Social Media and Sludge Content’s Correlation With Lectures

Attention span in students has declined at an alarming rate, which is partly due to social media applications like TikTok. One current trend on TikTok that maintains attention is sludge content, which consists of two visual pieces of stimuli and contextual audio. This led me to question whether social media’s methods of maintaining attention could counteract the negative effects of social media.

I hypothesized that implementing sludge content into lectures would increase attention span and academic performance in high school students. I conducted a survey, which gathered preliminary information, and an experiment, which compared the implementation of sludge content in the classroom to a regular lecture.

The experiment showed that sludge content in the classroom increases attention span, but does not impact academic performance. Despite limitations in sample size, I concluded that the sludge content should be implemented in classrooms at other schools to address the current attention crisis.

Applying the results of this study would lead to a more engaged classroom of students and fewer hardships for teachers.