Everything at 1.5 x speed

[SoSadSoSadSoSad]

Does anyone else listen to podcasts / radio catch and TV at 1.5 x speed or more?

I can’t bear to watch at normal speed anymore. Will only watch on Netflix because it has that option. Disney+ doesn’t.

It all seems so slow and laborious at normal speed.

The idea of doing this actually makes my brain hurt and I can feel my anxiety rising.

Honestly, I can’t fathom why you would do this. It must make you so impatient with life.

@Neindasistnichtmeinename same here. I often replay just to take in the information properly.

If something doesn't hold my attention naturally, and at a normal speed, I don't consider it worth my attention. Life too short to squander it tbh, it's a precious resource.
(and everyone's attention is now commodified).

im pretty chill tho!

I deal with the slowness of programmes by fastforwarding through non-talking bits and multi-tasking by scrolling internet at the same time.

Ironically, Netflix etc are making their programmes slower and repetitive and "tell not show" exactly because they know their audience are on their phones scrolling so only paying half attention. They call it Second Screening.

I've always been a bit impatient with life, ever since I was quite small. People who walk slowly, people who sloooooowly slide individual pieces of paper into plastic wallets in lever arch files, people who say in 5 sentences what could be said in one. I've long marvelled at how much less they must get done in a day. I'm high achieving and quite possibly ND. Given how different people are in different ways, I don't think it's that surprising some people want to do life at a faster pace than others. I'm not saying it's a good way to be but I think it's inherent in who I am.

I did try to speed her up once and it didn’t go well

Only for recordings of work meetings I’ve missed!

I appreciate everyone is different and that differences of course do not automatically equate to a negative. Sometimes they do though - for example as we have seen in the data on mental health effects of heavy social media users vs those who choose not to use it as much or at all.

I think the points I made still have value - there does seem to be an unwillingness to be curious about the discomfort generated by watching, say, a movie or drama, at normal speed.

Two things I would wonder - 1) if watching or listening for pleasure at 1.5 speed isn’t about a felt sense of time pressure, what is it about for you? Because clearly there is some sense of things being ‘too slow’, or you wouldn’t take the step of speeding them up.

2. Your reply above sounded a little defensive to the points raised and I’m wondering about the purpose of your original post as you seemed to be asking what other people do.

Finally, yes, I do worry about this and I think that’s pretty normal. Caring about issues isn’t a finite thing, like pie. I do think deeply about stuff that’s happening and the impact of social trends on people in my life that I love, and on the people I serve and care for in my line of work. Especially young people.

Thank you for posting - it is a really thought-provoking thread.

Everything is labelled an ADHD trait nowadays. I think listening/watching media sped-up is, for most people, a result of spending too much time online and having too much content available to consume, resulting in a lowered attention span. Same reason why so many young people watch with subtitles nowadays.

I used to always listen to podcasts on 1.7-2x speed. It did feel like I was frying my brain a bit though. My phone is old and rubbish so I bought myself a cheap MP3 player to listen to podcasts on. It doesn’t have a speed up button and now I’m forced to listening at normal speed it feels so much better. My mind does wander more often though, so I have to rewind every so often.

I do still watch TikTok, and sometimes YouTube, BBC iPlayer and other streaming services at double speed though. It forces my brain to concentrate on what’s being said, so it stops my mind drifting and wanting to switch to something else. I don’t think it’s particularly healthy though and I should probably stop.

I also sometimes just watch at double speed out of necessity, to try and catch up on the thousands of things I’ve got sitting in my watchlist.

Netflix only on the app on my phone on min 1.25speed but faster depending on the show. Watch most YouTube stuff on faster speeds z

Is there a way to speed up Netflix on the TV @SoSadSoSadSoSad ?

It’s really simple. I find the filmed speed too slow. It’s not natural to me. In rl, everyone speaks faster than in films / telly.

Slow is not necessarily best. Slow is not necessarily the most pleasurable. That is your preference.

There is a lot to be said for speed too.

Everyone I know who has adhd does, your brain works quicker!

I do this for audiobooks. I find the editing a bit dodgy sometimes and it helps stop sentences running together.

