Sludge content
Sludge content, also known as overstimulation videos is a term for videos typically found on vertical video platforms such as TikTok and YouTube Shorts. It incorporates a split screen of multiple, usually two, videos playing at once. One video is the content, and the other is what is described as sludge. Usually these sludge videos are of Subway Surfers, ASMR or "satisfying" videos. and feature reddit posts read by text to speech. These videos are sometimes automatically generated by bots. Family Guy is sometimes also used in sludge content, which has been described as the "Family guy pipeline". It has been described as "dumbed down content" and limiting for people's attention spans. The trend caused Subway Surfers to gain a large surge in downloads.

Behavioural scientist Gordon Pennycook suggested to study sludge content and said that when the trend started, it was random videos jumbled together in hopes of getting attention. He says that now the videos are made intentionally with the hope of entirely disassoatiating people. YouTuber and cognitive science graduate Blair Chapman argues that sludge content may be the reason why people such as Andrew Tate rose to popularity.

Some of the videos used are reuploaded videos from TikTok. Sludge content has also been used as a joke where people say that the only way to get someone's attention is by playing a video of Subway Surfers while speaking to them.

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Social media