Correlation between the Use of Short-Form Video and Everyday Life Attention in Thai High School Students

: The short-form video has emerged as one of the most popular social media content among Gen Z and millennials. Generally, video content that does not exceed 3 minutes is considered short-form. So, we conducted a study to determine the relation between the increase in short-form video consumption and a decrease in attention capacity. A questionnaire was sent to Thai and international high school students via a Google Forms link. The questionnaire contained 39 questions, asking participants about their demographic data and short-form video use rate, as well as the attention assessment. On the results, 52% of participants were identified as male and 45% as female. 85% received the top grades (3.5-4.0). Regarding usage, 35% continually watched multiple short-form videos for over 1 hour, and 70% uploaded their videos on the platform at least once. Instagram was the most frequently used among students. The purpose of watching short-form videos included relieving stress (72%), having leisure when feeling bored (64%), and keeping up with trends (39%). Most of them showed average to high attention level in both males and females. Although one-fourth strongly agreed that they wanted to watch short-form videos during the study period, the data analysis revealed no correlation between the use of short-form videos and attention in everyday life. This suggests that everyday life attention in Thai high school students is likely to be affected by other factors.


INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, social networking has become an integral part of people's lives, particularly for high school students. This is evidenced by "Statista" revealing a tremendous increase in internet usage in Thai population from 44.3 million people in 2017 to approximately 57.81 million people in 2023 [1], especially among Thai high school students. This is partly due to its utility, dependability, and ease of accessibility, which make it so convenient for many purposes such as business, education, news updates, and entertainment. As one of the simplest instruments for communicating with others, social media provides practically all the information that a person would need or desire to know. The development of this technology has led to educational activities occurring in online communities where people can share information [2].
The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 can also be blamed for the drastic rise in internet usage over the past few years [3]. This is due to the safety measures put in place by the government, Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Education to impose acts such as curfews, a full-scale national lockdown, the prohibition of social gatherings, working from home, and online learning. The spread of COVID-19 thus creates a significant impact on and concern for society in terms of physical health, mental health, job stability, and academic advancement. In April 2020, Thailand implemented social measures like curfews, a full-scale national lockdown, and a 14-day quarantine requirement for visitors from other countries. On December 17, 2020, a second wave of unauthorized immigrants arrived who evaded the quarantine apparatus. Since the previous entire lockdown had a detrimental economic impact, the government adopted a tailored method, isolating some areas and utilizing active case finding [3]. Due to the Ministry of Education's decision to delay the school's opening, opportunities for learning at school are lost. Students tend to stay home and do remote learning through social media, as well as adults who choose to work from home rather than go out to their office [4].
One of the most popular forms of social networking used by today's generation is short-form video, specifically for the younger generations aged between fifteen and nineteen or high school students. A short-form video is basically any video content that does not exceed three minutes in duration, and it usually appears on popular platforms such as TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram, and Facebook Reels [5]. A platform for short-form videos allows users to explore and produce short-form videos, in addition to having social media elements. Short-form videos are increasingly popular as a way to share skills and learn new information. Several advantages of the short-form video include the ability to maintain higher engagement for the user within the least amount of display time on each video. The primary reason for the use of short-form videos is pleasure. Many young people in this generation have relied on social media to help them determine their moods or emotions, considering their distinctive minds and creativity [6]. In addition, short-form videos are also beneficial for news updates in view of the fact that trends alter in a couple of days. It allows users to keep track of the current global situation through popular hashtags and re-upload any support [2]. Furthermore, the goal of content creators is to increase their audience and subscriptions. Channels with a larger following will have more opportunities for profit through sponsorship and advertising. Most websites compensate video producers for each time an ad is included in their work. Directly selling videos to media partners and customers with options to rent, buy, or subscribe at fair prices is another way to generate income [2]. Some websites additionally compensate users or content producers for each brief original video they upload. Those video producers usually appear on popular platforms such as TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram, and Facebook Reels.
