On a typical school night around 11 p.m., sophomore Meera Minocha puts away her math textbook and picks up her phone for a short break from her homework. She sometimes opens Instagram and dives into reels about any topic imaginable, and suddenly, her short break turns into an hour gone mindlessly scrolling on the app.
Minocha is one of many teens who find themselves swept away in the addictive nature of short, 30-60 second videos on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. While these short-form videos have revolutionized the way people inform and entertain themselves, they have also brought about side effects, including teens’ shrinking attention spans, especially when paying attention in classes.
According to a study by Northeastern University, the average American’s attention span has plummeted in the last 20 years — dropping from an average ability of 2.5 hours of focus on a single task to 45 minutes — raising alarms about the potential impacts smartphones have on learning, productivity and mental health.
Teens aren’t the only ones affected by this trend. Math teacher Lisa Ginestet-Araki also admits to mainly viewing shorter videos.
“It’s nice to not have the reel going and to not be expecting what’s coming up next? But, I’ve also probably gotten wrapped up in the shorter videos, because that’s what I’ve been seeing on social media,” Ginestet-Araki said.
Teachers aim to provide guidance to students struggling with lack of attention
Guidance counselor Brian Safine has seen major changes in teens’ behavior in his more than two decades as an educator.
“Students feel the need to be connected and the need to be responsive, whether that’s consuming video content, responding to a social media post or following a figure who’s of interest and whose words and deeds might hold importance for them,” Safine said. “There [are] constant pulls at students’ attention [when smartphones] exist as part of their being, literally on their body. Another byproduct that has been noted about social media use is the spike of teen rates of depression and anxiety.”
Teen mental health is a huge concern when it comes to the overuse of social media. In today’s landscape where the majority of content teens consume online is in short-form videos, counteracting the negative effects of these online videos is a major issue. According to Yale Medicine, “exposure to social media can overstimulate the brain’s reward center and, when the stimulation becomes excessive, can trigger pathways comparable to addiction.”
With social media being an endless source of bite-sized content recently, teens can become “addicted” to the allure of apps like Instagram and TikTok that keep teens hooked for long periods of time.
Safine also notes that while teachers try to vary their content to avoid 85-minute lectures bell to bell in every single class, it’s still a huge challenge for students to pay attention for longer chunks of time, even when it’s not a full class period.
Ginestet-Araki said she attempts to redirect her students from the allure of short-form videos by having a no-phone policy in class. She believes that shorter videos can be detrimental to attention spans, especially for younger students.
“Students are now craving a lot more stimulation, and I think they have a harder time unplugging and focusing,” Ginestet-Araki said. “[They] can focus for short spurts of time [before] they’re ready for something new, which doesn’t always translate great in a classroom.”
Additionally, chemistry teacher Kathy Nakamatsu has also seen the harmful effects that shorter videos have had on the focus of her students.
“I see students falling asleep more [and] more vacant looks,” she said. “Some people don’t really look like they’re ‘in it’ in lectures and they’re not really paying attention, and I see that reflected in their work. People are used to getting information really quick [through short-form videos], so I try to limit a chunk of a lecture to 15 minutes, and then give students a break. But I’m finding that even that seems too long.”
In order to counteract the lack of attention in her own classroom, Nakamatsu tries to incorporate POGILs, or Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning activities, and interactive labs to allow students more ways to be more active in their learning.
“I love POGILs because they force students to learn and it cuts down lecture time significantly,” Nakamatsu said. “When I lecture [after POGILs], people know what’s happening. And that makes my part of the lecture go so much faster.”
Various methods used to hook viewers onto short form content
Safine recommended a book he found particularly interesting on the subject of diminishing attention spans called “Stolen Focus” by journalist Johann Hari. In the book, Hari states that “switching” from using technology to not using it lowers focus and attention.
“Imagine you are doing [a task] and you receive a text, and you look at it — it’s only a glance, taking five seconds — and then you go back to your [task]. In that moment, your brain has to reconfigure [to] go from one task to another,” Hari wrote in the book. “You have to remember what you were doing before and what you thought about it, and that takes a little bit of time. When this happens, the evidence shows that your performance drops. You’re slower, all as a result of the switching.”
This act of switching, whether it be opening texts or short form videos, has also affected students. In order to grab viewers’ attention during even the duration of short videos, video creators have begun to implement new methods, such as side-by-side content.
One popular side-by-side method is to display a video game like Subway Surfers alongside the video so that the viewer is able to switch focus between the main content and another source of mental stimulation. By using a video game alongside the true content, viewers are able to digest information better, as they are able to always look in the general direction of a video by having a stimulating source next to it — and therefore, they absorb the information more.
“I have seen a lot of videos side-by-side with Subway Surfers or other mindless video games,” Minocha said. “Simply looking at it feels a bit strange, but I can see how it would keep someone’s attention.”.
Students spend so long on apps with short-form content due to dangerously effective methods of hooking people onto the app, such as clickbait, streaks on Snapchat, continuous notifications and sponsored ads by social media influencers. A survey of 33 current students conducted on a Google Form showed that, of the 90% of students who had an Instagram account, a majority spent more than an hour each day on the app.
Additionally, students have noticed the impact that shorter videos have had on their well-being and focus. Many say they have only noticed the impacts of these damaging short video tactics after they have been affected by them.
“Longer videos are more educational which is why I prefer them,” Minocha said. “But short form videos are so much more accessible that I just end up watching them more.”
Despite the easy accessibility and appeal of short-form media, educators say it’s important for students to set boundaries to ensure that the neverending stream of 30-second content online doesn’t overshadow other important aspects of life.
“Smartphones aren’t going away. They’re only going to get better [and] more addictive, so it’s important for teens to set their own limit with short-form videos,” Safine said.
