Discussion keeps the world turning.
This is Roundtable.
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I'm Steve Hatherly, together today with Nio Honglin and Yushun.
Coming up, watching videos or listening to books or podcasts at 1 .5x or 2x speed has become a productivity hack for many, letting viewers and listeners plow through lectures podcasts and meetings in half the time but critics argue it trades comprehension for efficiency dulling nuance emotional impact and retention can our brains really keep up or are we just trading ourselves to tolerate a constant fast forward culture did i just accidentally push that button after that as the world races for attention a growing wave of youth is retreating into the shadows terms like ghost core yun shu style and rat culture
those are bubbling up online from hauntingly delicate fashion to raw vulnerable literature literature we'll have a peek at what that's all about as well our podcast listeners can find us at roundtable china on apple podcasts and don't forget we love hearing your voice so please do send us an email with your voice notes on any of the issues thoughts on any of the issues that we discuss here on the show, here's how you can do that.
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And now, we devour content at lightning speed.
Videos, lectures, podcasts, sometimes cranked up to 2x or even higher.
It feels like a cheat code, doesn't it?
More knowledge, less time.
Your brain feels like a still good looking Brad Pitt roaring down an F1 track.
Great movie, by the way, if you haven't seen it.
But with the gain in speed, is there anything being lost?
Is our brain absorbing more or is it just kind of skimming the surface?
Faster is always faster, yes, but it's not always smarter.
Let's go into the science behind speed listening, speed watching, and see if there are any hidden trade -offs of accelerated learning and maybe what it might mean for the way that we think or the way we retain information and actually grasp what we're consuming do you listen to or watch content at speeds higher than regular playback all the time oh yeah i i also do but i don't do that when i was watching movies but i do i don't watch movies well i do i do when i'm in a movie theater definitely for sure but see this is a this is what else would you be doing in there that's what i'm saying this is this is the thing
i think it's definitely an umbrella question to ask but the answers vary because of different type of content different types of scenario whether or not you're watching your favorite movie for the 10th time or you're watching a new movie that you don't really feel like you're enjoying but you kind of want to know what happened and next so it really depends yeah i never do i never never ever well there's only one in the short videos uh well you wait wait you watch short videos at double speed yeah there are a lot of you know just boring and meaningless content in the short videos and they're just
they they they designed to for for you to just double speed see this is really interesting because they're all That's why they're short videos, so that they're over quickly, right?
But I mean, this is a sign of the times, isn't it?
This is how people are...
Whether you do it or not, there are a lot, a lot, a lot of people that do.
So the content that we're talking about varies.
For example, YouTube, there was a report from that.
85 % of users speed up the content there.
they save over 900 years of video time a day by watching increased speed videos.
Saving is a fun word choice.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
And this trend is also driven by efficiency and overwhelming amount of information, like Steve has said.
When I want to, for instance, listen to a book and only trying to find out the essence of the book instead of all of the details, I would definitely choose two times the speed or even sometimes 2 .5x the speed.
And audio content like audiobooks also see significant acceleration.
Audio reports about 5 % of users listen at 1 .5x speed or faster.
And at the same time, consumption habits vary by device.
we see that desktop users often prefer 2x speed while mobile users lean towards 1 .5x.
I don't know. I'm always a 2x speed or even faster kind of girl.
Are you really? Yeah.
Can you really hear what he's saying or grasp the idea?
We are about to find out the answer to that question.
Also, just quickly before we get there, educational content too.
Lectures, that's often consumed at faster speeds by the students.
They did a study from UCLA, and they found that 85%, 85 % of college students speed watched, sorry professors, the lecture videos, and that's a common strategy for covering academic material efficiently in their opinions.
And then you've got even entertainment platforms like Netflix.
They offer playback speed options, and that's what, 0 .5x?
You can either slow it down or you can speed it up to 1 .5x, but I think that's only available on mobile devices, not on other places to watch your television.
But anyway, it's just proof that it's all over the place, right?
It is all over the place, and this might be a little off topic, but the slowdown choice is also useful because previously when I was trying to study one movie study the angle of the frame and everything I slow it down and I get to take notes so I assume it happens to students as well if they want to slow down they can but if they want to speed up because this part of the knowledge is also they're already very familiar with they can't speed up yeah and there's another really great reason for slowing it down and we're going to get to that in just a little while one One that wasn't obvious to me
in the beginning. But first, let's talk about this, right?
What happens to our brains processing and comprehension at different speeds?
And at what point, if at any point, do we start losing the information?
I would say it probably depends because different people have different brain power.
Computing speed. Yeah, so at 1 .5 times speed, most maintain good comprehension.
The brain adapts easily.
The speed feels natural, and our auditory system generally keeps pace without string.
For familiar content, it's efficient without just sacrificing much understanding.
If it's faster, at two times speed, the brain shifts to gist processing, or grasping main ideas, but maybe missing some gist details.