Yes it physically pains me to listen to YouTube videos podcasts etc on a slow speed. Particularly when I’m just trying to learn something/ get to the bottom of something quickly. If I need to watch any calls or training back at work I speed it up too. Some people really take quite a while to get to the point and there’s a lot of waffle that I hate to sit through when it’s not something I really need to focus on.

Sometimes I’ll slow it to normal speed when it gets to a crucial bit that I need to fully absorb. Tv shows and films I don’t as that’s just for pleasure. I suspect I have some adhd qualities though as I feel like this when people speak to me too and I want them to just cut to the main points.

Especially with the modern fad for having "AI" voice everything ...

1.2 speed on most audiobooks otherwise it seems to slow, it does slightly depend on the reader though.

I do x2 for most Americans on YouTube because they speak so slowly

Why not?

I listen to podcasts at 1.5 and watch YouTube ( mainly tutorials) at 1.5 or more.
Never tried speeding up TV or felt the need.
I can't get on with audio books and only recently worked out that it's because they are sooo slow compared to me reading properly. I'm a fast reader. However I tried at 1.5 and they're still too slow. More than 1.5 sounds wrong.
I have not got ADHD nor do I think half the population has it. People are different.

Not for stuff I want to watch.

I whipped through dull work videos on policies that we were forced to watch in our own time on at least 2 x speed.

I recently saw an IG reel about processing text when the words flashed individually rather than as a block of text. It was so much easier and quicker for me to read. Apparently because following a sentence on a page is harder for neurodivergent minds to do.

Instagram has a lot of misinformation about ADHD. This method of reading, which is called Rapid Serial Visual Presentation, is quicker for everyone although not everyone will find it easy as some people find it stressful to be bombarded with words in this way. There's no evidence supporting the idea that "neurodivergent minds" are especially challenged at following sentence structure on a page. Everyone can achieve a higher rate of WRPM via RSVP than they can through standard reading - it's used as a tool for speed reading for this reason.

Anecdotally, many people with ADHD report their brain feels "fast" and they process thoughts faster than they can read or speak (I do and I have a much faster than average reading speed). But bear in mind also that the subset of people with ADHD who are seeking out information about how ADHD brains work on the internet tend to be at the higher end of the intelligence scale, so a lot of the online anecdotes about what ADHD is or what is going on in the brain are a limited pool of people with ADHD and usually above average intelligence, rather than being ADHD by itself.

I also think some of why you tend to get a correlation between RSVP reading and higher speeds or multiple input processing at once (e.g. listening to music and a podcast at the same time or watching a video of rug cleaning to help yourself focus on a mostly audio presentation) and ADHD is that many people with ADHD are highly likely to seek stimulation or struggle to maintain arousal levels required to focus otherwise because of either lowered levels of dopamine/noradrenaline or because of a newer theory which is gaining more research now which is that people with ADHD have nervous systems which struggle to maintain a baseline level of arousal throughout the day and keep dipping into a lower arousal level more associated with rest and relaxation. There was even a recent study which showed that rather than actually acting directly on concentration and attention, ADHD stimulant medication increases arousal and works on the reward centres of the brain and the theory is that this corrects for the lower arousal levels and the interaction with the reward centres allows people with ADHD to maintain focus better on tasks which are not inherently rewarding.

But yes - preferring a faster speed is definitely not diagnostic for ADHD even if it is a common preference among people who are diagnosed.

I don’t prefer slow (for media used for leisure). For clarity, and because it’s an important distinction, we’re not talking about faster 1.5 vs ‘slow’, eg 0.75.
We’re talking about faster vs normal speed.

I would be really interested in the genres of dramas and types of films you watch, on 1.5 speed.

I wish YouTube shorts could be slowed down - looking at you, Cliff Tan!

I have literally done this once in my life - I was watching a Matty Healy interview and I think he was either drunk or stoned because he was that slow!

Apart from that, no, I can't imagine watching a film like that.

Also, I remember the late James Van Der Beek commenting that Dawson's Creek was played too fast in the UK. Apparently, that was why they had the high squeaky voices.

I use a note taker in meetings that takes live transcripts so I can understand a host of accents I struggle with and I can scroll back if my attention has wondered. Its Invisible to others though. Very useful for job interviews and multi tasking when meetings are boring.