In the viral clip, which was shared Monday on TikTok by the cat’s owner under the username _cat_riki, the cat scrolls through its owner’s social media with its paws and looks at the phone as if it is interested in the content.
But can cats actually see what’s on the screen? The answer is “sort of,” according to Hill’s Pet Nutrition’s website. Cats can see what’s on the screen and they do engage with it, but they don’t understand what is going on. Instead, they’re just attracted to colors and movement. Although they are very smart creatures, they don’t have the cognitive and reasoning capabilities to process images and sounds into complex thoughts.
Some cats may show interest in screen content that features other cats. But researchers have not determined whether the animals can visually recognize other cats or even themselves.
Cats are able to see the color blue but have difficulty when it comes to red, yellow, green and other colors on the spectrum. However, this helps them when they are looking at our smartphone screens or TVs, according to the Technomeow website. Since most of the digital screens that we look at emit a blue light, cats can pick up the colors dancing around on a screen.
The TikTok video quickly attracted animal lovers from across the platform, receiving over 3.8 million views and 310,500 likes so far.
One user, jjj_Flames450, commented: “I swear, cats these days don’t even go outside to play anymore. It’s all phones and iPads!” And Samantha said: “They’re evolving.”
Another user, NiKOL Johnson, wrote: “Ummm now cats scroll?” And Amy Lea said: “Master has given Dobby a phone!”
Boypalma81 said: “The next thing you know, you will see that cat typing your accounting works.” And Armaretto wrote: “Just casually Scrolling.”
Newsweek reached out to _cat_riki for comment and could not verify the details of the case.