Oh, okay. So that's at two times speed, double speed.
Yes. While popular, your brain has less time to encode and retrieve information, and a lot of neuroscientists are saying that the brain is remarkably adaptable, but there are consequences, implying retention suffers.
Okay, so 1 .5x speed, no problem.
No issues there for our brain.
Mostly. Double speed, we grasp the main ideas, but we'll start missing some smaller details.
Again, depending on why you're watching at double speed, that could be okay, or it might not be okay.
But there's got to be a cutoff point, is there not?
Beyond two times speed.
Comprehension drops significantly, especially for new or complex material.
This is the tipping point you're looking for.
So your brain struggles to analyze, integrate and consolidate information, leading to high cognitive load, which means that your cognitive power would be consumed too fast to the point that you hear words, but understanding and memory rapidly diminish, creating an illusion of understanding.
you don't really understand anymore i don't know i have tried three times three times speed yeah and you can still you can still take you can still gather grasp all the information being shared yes at that particular time i can't i don't believe do you go ahead and then i'm gonna go next go on you know do you know that game called uh animal crossing on switch and nintendo yes the characters in that games talk like that's that's probably the three times speed i would say are they saying things or they are actually saying i heard that people it's a language they invented yeah and like probably some
part maybe chinese english um um something like that when you watch at triple speed is it some this was my question Is it something that you previously watched?
Yes. Okay. That's the catch. That's why.
It's not new information for you.
But the reason I believe so that I can do it or some people can do it is because I have a friend who is visually challenged.
And when he operates his phone, which he's really good at, he listens to all the instructions in the phone at, I think, more than three times the speed.
And they would be able to understand everything and act accordingly.
And because I think this is even common in a lot of people with visual challenges, they consume knowledge with their hearing abilities.
And after training and after getting used to it, they can be really good at it.
Yeah. Does age have anything to do with it?
I wonder. I think so.
And the science is also, I think, proving that age significantly affects how well individuals cope with faster playback.
A 2023 National Library of Medicine study found a notable difference between age groups.
Older adults are more affected by accelerated content than younger adults due to cognitive factors.
And the study showed older adults aged from 61 to 94 experienced a 31 % drop in understanding at just 1 .5 times speed compared to younger adults who was aging between 18 to 36 who maintained over 90 % comprehension at even double speed.
neat. Yeah, that makes sense then, I guess.
We talked about, you know, why people might watch at higher speeds, but what are the benefits of this, where it can be actually, where it can be good for us?
Saving time. Yeah, right.
And also my feeling is that after watching something or listening to something at 2x speed, it's hard to go back to 1 .5.
And previously I thought it was fine i'm just you know consuming the content faster but apparently it definitely would affect our ability to concentrate longer um affect our ability to still enjoy the kind of activities that are well that are quote -unquote slow so these would be some drawbacks i can think yeah i mean um some some of the positives and and there are positives and negatives for this right another Another positive would be if it's not that important, like your short -form videos.
If you don't really care that much about what you're watching, then sure, watching at double speed is okay.
But Ngyong Lin, as you mentioned, variable playback speeds can help enhance accessibility for diverse audiences as well.
Your friend who's blind, so the research suggests this, and this is what I wanted to say before.
I didn't know about this.
blind individuals can process speed much faster than a typical conversation so therefore deaf or hard of hearing individuals might prefer a different type of speed for it it's more flexible right which is an incredible it's a thing that i didn't think about before which is why netflix made that change yeah and netflix got a lot of flack from content creators at the time i I think it was around 2020, maybe a little bit before that they made that change.
And content creators were saying kind of you're messing with our art by doing this.
Right. It wasn't intended to be viewed or listened to at a different speed.
But that was the reason for the change, which I found to be really fascinating.
And another fun thing is that when students do it, when they may be at the end of the semester and didn't finish all the things they should be studying, when they do or rewatch lectures two times the speed, guess what?
Research in UCLA study found that students at normal speed averaged 26 correct answers out of 40 on comprehension tests, while those at 2x speed scored 25 out of 40.
So not that huge a difference.
Yet another study found out that if they're doing it in the middle of the semester, they're just studying two times the speed, they're, let's say, final results would be a little less compared to the results they get if they're studying at the end of the semester, meaning that if they're pressured and they're concentrating even more actively, they can perform better even at two times the speed.
So you can choose, you can train yourself.
So it's still about your cognitive ability or something about the content.
Yes. There's a downside to that, though.
Just because you can handle it doesn't mean that it's going to benefit you in other situations.
And this I found quite fascinating as well.
So if you're constantly consuming content, podcasts, television shows, audio books, lectures, whatever, at double speed, you get used to processing things at that speed.
and neuroscientists suggest that if you consistently avoid slower input, it could lead to something called cognitive atrophy.
And that means that if you're seeking efficiency all the time, you're going to limit your brain's capacity for deep thought and critical analysis.
