Three out of 10 high school students struggled to stay focused reading long texts for more than 10 minutes. Analysts said frequent viewing of "short-form" is affecting reading habits.
Jinhaksa, a college admissions information platform, said on the 18th that a survey of 3,525 high school students on short-form viewing habits and learning-related experiences showed these results.
According to Jinhaksa, in response to the question, "Have you often felt it is hard to focus on reading for more than 10 minutes?" 22.2% said "yes" and 8.4% said "very much so." In contrast, "no" (26%) and "not at all" (15%) totaled 41%.
Also, 57.9% of respondents said they "habitually turn on YouTube Shorts or Reels without a specific purpose." "No" (12.5%) and "not at all" (4.6%) came to 17.1%.
Viewing sessions for short-form content often lasted longer than expected. Asked whether they could regulate their viewing time, only 20.1% said they "can stop when they want."
By contrast, 78.4% said they watch longer than intended. Specifically: ▲ generally possible but sometimes runs long (51.6%) ▲ often runs long even when wanting to stop (20.1%) ▲ hard to control (6.8%).
Woo Yeon-cheol, head of the admissions strategy research center at Jinhaksa, said, "As media use centered on short-form increases, the brain is becoming more accustomed only to short, strong stimuli."
He added, "At least during study time, it is necessary to physically keep smartphones away and pair that with training to read long texts such as textbooks or newspaper articles to the end."