I’ll be discussing what short form in media is.
What Is A Short Form In Media
- typically vertical content
- Popular on most video based platforms
- Made with mobile devices in mind
Vertical Content In Observation
The phone design influences the domination of short- form content because it physically and literally shapes the way we see visuals.
We’re now at a point where the things that we see has to go in the up/down position and match the way that we look at our screen.

Source: Instagram
If you’re familiar with the past design of previous phones that used to dominate the technology market, you would recognize that it’s changed tremendously, and what this is doing is adapting with the shift and demand that the modern consumer would prefer for their entertainment or education at times.
The Popularity of Short Form Media on Visual Platforms
Algorithms on visual first platforms prioritize short videos and portrait style posts, because for whatever reason they decided and discovered that it is related to the watch time.
To be more specific, they figured out that this actual look is what people will stay on their device for a longer amount of time to consume whatever content or anything it is that they’re looking at.
And short form media aligns with modern attention economically because it emulates the things that drive most economies that are popular.
An example would be fast food.
There are plenty of people that are preferring to have a shorter, more condensed version of whatever it is.
They prefer people to get straight to the point and that is what short form content is encouraging.
Going Mobile When Short Form Is The Goal
Short form content feels inherited for the mobile phone and appears to be prioritized first because most of the content that’s made is directly from the phone.
There used to be an or earlier time when video content was first introduced and most of it had to be made with assistance of camcorders or old school picture devices.
But ever since the phone has started including other forms of recorded media abilities, it’s gotten to the point where it can outsource a lot of things that wasn’t the case. Years back.
And the behavior of these smartphones actually reshapes the structure because of small details that usually get overlooked.
It can be something as simple as how a phone screen will auto lock in a certain position when it’s recording.
And some people are at the point where they won’t change or reshoot whatever it is that they just did, so they’re going to run with the way that their device started recording.
So in that case, it would be where, however, the smartphone’s designed and just gets straight to recording is how most people will choose to move forward with their campaign.