Post-2000s generation are "abstaining" from AI short dramas: they uninstalled the related apps five times within a month.

Within an hour, you can memorize dozens of English words, or finish an entire season of AI-generated short dramas.

Mulan, who is preparing for the postgraduate entrance examination, was on the verge of collapse. She clearly picked up her phone intending to open a learning app, but "accidentally tapped" Hongguo. When she came back to her senses, the whole afternoon had already passed.

She uninstalled the APP once again. This is the third time this month, and she knows there will be a fourth, fifth, Nth time...

AI-generated short dramas are so addictive. Whether on urban subways or in rural farmlands, people burying their heads in watching these dramas can be seen everywhere. Even under the same roof, the 60-something grandma is wiping tears while watching family ethics dramas, and the 8-year-old grandson is pestering to watch AI animal-human works.

Mulan, like many of her peers born after 2000, is deeply stuck in this situation. The plot with a twist every few seconds brings full sense of refreshment, but after putting down the phone, there is only greater emptiness left. The tug-of-war of "knowing clearly that I should break free but just can't quit" has become the common norm for everyone, leaving people no choice but to feel guilty while indulging.

This article records a group of young people who love watching AI-generated short dramas. They hover repeatedly on the edge of indulgence and self-discipline, sinking and breaking free, staging their own real and vivid "detox" stories.

1

Spent 1000 yuan trying to quit AI short dramas, but still scrolled until 1 or 2 a.m.

Xia Mo, post-2000s international student

In order to quit AI-generated short dramas, I spent a huge sum of 1000 yuan buying an e-reader. I also downloaded 30 world-famous masterpieces at one go, vowing to retrieve my own concentration.

But the reality gave me a resounding slap in the face.

I knew every single word, but they just couldn't get into my mind when connected together. After reading only two pages, my attention began to drift away, and my hand, as if it had its own consciousness, couldn't help reaching for the phone.

In the past, no matter it was thick literary works or academic papers, I could finish reading them all, and I could read 60 books in one semester. But since I got obsessed with AI-generated short dramas in May, I have been like being poisoned.

The novels I loved are no longer attractive, the idols I liked are no longer followed, and the professional books are even thrown far away. As soon as I open my eyes every day, I open AI-generated short dramas, watch them while eating, watch them on the subway, and even stay up late to watch until 1 or 2 a.m. Even if I turn off my phone to go to bed, the plots I just watched are still playing in my mind nonstop.

After indulging like this for more than a month, when chatting with friends later, I found that everyone knew clearly about current affairs and could talk about gossip with substance, but I could only utter those overused internet memes in a garrulous way!

I am about to go abroad for postgraduate study soon, and I realized that I can no longer be a "hollow person". Quitting AI-generated short dramas is extremely urgent, so I bought an e-reader, trying to force myself to study.

It worked well at the beginning: I deleted the short drama APP, took the e-reader with me when going out, and tried to look at my phone as little as possible. But things are far less easy than I thought. Quitting addiction can not be achieved simply by deleting the APP and turning off the phone.

A while ago, I was busy applying for the student visa, running for notarization one day and supplementing materials the next. After running around all day, my legs were weak and my mind was blank.

My time was also fragmented completely, and there was no complete time for immersive reading at all. Moreover, after a busy whole day, I felt completely drained, and just wanted to watch something relaxing to release pressure.

Then that "evil" thought came: just scroll for ten minutes, I'm so tired today, I'll read books tomorrow.

It was at this moment that I found AI-generated short dramas are almost tailor-made for "fragmented time". Their expression is extremely straightforward, no in-depth thinking is needed, and you can figure out who hates who and who likes who within one minute.

While literary works often have hundreds of thousands of words, using various techniques such as metaphor and foreshadowing, you may not even understand the character relationship and story direction after reading half of it. This kind of "slowness" that requires long-term immersion is almost a luxury for modern people with fragmented time.

During the time before going to bed every day, it's easy to get caught up in novels and can't stop, you can only watch one or two medium and long videos at most, while one season of AI-generated short dramas only takes one hour, which is just enough to kill time, and before I realized it, I was watching until 1 or 2 a.m. again.

In this way, the e-reader has been left in the corner to collect dust for a month since I bought it. And I have finished watching ten seasons of AI-generated short dramas.

2

Life is already tough enough, I can't live without AI short dramas

Lone Wolf, post-2000s office worker

After getting off work and returning to the community, before I even entered my home, I couldn't wait to open AI-generated short dramas in the elevator.

After getting home, seeing the unwashed clothes and the leftover takeout boxes that haven't been thrown away, I knew I should do something, but I still threw myself onto the bed and lay there scrolling through the dramas.

I started to get addicted to the satisfying dramas where the heroine gets back at the scumbag after a breakup, wanting to get back all the grievances I swallowed in reality doubly through the plots. I used to stay up late until the wee hours every day, the garbage piled up into a hill, and I was too lazy to mop the dirty floor. Later, I felt I couldn't "degenerate" any more, so I started to work out and read gradually, and returned to a normal life rhythm.

However, getting addicted again is really as easy as breathing.

The hospital is crowded with patients every day, the non-stop work rhythm keeps me tense all the time, and I still have to squeeze time to deal with complicated workplace interpersonal relationships. The pressure and anxiety made my hair fall out in handfuls.

When I finished the night shift, it was still 1 or 2 a.m., the darkness and silence always wanted to swallow me. I opened AI-generated short dramas again, In the virtual world, I can be the revenge heroine who gets a system after being reborn, slapping others in the face every minute; I can also be the doomsday survivor who stockpiles goods to save the world on a rainy stormy day, admired by everyone.