Despite the benefits, there are negative features of TikTok that were recently discovered. Research has also shown that bingewatching a constant stream of 15-to 30-second videos reduces our attention span more than any other form of media, and the fact that regular users spend hours more on short-form videos than those other already established social media platforms makes the issue worse [7]. In relation to health, the brain is one of the main organs that is affected. Regular use of TikTok has been shown to lead to a rapid series of dopamine spikes (surges) in the brain [8]. According to the infinite scroll feature along with the algorithm that can detect and recommend a variety of contents for the consumer, it is considered an addiction. Gaining access to that enjoyable feeling becomes more and more crucial, but at the same time, users' tolerance grows, and they require progressively more of that substance to achieve the desired high [9]. Concentration and short-term memory are also affected. The study demonstrated that users who generally watched short-form videos lost the potential to focus on longer video formats or books anymore; instead, they found them more stressful [10].
Therefore, we conducted a questionnaire-based survey to determine if there is a negative correlation between the use of short-form videos and everyday life attention in Thai high school students. Our study was based on the hypothesis that "there is a relationship between the increase in short-form video consumption and a decrease in attention capacity." We hope this study will raise society's awareness of the consequences of short-form videos.

METHODOLOGY
A questionnaire was developed and designed to be the instrument in this cross-sectional study in order to gather information about the use of short-form video and everyday life attention. The questionnaire was performed by sending it out as a Google Form link to high school students in Bangkok between February and March of 2023. The questionnaire consisted of 39 questions, divided into four sections: general information, short-form video use, background information on attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and modified everyday life attention scale ( ELAS) . In the first three sections, the provided response options include multiple-choice, in which the respondents were able to choose only one or multiple answers, and the 5-point Likert scale.
The final section is an adaptation of ELAS based on the original from Yvonne Groen et al. [11]. The objective of ELAS was to report a measure of attentional capacities by counting the number of situations with impaired attention scores. Its situation-specific approach categorized everyday attention into nine situation scales: A-reading, B-movie, C-activity, D-lecture, E-conversation, Fassignment, G-cooking, H-cleaning up, and I-driving. Each scale was composed of ratings for sustained, focused, selective, and divided attention as well as motivation. However, using a full version of ELAS would not be practical due to its extensive length and number of questions. The respondents might find it too complicated to answer and refuse to complete the questionnaire. Even though all the questions were completed, the answers would contain several unintentional errors, resulting in inaccuracies in of data collection and further analysis. Apart from this, it was evident that Thai high school students experienced four particular situations more regularly than the others, i.e., A-reading, B-movie, D-lecture, and F-assignment. According to the survey by the National Statistical Office of Thailand (NSO) and Thailand Knowledge Park (TK Park), Thai teenagers aged 15-24 had the most prolonged reading rate at 109 minutes per day [12] [13] Recent research in 2022 also reported that 26 million Thai people used over-the-top (OTT) platforms (streaming platforms for watching video content on the internet, especially movies). Focusing on OTT users, 33% are Millennials and Gen Z, and 20% are binge-watchers with an average daily usage of 4 hours or more [14]. Lastly, it is not uncommon for Thai high school students to spend considerable time attending class and carrying out their homework and assignments. Thus, it is easier for the target respondents to mentally visualize these everyday situations and genuinely answer the questionnaire.
Therefore, the original ELAS was modified by reducing the number of given situations from 9 to 4 (A, B, D, and F), with some questions excluded for data-collecting purposes. Nevertheless, the structure of the ELAS was still the same. Each situation started with a question on the duration to carry out a task without any break, followed by a series of items in which respondents were to choose only one from 10 scales, ranging from 0 to 100. The data scoring also corresponded to the original, in which the data from each were calculated and transformed into situation scores. The norm forms were 18-29 years old male and female who acquired a high education level. These were chosen as interpretation references.
