Why we love bite-sized videos

Let me inform you probably the most difficult a part of my job. Typically, I am going to delete TikTok and Instagram from my telephone as a result of I can not waste time endlessly scrolling by way of these apps, watching dozens of short-form movies in a single sitting.

Then, like clockwork, I re-download these apps as a result of I have to write about them for work. Thus, the cycle of infinite scrolling continues.

In fact, I can blame the character of the work, however my fixed scrolling stems from the truth that I really like short-form video.

And I am not alone. 73% of customers choose to observe short-form video to find out about a services or products, and 56% of entrepreneurs reported that short-form video was the highest development they deliberate to spend money on in 2024.

So, why are short-form movies so standard? It turns on the market are just a few causes, one in all which entails a little bit of psychology. Let’s get into it!

What’s short-form video?

Why is short-form video so standard?

What’s short-form video?

Quick-form movies are movies which might be lower than 60 seconds in period. Nevertheless, some entrepreneurs and content material creators agree that short-form movies may be as much as 3 minutes. However, if you need my opinion, I am going to keep on with the 60-second rule.

I take this place as a result of consideration spans are getting shorter, however we’ll get into that later.

Nevertheless, short-form movies present info in a digestible, bite-sized format so viewers can shortly view and bookmark the content material on the go or for a number of viewings.

Why is short-form video so standard?

There are just a few the reason why short-form movies are extra standard than ever amongst customers and entrepreneurs, and I am going to go over them in a bit. For now, I wish to get into the psychology of all of it—that is why we’re right here, proper? Stroll with me.

Shopper consideration spans are shrinking

Science tells us {that a} key motive we choose short-form video is that our consideration spans are getting shorter and shorter.

Dr. Gloria Mark, a psychologist, just lately wrote a e book known as Consideration Span: A Groundbreaking Approach to Restore Stability, Happiness, and Productiveness, and she or he says her analysis signifies that individuals’s consideration spans have shrunk over the previous 20 years.

Dr. Mark shared his findings on the American Psychological Affiliation podcast, Talking of Psychology.

His findings come from a decade-long experiment he participated in, which was first performed by shadowing contributors and monitoring their exercise with a stopwatch.

“We are going to document the beginning time and cease time,” he stated.

He explains, “So that you’re on a display the place you are engaged on a Phrase doc. As quickly as you get to that display, we click on begin time. As quickly as they flip away and test the e-mail, we click on the cease time for the Phrase doc and the beginning time for the e-mail. Clicked.”

Over time, logging strategies turned extra subtle as know-how improved, and this solely made the sample of narrowing consideration spans extra obvious.

“So in 2004, we discovered the typical consideration span on any display was two and a half minutes,” Dr. Mark recalled throughout the interview. “Through the years, it acquired smaller. So round 2012, we discovered it to be 75 seconds.”

Dr. Mark says that quantity has been declining over time.

“After which over the past 5, six years, we have discovered it is about 47 seconds on common — and others have replicated this lead to seconds. So it appears fairly sturdy,” he says.

And this development of consideration loss is affecting how we devour content material. And I am not simply speaking about social media movies — even tv and movie pictures are getting shorter, Dr. In accordance with Mark

“They began a lot earlier. They now common about 4 seconds of shot size,” he says. “If you happen to take a look at MTV music movies, they’re so quick. They’re only some seconds. So once we watch TV and movie we’re used to seeing very quick shot lengths.”

Dr. Mark defined throughout the interview that it is a rooster vs. the egg state of affairs — he is unsure which got here first or which is influencing the opposite.

Nevertheless, the very fact stays that we have gotten accustomed to much less and fewer content material and that’s bleeding into the kind of content material we devour and what’s being created.

Analysis reveals that almost all customers will solely watch a full video if it is lower than 60 seconds lengthy. Then you’ve apps like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels that push short-form movies to customers in an infinite scroll format.

Moreover, our 2024 Advertising Developments report discovered that almost a 3rd of promoting professionals say their firms will leverage short-form video content material in 2024, and 53% say they’ll improve their funding within the content material sort this 12 months.

This is smart as a result of most entrepreneurs in our survey stated that short-form video content material gave them the very best ROI final 12 months

In case you are curious, listed here are just a few extra the reason why many people love short-form video

1. They’re cost-effective and simpler to supply than long-form movies

With long-form movies, entrepreneurs and creators should work further onerous to maintain their viewers engaged. This implies reinforcing the content material with dynamic pictures, mood-setting music and an extended however partaking script.

All that takes extra time, effort, and (most significantly) cash.

Quick-form movies are way more necessary and sometimes require much less frills to be efficient.

For instance, language studying platform Duo Lingo’s TikTok account has over 10.8 million followers and is among the most well-known accounts on the app due to its quick, humorous, and barely offbeat movies.

Its hottest video has 57.7 million views and could be very easy to execute.

It reveals Duo Lingo Owl climbing down the steps in a luxurious firm workplace, sitting outdoors on a wet day, and soaking within the bathe.

The video is captioned “Whenever you ignore my notifications.”

The video was clearly shot on somebody’s smartphone with out fancy angles or lighting. The music is from a viral track already accessible by way of its sound archive. So easy, so low cost, but so efficient.

2. They’ll present invaluable info in a brief time period.

In accordance with a latest Adobe survey, 2 in 5 People use TikTok as a search engine, and almost 1 in 10 Genres belief TikTok greater than Google as a search engine.

I even discover myself trying up recipes on TikTok or determining methods to type a denim maxi-skirt (the trick is to experiment with totally different layers and silhouettes).

Between work, household, hobbies and rest — time is valuable, and short-form movies permit us to soak up the data we want in underneath a minute. Who would not love that?

3. You’ll be able to watch them nearly anytime, anyplace

Bored of the practice downtown? Scroll by way of TikTok. Must kill a while between lessons or appointments? Drag YouTube Shorts or Instagram Reels to your telephone.

Wish to use your 5-minute break between conferences to determine why everyone seems to be speaking in regards to the newest JLo documentary? Let’s return to TikTok.

Quick-form movies are straightforward to observe nearly anyplace and anytime from our smartphones.

Not solely is that this handy for customers, nevertheless it additionally helps entrepreneurs as a result of it means we will repurpose our content material on totally different platforms for anybody to see it from anyplace.

There are a number of causes for selecting small-sized movies.

Some causes are a bit of extra worrisome than others (significantly, why do we’ve got such quick consideration spans?), however regardless of the motive, the very fact stays — acronyms aren’t going away anytime quickly.