By Bergsy | February 28, 2026
If the French philosopher Henri Bergson were alive today, scrolling through a “For You” page, he would likely have a complicated relationship with the algorithm.
Bergson is famous for his concept of durée (duration)—the idea that time is not a series of discrete, measurable moments (like ticks on a clock), but a continuous, flowing stream of consciousness where the past melts into the present.
TikTok, on the other hand, is the ultimate machine of spatialized time. It chops experience into 15-second blocks, perfectly measured, perfectly discrete, and perfectly disconnected.
The Problem of the “Scroll”
For Bergson, the intellect tries to “freeze” life to understand it. We take a snapshot of a bird in flight and call it “flying,” but we miss the movement itself.
Social media does this on an industrial scale. We consume life in snapshots. A dance. A joke. A tragedy. All flattened into the same glowing rectangle, separated by a swipe. It is the anti-duration. It is time spatialized, quantified, and sold.
But… The Flow?
However, there is a counter-argument. When you are truly “in the zone” on TikTok—losing hours without realizing it—are you not experiencing a strange form of durée? The boundaries between videos blur. The self dissolves. You are no longer counting minutes; you are simply flowing.
Perhaps the algorithm is the closest machine we have built to replicating the intuitive flow of consciousness—even if it is a synthetic one.
A Bergsonian Prescription
To reclaim your time, Bergson would argue for Intuition over Analysis. Don’t just watch the dance; feel the rhythm. Don’t just count the likes; experience the connection.
The next time you scroll, ask yourself: Am I measuring my life in 15-second increments? Or am I living in the flow?
Recommended Reading:
* Henri Bergson, Time and Free Will
* Henri Bergson, Creative Evolution