Split-screen videos rewiring content consumption

Scroll through any social media feed today, and you are bound to see it: the screen sliced in two, with parallel videos running side by side.

- Pratishtha Bagai

On one side, there's a creator who tells a story and on the other, a video of someone playing a mobile game or cooking a meal runs silently. This is the split-screen trend born from the battle for our distracted attention.

Sometimes this short-format video stems from collaboration between creators, while in other cases it is used to bypass copyright restrictions.

Psychologists say the trend is a symptom of our modern digital diet. “Attention spans have sharply declined and continue to shrink as content consumption becomes increasingly rapid and fragmented,” said Ishita Pateria, a counselling psychologist. “While audiences once pre-

ferred long-form videos, today even bite-sized clips under 60 seconds struggle to hold’ interest. The sheer abundance of content on social media leaves users perpetually scrolling, constantly presented with new options and distractions.”