Parasitic Artificial Organism: Short-Form Video
Authors : Doğa Çöl
Pages : 440-457
Doi:10.55609/yenimedya.1771744
View : 104 | Download : 207
Publication Date : 2025-12-23
Article Type : Review Paper
Abstract :Short-form moving images such as YouTube shorts, TikTok videos and Instagram reels can be conceptualized as symbiotic parasitic artificial organisms that live only when they occupy a viewer’s attention and otherwise lie dormant in status like viruses or within the unconsciousness of the viewer. This paper presents a thesis that these videos exhibit life-like behavior: inert in isolation, but capable of infecting hosts or viewers and propagating by exploiting cognitive and social networks. Drawing on film and media theory, posthumanist philosophy, and empirical scientific studies, the paper explores how viral videos parallel biological viruses or parasites. The discussion is directed towards the life-cycle of a short-form video, from its latent zero-view state to its activation during viewing, during which it affects the host’s cognition and behavior (often leaving an aftereffect or afterglow post-exposure). The paper situates this analogy in broader theoretical contexts including Deleuze’s concepts of the image and network, Michel Serres’s philosophy of the parasite, Nick Land’s concept of hypervirus and examines empirical research on attention and neuropsychology of short-form media.Keywords : kısa biçimli video, parazitik medya, viral video, posthümanist medya kuramı, dijital medyanın bilişsel etkileri
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