Keep in mind that I’m not a neurologist nor a psychiatrist. I’m not an expert, so take all my explanations with a grain of salt. With that said, I’ve noticed a lot of people agreeing or offering advice that resembles what I’m about to say here.
The answer to “Does the brain become lazy watching videos?” is ‘It depends’. Do most of the videos you watch offer entertainment? Then, probably, the answer is yes for you.
In the realm of Youtube, videos are designed for instant gratification. The moment you click on a video, you immediately get the content. Your brain immediately gets fed this cocktail of interesting information, and this doesn’t just apply to Youtube, it might apply to Reddit too. Think about it. When you’re browsing posts or watching videos and come across something that’s just not interesting to you, your reaction would probably be to just immediately click off. “Find an interesting one, not this garbage”. And this habit, is what’s detrimental to online learning.
People are used to instant gratification. They aren’t used to delayed gratification. If you hate Calculus and watch a Calculus video, your gratification doesn’t come when you click on the video. It comes when you finally understand the topic, and here lies the problem. Your brain’s expecting something interesting, but nothing happened, so what would it do? Well, the answer usually is to just day-dream. Think about the interesting stuff on your own, and as such, the video loses your attention, and you’ll find that the video will have ended without you learning anything.
Another possible explanation is that your brain is too good at recognising patterns and associating sensations. This is why people tend to tell you to seek out a new place to do stuff if you’re trying to break your habit of procrastination. If you always watch videos that are funny or do stuff that’s gratifying in your room, then your brain will start to associate this place with that feeling. When your brain sees you login to Youtube, it might start thinking “Hey it’s time to watch some gameplay videos”, so when the time comes for you to actually learn stuff, your brain struggles to break out of this trance where it’s just trying to reach that gratification.
In other words, the more you watch videos for entertainment, the more they are associated with that feeling, and the more you have to struggle to get your brain to actually pay attention.
Again, I’m not a psychologist, so I’m not 100% sure about these things, but at the very least, you should be able to see what I’m trying to get at here. ~~I’ll try and post videos of people talking about such topics.~~
Actually, I can’t recall any specific videos where I’ve learned this stuff from. Search ‘instant gratification’, and you’ll find plenty of videos about the topic, but I can’t recall the specific videos I watched to learn about this stuff.
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