Short-Form Video Consumption and Sustained Language Attention: A Phenomenological Study of College Students’ Lived Experiences in the Philippines
Abstract
Context: Short-form video platforms such as TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts have become part of students’ daily routines, yet little is known about how learners themselves experience the relationship between habitual viewing and their ability to sustain attention during language-related tasks.
Purpose: Guided by the limited capacity model of mediated message processing, the concept of attention residue, and a stylistic perspective on how people construe experience through language, this study explored how college students who regularly watch short-form videos experience sustained attention during reading, listening, writing, and speaking activities.
Method: A descriptive phenomenological design was used with 15 first-year college students from five higher education institutions in South Central Mindanao, Philippines. Data from asynchronous semi-structured interviews were analyzed using Colaizzi’s seven-step method.
Findings: Four clusters of themes emerged: (a) lived experiences of habitual viewing, attention residue, restlessness, and a felt preference for speed; (b) challenges of distraction, procrastination, escape behavior, and endless scrolling; (c) coping strategies centered on removing the phone, task-first rules, chunking, and creative self-accountability; and (d) insights recognizing an inverse link between viewing and focus, growing self-awareness, and modest benefits outweighed by perceived costs. A stylistic reading showed that participants construed attention through metaphors and positioned videos.
Contribution: Sustained language attention appears to be shaped less by exposure alone than by patterns of use and self-regulation. Educators may pair purposeful short-form content with explicitly scaffolded long-form tasks and teach attention-protection strategies, while students may benefit from deliberate boundaries between entertainment and study.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Jeric L. Cahiles, Divine Grace S. Cajenta, Santhia Lavyne A. Bergonio, Keincheru Einch D. Abao, Edgardo V. Tabigue Jr., Katherine Mae G. Abayabay, Julie Mae B. Fuentes
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