Short-form video is arguably the most addictive ever devised. It bypasses the "cold start" problem of traditional media. There is no plot setup, no character introduction. The algorithm serves you the climax of a joke, the drop of a song, or the twist of a story within the first second. This has retrained our brains, forcing long-form media to become more aggressive in its hooks to compete for the same cognitive real estate.

For most of the 20th century, popular media was a top-down affair. A handful of studios, record labels, and broadcast networks dictated what the public consumed. If you wanted to participate in the cultural conversation, you tuned in to M A S H*, Seinfeld , or the MTV Video Music Awards at a specific time. This was the era of the "watercooler moment"—a shared reference point that bonded coworkers and classmates.