Stop scrolling aimlessly and enjoy the livestream of the 'Great Moose Migration'.

For some time now, one could argue that platforms like TikTok are affecting our attention span. Yet, surprisingly, people around the world are tuning into a monotonous livestream from a Swedish television station that many probably weren’t aware of. It’s the great migration of the moose. For thousands of years, every spring, moose cross the Ångerman River in search of a warmer habitat for the summer. Since 2019, the entire world has been able to witness this migration over three weeks, thanks to Sweden’s SVT channel livestreaming the event through more than 30 cameras, capturing every moment of the process, which moves at an extremely slow pace.

Most of the time, the broadcast offers serene scenes of forests and rivers, and if you’re lucky, you might catch a glimpse of a moose passing by, completely oblivious to its sudden international popularity. Generally, the stream is almost silent, occasionally interrupted by the sound of the wind or the singing of birds. It creates a relaxing environment, although you might forget that the livestream is open on your computer and be surprised by a group of creatures thousands of miles away.

A Swedish student mentioned that she feels calm watching it, but at the same time, she has a funny anxiety wondering if she will miss something if she steps away for a moment. The broadcast continues even during the night, using night vision cameras to ensure we don’t miss any details of the moose. Although the black-and-white image might remind more of "The Blair Witch Project" than a National Geographic documentary, any sighting of a moose remains a sighting.

Last year, the SVT stream reached 9 million viewers, while Discovery Channel's Shark Week in 2023 had over 22 million viewers. Considering that SVT is just a channel streaming live nature videos with a team of 15 people, this is quite an impressive comparison. What makes this type of broadcast so intriguing is the radical difference from what we normally consume online. On TikTok, we are bombarded with short videos meticulously designed to hold our attention, while on YouTube, creators edit their content to maximize our interest. However, the moose are not seeking anything from us; they don’t even know we are here, cheering them on from afar.