Additionally, three language and psychological specialists inspected and revised each question, ensuring the ItemObjective Congruence (IOC) Index rated greater than or equal to 0.5. After all the questions were verified, the initial pilot testing was conducted. The questionnaire reliability was subsequently determined using Cronbach's alpha reliability test. From the calculation of the results, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was equal to 0.849, indicating good internal consistency [15].
Next, the questionnaire was distributed directly to a sample group of anonymous Thai public school students, Thai private school students, and Thai international school students. The sampling process was carried out using a voluntary selection method. Most participants were studying at the high school level and had an accumulated grade point average (GPAX) of 3.5-4. More details of participants are presented in Table 2. After receiving 60 responses, the statistical package for the social science (SPSS) version 29.0.1.0 was used to analyze quantitative and qualitative data and compute univariate statistics. Furthermore, the Pearson correlation test was conducted to examine the correlation between the use of short-form video and everyday life attention In the context of their education, the data indicates that 60.0% of them were high school students studying in grade 11. Surprisingly, the percentages of grade 10 and grade 12 students appeared identical (16.7%). When it comes to the type of school where they received their education, the information reveals that the number of those studying in Thai public and private schools ( 47) surpassed that of international schools ( 13) . With regards to their academic performance, well over four fifths (85.0%) reported that their grades ranged between 3.5 and 4, while only 2 respondents, accounting for 3.3%, suggested that their grades did not exceed 3.0.
Regarding platforms, most people (67%) used Instagram as an application for exploring or uploading short-form videos in the form of Instagram Reels. This is followed closely by YouTube (66%) and TikTok users (53%), whereas Facebook was the least frequently used platform, which accounted for approximately 28% of total participants. In terms of content, the most popular types among students were the videos that included funny or cute animals and pets (62%).The second and third places were video games-related content and tutorial videos, respectively. When asked about the purpose of watching, 72% of participants used short-form videos as a way to relieve stress. On the contrary, 64% chose the reason that they just felt bored at that time, and 40% wanted to keep up with trends.  Table 2 displays how digital content audiences interacted with the social media platforms where they consumed short-form videos. 21 respondents claimed that they spent less than 30 minutes watching short-form videos daily. The number of those who watched it for 30-60 minutes was 18. However, the number dropped dramatically when the durations were more than 1 hour. Most users (70.0%) reported that they were both consumers and content creators since they had uploaded their videos on online platforms. Merely four students always interact with the application, but a comparable proportion (less than 5% difference was observed in the Never, Rarely, Sometimes, and Often options. Exactly 12 people had never brought the video they watched into a conversation with their acquaintances. The other 10 people sometimes share their comments on the video with their friends. To utilize the assessment provided by Groen et al., excluding the responses gathered from those identifying as "other" was necessary. The results obtained from our data interpretation are shown in Table 3. The data implies that most male students (≥ 30) were able to focus beyond the "average" level, and less than 4 people were considered to be below the "average" level in each situation. Moreover, 15 male students, who were the majority, were classified as having the "average" ability to focus on watching movies. Of the 27 female students, most of them (14) were categorized as "high average" in the reading situation. On the other hand, only one of them was classified as "high". The figures obtained from the watching movie situation in the "average," "high average," and "high" levels were 9, 7, and 8 people, respectively. As for the lecture, it is evident that this category has the most students (9) classified as "high". The section where most female students were categorized as "low average" (4) was assignment. To find out how usages correlated with the attention capacity in each circumstance, we defined the term "usage rate" as the amount of time spent on watching videos and overall interaction of participants. The calculation used data that was collected from both male and female participants, as well as two responses designated gender as "other". Besides, raw situation scores from section A, B, D and F were used as variables in the data analysis. All figures of Pearson's correlation are shown in Table 4. The results suggest that an ability to concentrate on doing an assignment correlated well with that of reading, movie, and lecture situations at the significant level of 0.01. Aside from that, participants that were able to focus on lectures significantly tended to pay a high level of attention when watching a movie (p < 0.01). As Table 5 shows, one-fourth of the students (25.0%) agreed that watching such videos wasted their time, while around 23.3% disagreed. Approximately one-fifth (21.7%) opted to stay neutral. Furthermore, 22 students (36.7%) indicated that they had spent more time than they expected watching videos, and only 11.7% strongly disagreed with the statement. Most students (28.3%) agreed that short-form videos affected their life behavior. When asked about their desire to watch short-form videos while studying, 25.0% suggested that they strongly agreed with the statement. However, 14 students (23.3%) strongly disagreed.

