Books are not disappearing. People still buy them, bookshops are still around, e-readers remain popular, and we probably have access to more reading material today than ever before. Yet, I sometimes wonder whether we are slowly losing the patience to actually read books.
I should admit something before going any further. I was never really into reading books myself. It was only about a year and a half ago that I began developing the habit. Now, I find myself reading anything and everything that catches my interest. And sometimes, when I look back, I feel I may have missed out on a lot by not reading earlier.
Reels and short videos are competing with reading
Look around, and you will understand why reading faces so much competition today. News stories become short videos. Product reviews turn into Reels. Recipes are explained in sixty-second clips. Travel stories are presented as quick montages with music. Even topics that once required a detailed article are now often explained by someone speaking directly to a camera.
I understand why. Watching a video is easy. You press play, sit back, and the information comes to you. Reading requires a little more effort. You have to pay attention, imagine what the words describe and, these days, resist the temptation to check your phone every few minutes.
I am guilty of this too. There are evenings when I can happily spend twenty minutes scrolling through short videos, yet somehow feel that I do not have time to read ten pages of a book. It makes no sense, I know. But scrolling never seems to take up much time. Reading does.
Our phones have also changed how quickly we expect information. If something does not interest us within a few seconds, we swipe, and something new appears. A book does not work that way. It may take twenty pages to introduce a character or establish the setting for a story. Sometimes, nothing particularly exciting happens for several pages. You have to stay with it. And perhaps that is becoming a little harder for us.
Is short-form content affecting our attention span?
It is easy to look at younger people constantly staring at their phones and complain that they have lost the ability to concentrate. But every generation has probably found something wrong with the habits of the next.
Still, some research on the subject is worth examining. A 2025 analysis published in Psychological Bulletin brought together 71 studies involving more than 98,000 people. It found that greater use of short-form videos was associated with poorer cognitive performance, particularly in attention and what researchers call inhibitory control. Put simply, inhibitory control is our ability to resist distractions and stay focused on what we are doing.
The association was observed among both younger people and adults. However, this does not mean that watching Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts is damaging our brains. The research does not prove that. Nor should every study become another reason to panic about technology.
Much of this research identifies an association rather than a direct cause-and-effect relationship. People who already struggle to concentrate may be more attracted to short videos. Alternatively, excessive exposure to short-form content may make sustained concentration more difficult. At present, there is not enough evidence to settle the question conclusively.
Another study published in JAMA Network Open in 2026 examined smartphone use among 79 young people aged 11 to 18. The participants spent an average of about 2.2 hours of the school day on their phones and checked them approximately 64 times during school hours.
More frequent phone checking was associated with poorer cognitive control. Once again, the study found a connection but did not establish that smartphone use directly caused the problem.
These findings do not mean that short videos are inherently harmful or that everyone who watches them will struggle to read. They do, however, raise important questions about our digital habits and the way we divide our attention. Perhaps the bigger issue is not whether books are becoming less popular, but whether we are becoming less comfortable with anything that demands our attention for an extended period.
