Vertical video takes over, users are stuck between speed and depth of content
(Dan Tri) - Short vertical videos are changing the way many people access information, while also making it more difficult to maintain focus with long content.
Watching vertical videos becomes a habit
Open your phone to "watch some TikTok", but when you look at the clock, hours have passed. For many people, this has become part of their daily routine.
Ngo Trung (22 years old) admitted he spends about 6 hours a day on vertical video platforms.
"The right videos appear constantly. When I go to eat, take a shower or wait for the bus, I have to take the time to open my phone to surf. Many days I promised to go to bed early but kept watching until 4 a.m. before I fell asleep," Trung said.
The habit of surfing short vertical videos lasting many hours every day has become a part of the daily routine of many people (Illustration: Doan Thuy).
A few years ago, Trung could spend up to 4 hours a day watching vlogs on YouTube or "watching" movies shown in a horizontal frame.
Nowadays, even when the content is of interest, it is difficult for him to maintain concentration like before. Instead of watching a long movie on a horizontal screen, Trung chooses to watch short films produced vertically.
Each episode of this format usually only lasts about 3 to 5 minutes, is suitable for phone screens and is serialized into many parts.
Similar to Trung, Huyen Mai (22 years old) said she spends about 7 hours every day watching vertical content videos on social networking platforms. On holidays, this number can be up to nearly 10 hours.
According to Mai, the appeal of video lies not only in its short content but also in its convenience. She often holds the phone vertically while lying down so she can open the app and view it immediately without having to adjust her position or rotate the screen.
The "vertical rotation" trend of the Internet
According to DataReportal's Digital 2026 report, by the end of 2025, 96.9% of Internet users in Vietnam will access the network using mobile phones. The popularity of smartphones has contributed to vertical video becoming a familiar format on many platforms.
The report also shows that Vietnamese people spend an average of more than 12 hours and 40 minutes per week watching videos online. Of these, short videos, mainly in vertical format, accounted for more than 7 hours, equivalent to more than half of the total video viewing time.
TikTok is currently the social networking platform with the highest usage time in Vietnam. For Android users alone, each person spends nearly two hours a day on this application.
While not the first platform to use vertical video, TikTok is the service that brought the format into the mainstream by combining full-screen video with a content recommendation algorithm.
Instead of relying on a list of accounts to follow, the system continuously delivers videos that are predicted to suit each user's interests, creating a nearly endless scrolling experience.
After that, a series of platforms such as Instagram, YouTube or Facebook all developed similar features. An algorithm-based content distribution model, rather than a network of friends or followers, is also gradually becoming a popular trend in the technology industry.
According to a comprehensive study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology in 2025, synthesizing 28 scientific works, the appeal of short videos comes not only from their short duration but also from the personalized recommendation mechanism, the ability to scroll continuously, and the continuous provision of content suitable to the viewer's interests.
However, research also notes that excessive use of short video platforms is linked to distraction, poor time management, sleep disorders, and comes with increased risk of stress, anxiety, depression, feelings of loneliness and reduced self-control.
The popularity of vertical videos does not mean that users can only choose content that lasts a few tens of seconds. Besides the tendency to watch quickly, some people said they actively seek out longer content to regain the ability to concentrate after getting used to the rhythm of continuous viewing on social networking platforms.
According to many users, the problem is not the vertical or horizontal video format, but the way the content is built
Stories that are told coherently, with depth, and not pushed by too fast a cutting pace can still attract viewers, regardless of whether they are shown in vertical or horizontal video format.