DISCUSSION
Overall, 35% of participants watched short-form videos for more than 1 hour per day, and 70% have uploaded their short-form videos at least once (Table 2). Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok were the most frequently used platforms for watching or uploading videos. In addition, participants answered that they often interacted with people on social media platforms where short-form videos were available, as well as their friends in the physical world. These results indicated a relatively high use rate of short-form videos among high school students. Regarding their attention capacities, the data reveals that most participants were classified in the "average," high average," and "high" attention levels (Table 3). In only five of the total responses, the situation scores were interpreted as impaired: one when reading a book, three when watching a movie situation, and one when doing an assignment situation. In general, participants were capable of sustaining their attention and focusing on both receptive and active situations with adequate motivation and effort. According to the study by Groen et al., ADHD patients reported significantly reduced scores on all situation scales and a high number of impaired attention situations [11]. Therefore, all male and female participants in this survey were at no risk of developing ADHD symptoms. The bivariate analysis showed no negative correlation between short-form video use rate and everyday life attention capacity, which contradicts this study's hypothesis. Nevertheless, there were four positive correlations within the group of situation scores from each situation, ensuring the reliability and consistency of responses. Although participants' opinions on the impact of short-form video watching varied, 63.33% agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, "I spend more time than expected watching short-form videos" (Table 5). This represented a form of addiction behavior toward short-form videos. Likewise, 41.7% agreed or strongly agreed with the statement "I think watching short-form videos is a waste of time" (Table 5). Even if they recognized that they should not continue watching it over that period, they could not stop the activity. A study from China in 2022 also found that adolescents aged between 10 and 19 years old showed an addiction behavior to TikTok. Time distortion was one of the factors that had a significant consequence for that behavior. The other factors included flow experience and users' mental concentration on the medium and its content. These were primarily influenced by the system quality of the application as a stimulus [16]. Furthermore, 1 in 4 participants strongly agreed with the statement "I have found myself craving short-form videos during my study period" (Table 5). Other studies have reported this behavior in students. According to a study by Zhou et al., their preference for content might increase satisfaction and motivation for watching [17]. Similarly, a more recent study by Ye et al. showed that shortform video flow experience had a positive effect on short-form video addiction. In contrast, short-form video addiction had a negative effect on intrinsic and extrinsic learning motivation. Intrinsic and extrinsic learning motivation, in turn, had a positive effect on learning well-being. In other words, it indicates that addiction to short-form videos has a negative impact on learning motivation and positive psychology of learning [18]. Thus, they might pay more attention to the contents in short-form videos with less of it on studying, and showing a desire to watch it during study sessions. By design, the survey purposed to control other factors such as age groups and demographic diversity. This is due to the fact that it could possibly influence the data collected and affect the analysis procedure. Due to the limitation of small sample size consisting of 60 participants. The sample might not be a complete representative of the target population. Therefore, the results might not be generalizable to all Thailand high school students. This study also relied on self-reported data from the questionnaire, which was likely subject to bias and might not accurately reflect the participants' behavior or experiences in real life.

CONCLUSION
This study focuses on short-form video consumption and everyday life attention in Thai high school students. However, no correlation was found between the use rate and attention capacity. For future studies, it will be advantageous to increase the sample size to obtain information with higher precision and accuracy. This will allow the investigation of demographics, content preference, students engagement, and other factors affecting their attention. Conducting longitudinal studies may also be beneficial since attention is a cognitive function that should be studied over the long term. We hope this study will raise society's awareness of the consequences of short-form videos.