ZAP // pple;
20th Television; vicnt2815 / Depositphotos
In the fast-paced digital world we live in today, millions of people consume television in a strange new and fragmented way: through short snippets of vertical videos, published on social networks like TikTok and Instagram.
There is (another) bizarre way to watch television. A minute or two of TV shows and movies, out of orderoddly cropped for vertical format and often with blaring music in the background or strange texts, sometimes irrelevant and unrelated, floating on the screen.
Despite your low qualitythese short-format videos are captivating audiences and transforming the way people feel, discuss and discover ways to entertain themselves, reports .
For many, these clips offer a dose of nostalgia or joy amid the stress of everyday life.
Cristina Capello51, of Charlotte, North Carolina, describes the appeal as “look for those moments of joy and happiness when the days are filled with so much stress.”
Review a familiar scene from an old favorite series can bring back cherished memorieseven if it also awakens a certain bittersweet nostalgia of wanting to relive this experience for the first time.
The phenomenon goes beyond nostalgia. These excerpts are source of inspiration for new viewing choices, or simply facilitate decision-making in an era saturated with content, explained to , in 2023, the researcher at Pepperdine University and professor of marketing Cristel Russell.
O community side is also relevant. By coming together in the comments sections to analyze scenes, remember or debate plots, users recreate the social dynamics of old televisionwhen discussing the previous night’s episode at work or school, but now in digital format.
Unlike “vertical dramas” designed from scratch for mobile phones, these clips are usually taken from the vast traditional television archivesfrom series such as “Grey’s Anatomy”, “The President’s Men”, or more recent hits from streaming platforms, such as “The Maid” and “The Summer I Fall in Love”.
For fans, a quick montage of classic moments can satisfy cravings or provide a emotional charge without the time commitment to watch a full episode.
Already in a 2011 publication in the Journal of Consumer Research, Russell had identified that spectators are increasingly snacking of television content, instead of traditional marathons. Some skip episodes or parts of the story, while others go directly to the endings.
In recent years, the Social media algorithms drove the trendpresenting random clips adapted to users’ tastessometimes introducing them to series that they would never have discovered otherwise.
However, this new way of watching television walks a fine line between marketing and copyright infringement.
While some clips are officially released by studios to promote shows, many are shared without authorizationusing strategies such as overlay music, change video framingflip the image horizontally, or add text to escape removal.
Despite questionable quality, viewers remain loyalattracted by the feeling of community and shared experience — something increasingly rare in the age of personalized and solitary viewing in which we live.
