From Entertainment to Addiction: An Analytical Study of Short-Form Video Usage and Its Academic and Psychological Impact on Students

Abstract

Short-form video platforms have emerged as one of the most rapidly adopted digital media formats among college-going populations, fundamentally altering how young people allocate their leisure and study time. Platforms such as Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts deliver algorithm-driven, bite-sized content that is designed to maximise viewer retention, raising concerns about compulsive usage and its downstream effects on academic life. This study investigates the consumption patterns of short-form video content among higher education students in Karnataka, India, and evaluates the extent to which such usage influences their concentration, study time, and overall academic engagement. A quantitative, survey-based design was adopted; data were collected via a structured Google Forms questionnaire distributed across multiple institutions, yielding 254 valid responses after data cleaning. Frequency distributions and graphical techniques were used to identify behavioural trends. The findings reveal that a majority of respondents devote one to two hours daily to short-form video consumption, with nearly 70% reporting that they periodically or frequently lose track of time on these platforms. A notable proportion acknowledged diminished concentration during study sessions and a reduction in productive study hours attributable to habitual platform use. Students themselves largely recognised the addictive potential of these applications. Taken together, the results point to a need for intentional digital self-regulation strategies among students to safeguard academic performance.