What do you think of the increasing popularity of short-form content?
From Vine to TikTok to Snapchat to Instagram stories to YouTube shorts, there’s no doubt that we love short-form content. The ten-second video is taking over the internet. Many YouTube creators who would infrequently release 40-minute documentary-like videos now are moving toward the short blip, released much more frequently.
Even I find it difficult to pay attention to a long movie or sit and read a book for a while without pausing to check my phone or post on the internet. I’m sure many in my generation and outside can relate. It’s not surprising with time constraints and shortened attention spans, easily-consumable short-form content is displacing long-form.
Do you enjoy short-form content? Do you have the time or the attention span for long-form movies, videos, podcasts, and books anymore?
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10 Answers
I HATE it. I love long form. When I browse YouTube if the video is less than 20 min it seldom gets opened by me. Short form will just flush your attention span down the toilet and somewhat guarantee you will know nothing about nothing.
@Blackwater_Park I do agree there is a bit of a positive feedback loop at play. The more short-form content you consume, the more your attention span erodes, so the more you gravitate toward short-form content.
When I want to learn a topic I want to take a deep dive. The exception is if I need a video to show me how to reset the error code on my car or something I want it to be short and to the point. Don’t need a 10 min intro for that.
I watch a lot of true-crime on YouTube, and if it’s shorter than 20 minutes I usually don’t even start it.
Same thing goes for spiritual content; short stuff I don’t watch.
I do have a few subscriptions that offer shorts, some of which I watch (astrophotography, woodworking), but I prefer longer there too.
On Instagram I’m pretty used to it (shorts that is).
@rebbel I do like Instagram stories, because most of what I watch is content from my friends who are just uploading brief glimpses of what they did in a day. I wouldn’t expect long content from them. But from YouTube creators (especially the kind of travel videos and deep analyses I like to watch), I prefer longer content.
I understand that totally.
Not a fan. It is not the full depiction and for the most part not their reality.
I like full content with back story.
I find myself entranced more times than I would like watching short form videos in FB. I enjoy what I see but hate the fact that I do. It’s a love-hate thing. Still figuring out how I can escape from this “this cellphone is my life” day to day existence.
Most short form content isn’t popular with movies or tv shows though. The streaming service “Quibi” completely failed because most people like to watch longer movies and TV shows.
But when it comes to news, I like watching a news story that lasts a couple minutes, and that gets to the point. A lot of mainstream news channels are losing popularity because they talk about the same thing for hours on end.
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