Once you think about a red car, you will see a red car everywhere. I think that is because once you gain awareness about something, you see it everywhere.

I am creating content, and I got to know about hooks and how to retain people. And I don’t like it at all. It’s the most hollow art ever. Especially short form content. It’s about being vague but highly triggering at the start, dripping down a few amounts of value, and then have a call to action.

The anatomy of short-form content (such as needs to have a hook, body, and call to action) gives very little way for value to be in it, and a lot is mandated to be fluff.

And when I scroll Instagram, I just see that every single hook, I just see right through it. And I now understand that 90% of the content on it is just basically designed to trick me. To trick me and to not give me anything in return. Just to extract my time. And sometimes the trick is actually harmful to my brain. It’s literally brain rot. So ever since I got this awareness that, “Hey, the video is not going to have much value and it’s actually damaging me,” short form has lost its favor from me.

Essentially short-form content is very dramatic and triggering. It keeps trying to tap the primal in you, always trying to keep you in the fight or flight zone, or keep you geeked out over something. Genuinely not a good way to spend time, plus I had like 8 hours plus worth of screen time.

Even YouTube, I just know that the content is going to be way less dramatic than short-form. But still, the first minute is completely hooky and not substance at all.

This is turning me into someone who despises content. Almost seeking anti-content.

I have naturally found myself gravitating towards courses or lectures or talking-head videos where there is no hook animation or anything. Even better if it is something that has no sound also.

And I think that is the kind of content I also want to make. Sam Sulek has also had this. He would just set the camera and keep talking to it and keep doing his things. That’s all. And people did find and still do find a pill in it.

I believe that to edit your videos and to speak in a way to grab attention and all it’s very performative. Of course, if you’re creating an advertisement, go for it by all means. But if you are looking at content as a form of self-expression, then please don’t do it. Better to go for long-form.