And then if you have a regular speed conversation with your friend, you might get bored.
Put you into sleep.
And that's the thing.
I don't, we're talking about art here, right?
I mean, okay, fine.
I get it. You're watching a lecture again and I want to speed through this because I'm reviewing the material.
But when you're listening to an audio book, right?
If you're watching a film or you're listening to a podcast, you know what?
If you're listening to Roundtable, we're just thankful you're listening to it.
You can listen to it double, triple speed if you want to.
But my point is this, if the art is created in a way that's meant to be consumed, then then shouldn't you consume it in the way that it was meant to be consumed?
Are we not losing anything artistic there?
I feel like we are.
At least I think they're all contributing to just shorter attention spans and more fragmented focus.
When you are not actually focused on the thing that you should actually care about and the reason why it is created, I think it's making it harder for people to slow down and truly think deeply, not only about these arts we we have so many videos about you know the movie summary videos you can just watch a whole movie in 10 minutes these kind of things i think they're all you know making people's time fragmented and making people's focus fragmented and i don't know if you have the experience i think after living a very fast life i tend to lose the ability to do just one thing very focused when i'm
playing video games i would have a movie played on the the background.
When I'm chatting with my friends, I would also start a small task of moving things on the cell phone.
You just lose the ability.
Yet, when we're here doing the show, we listen to each other's sentences.
At the same time, think about what we feel about that view.
And then we start our own conversations as well.
We start our own speech as well.
And that is the thing.
I think when you're used to two times the speed, like Steve said, you stop thinking.
You're just listening.
and maybe processing a little bit.
And that is definitely not good.
Yeah, that's why a balance is a good idea.
Yeah, don't just stick to double speed for everything.
Slow down and enjoy a conversation or a book or whatever it is you're consuming from time to time.
Coming up next, while everyone's fighting for the spotlight, a quiet counter -movement is growing.
Ghostcore, yinshu, rat culture.
We'll discuss that in just a sec.
looking for passion how about fiery debate want to hear about current events in china from different perspectives then tune in to roundtable where east meets west and understanding is the goal this is roundtable i'm steve with nio hong lin and yushan in a world chasing for the spotlight a number of young people are choosing to step out of that into the shadows as a result words like like ghostcore, aesthetic, yinxia style, and rat culture, have emerged from online spaces.
What are those? Let's go over them one by one, just briefly, if you don't mind.
Yeah, I actually don't quite get it, but anyway, it is a kind of a trend and style where people will dress in just black and white, dark and pale to have that sense of serious and...
Gloomy. Yeah. that kind of thing i think it's the this age or this this batch of younger generations gothic gothic style it's like you enjoy vampires they're definitely not healthy they're pale and they live in dark areas all the time but they have this very special and weird attractive points and it's the same thing we talk about ghost core it's what you shouldn't has just described it's wearing very serious and very dark color with well with not a lot of color and also when it comes to in its a chinese term in meaning uh in dark or in shade and shi is damp and wet okay and it's like you know
london with a lot of rain with not a lot of sun but it's attractive in its own way and uh when it comes to red culture it's like living a low energy life when one day you do not want to be that energetic want to stay in bed for the entire day and I don't think it's that too much celebrated on the internet but they are definitely accepted on the internet I kind of like these things it's not like I'm gonna go out Friday night in my ghost core outfit or anything like that but I get it because it's a different way of self -expression right and it's a counterculture movement in a fashion sense because where everybody's
on social media with the hottest trends all the time this is you saying i'm not gonna follow that as a matter of fact and i'm going to express myself in a different way and for the rat what's it called the rat culture movement or i get that too because everybody on social media all the time is saying how incredible their life is i'm in the best mood today what are you doing you know nobody says actually you know i'm not really in the mood today to smile that much i don't really want to talk to people that much today which is again it's kind of a counterculture against what the typical thing of social media tends
to be and i understand it i think it is also a way for them as you said the self -expression and And also a self -protection to to to have that kind of maybe makeup or outfit and make them look like a ghost. Actually, it is a way that they are facing their own dark side.
Some people say they can use these kind of as a protection color to make them more confident and also more secure.
Yeah. And in that case, then it's healthy, isn't it?
yeah if you're seeing that that's a side of your personality that needs a needs an outlet and you can find a healthy outlet for it then why not and also it's not something new it has happened for different generations in different times and vampires have been around forever definitely and this uh i don't really care about what you guys are cheering up to kind of attitude is cool to some people especially the young some young people so sure why not that being said if you Yushin showed up to the office one day in ghost core.
You know what I'm on. I might look twice.
Yes. I wouldn't judge, but I might look twice.
Interesting trends for the young people these days.
That is it for Roundtable for this afternoon.
Thank you to Ngo Hong Lin.
Thank you to Yushin.
And thank you, of course, to you as well for sharing your time with us.
I'm Steve, and please do come back to Roundtable next time.