As long as I enter the plot fast enough, the troubles in reality can't catch up with me, so I often allow myself to scroll until more than 5 a.m. — I'm not not sleepy, but I'm reluctant to sleep. Only these few hours late at night belong to myself.

I know it's a hallucinogen, a "tittytainment", but the imaginative and rich-themed AI-generated short dramas give me a chance to catch my breath. I once blamed myself for "why I'm so not self-disciplined", but life is already so tough, there is no positive feedback, no hobbies, no time for socializing, and work is also unsatisfying, I really can't do it if I have to quit the only sweet thing left.

Then I thought, even without AI-generated short dramas, I would play games or scroll short videos. At least watching AI-generated short dramas doesn't cost money, and besides affecting sleep a little, there doesn't seem to be any particularly big negative impact.

Moreover, I even pulled my friends into the pit together. We often share high-quality AI-generated short dramas we have watched with each other, discuss the plot direction, and complain about some foolish villain characters, which breaks my closed life state instead.

My current bottom line is: sleep well, eat well, keep exercising, keep my house tidy, and make progress in other aspects. As long as I achieve these, I can accept watching 3.8 hours a day on average.

When a new drama I follow goes online, the latest I stay up is 2 a.m. AI-generated short dramas are a tool for me to stay awake. Maybe when life gets better gradually, I won't need it anymore.

3

Without the sense of urgency from exams or civil service recruitment tests, it's hard to successfully quit the addiction

Fu Ye, senior student preparing for civil service exam

The closer the exam is, the higher my frequency of uninstalling the short drama APP becomes.

The first uninstall was during the final exam week in June. At that time, I sat at the desk, looking at my notes, but what was in my mind was — has the latest season of that AI-generated short drama been updated?

Every season of AI-generated short dramas always cuts off at the most exciting part, and the next season is often updated after only ten days or so, which makes people unable to put it down at all, and my fingers involuntarily click on the APP. I comforted myself that "I'll start studying after watching only half of it", but after finishing half of it, I thought "there's only half left anyway, it only takes more than 20 minutes at double speed".

I fell into an endless loop like this. I knew clearly that I shouldn't watch it, but my fingers kept swiping and swiping, watching one drama after another. Until the exam was approaching, I forced myself to uninstall the APP, and then I finished memorizing the textbooks.

As soon as I got through the final exam, I started to have revenge entertainment. Every day except eating and sleeping, I was scrolling through dramas. When I was most addicted, I could watch 8 hours a day.

During the "golden summer vacation" when I was preparing for the civil service exam, although I went to the library to clock in every day, I "consumed" 3 AI-generated short dramas on average every day. The reason is still that I can't control myself: I use AI-generated short dramas to decompress between reading books. At first, I studied for two hours and watched for 20 minutes, but before I noticed, it became 30 minutes, 40 minutes...

As a result, the tasks were delayed again and again, and all the plans were disrupted. The content I learned was forgotten after watching the short dramas, so I had to pick it up and learn it all over again.

The short drama APP was deleted and downloaded again, downloaded and deleted again. I can't remember how many times I uninstalled it. It was not until the new semester started in September that I saw my classmates around me had made far more progress in their exam preparation than me, and I really panicked.

Although watching AI-generated short dramas is very pleasant, life has to get back on track eventually. In addition, I have almost finished watching all the themes of short dramas during the summer vacation. Except for the dramas I booked to look forward to, I can guess the general plot direction of the others, which made me make up my mind: I can't be led by the nose anymore.

This time with a sense of urgency, the time I spent on AI-generated short dramas has really decreased a lot, but I didn't force myself to quit completely. Instead, I got along with it in a different way — every time I finished learning a chapter, or did a good job in a mock test paper, I would give myself a stage reward, and click on a long-awaited short drama.

After all, not all time in one's life needs to be rewarded. Proper entertainment and relaxation with moderation is enough. AI-generated short dramas are not a scourge. The real problem is that you can't control your own hands.

4

I watch three or four seasons of AI short dramas a day, but I don't think I'm addicted

Qiufeng Ke, senior student preparing for civil service exam

If the full score of self-control is 10 points, I would rate my self-control as 8 points.

Every day when I eat lunch, I will open AI-generated short dramas to "accompany my meal". After I finish studying at night, I start watching from 6 p.m. until I go to bed at about 11:30 p.m. It's the same on weekends, I take AI-generated short dramas as the last relaxation ritual of the day.

On average, I watch three or four dramas a day. For famous works with more than ten seasons like *The Legend of Ten Thousand Demons*, I can finish eight seasons in one day. The pleasure of chasing them all at once is extremely satisfying.

However, I don't think I am "addicted" to AI-generated short dramas.

Although it is the critical period for the sprint of civil service exam now, I am not a "learning machine" that only buries myself in hard study. I need entertainment to adjust my tense nerves. I used to read online novels, but one novel often has hundreds of chapters, which is brain-burning and eye-straining, and easy to make people tired after watching for a long time; I also play games, but it's no fun to play alone, I need to find teammates to play together to enjoy it.

Chasing long dramas, the update speed is as slow as squeezing toothpaste. If the script ends badly, all the previous time spent chasing updates is wasted. The trial and error cost of live-action short dramas is low, but after chasing dozens or hundreds of them, the routines are getting more and more similar, which can't escape the routines of overbearing president's courtship, counterattack to slap others in the face, and rebirth revenge. It's hard to find a work that makes my eyes shine.

So when I first opened that AI-generated short drama with doomsday sci-fi theme, I was really amazed — the picture is very realistic, and the plot is compact and not dragging. I didn't expect that this kind of theme can also be made into short dramas, and it's AI-generated, which makes me feel very fresh.

After I started watching it, I never stopped ever since.