'Worse than cocaine': Backlash as HBO clips classic shows for scrolling

HBO's exclusive content app is diving headfirst into what viewers are calling a brain-frying form of entertainment.

HBO Max, the network's streaming app, announced on Tuesday that it will roll out a new feature that utilizes its iconic content. Unfortunately for the network, reactions to the news are not just overwhelmingly negative, they've been outright atrocious.

'Tik-Tok and Instagram really fried peoples brains.'

Short cuts

Jumping into the world of TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, HBO Max has decided to implement a short-video feed of its exclusive content, which includes massively popular titles like "The Sopranos," "Entourage," and "Sex and the City."

Subscribers will now be able to doomscroll vertical videos on the app, HBO said in a press release, "customized to individual tastes and preferences based on watch history."

In an X post about the announcement — which was far more popular than HBO's own post — readers quickly piled on the network, calling the change an attempt to pander to those with a short attention span.

"The destruction of humanity’s attention span is a bad thing, actually," John Monaco replied.

"Shows you how much attention span has declined over the years ... I'm really worried about future generations," another man commented.

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Scroll with it

Reactions were harsh, with multiple users calling the feature an attempt to appeal to "retards" and even comparing the feature to cocaine addiction.

"I literally know very few people who have quit short form scrolling style video, reels etc," a California man wrote. "This is a huge problem. And the younger people really don’t know what life was like before it, so that’s also a problem. Its worse that cocaine."

"Tik-Tok and Instagram really fried peoples brains," a movie-related podcast account added.

However, HBO disagrees.

Deepna Devkar, HBO's senior vice president for machine learning, revealed that not only is the company excited about the new feature, its clips are being created using artificial intelligence.

"We're thrilled to launch this application of AI to accelerate the creation of these clips and look forward to quickly expanding to make even more of our amazing content offering discoverable through this new feature," Devkar said in the announcement.

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Search me

While some suggested HBO simply "make good shows again," other readers believe the move would be a net negative by getting viewers used to short-form content, theoretically discouraging them from watching the TV series that are available on the app.

HBO Max isn't the only nonsocial platform knee-deep in the scrolling game though. Netflix similarly expanded its own vertical clips feed earlier this year to include shorts from its library as a way to push new and old content.

At the same time, HBO Max announced a second new feature, a "conversational search experience," which helps users find content based on wider search terms, as opposed to having to enter the title of a show or movie.

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