Longer Videos Are OK for Millennials -- Campus Technology

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Longer Videos Are OK for Millennials

By Dian Schaffhauser
08/18/16

While shorter is better when it comes to videos for some audiences, the rapidity of Snapchat-like videos (which limits a recording to 10 seconds) apparently begins to wear on viewers as they age. A recent survey by a company that sells screen recording and video editing applications found that Millennials — those who are 25 to 34 years old — have a higher tolerance for longer videos. In fact, they expressed their preference for videos longer than six minutes far and above those that are less than a minute in length.

In May 2016 TechSmith ran a video viewing survey to understand video viewing behaviors and preferences among U.S. end users.

These broader findings surfaced in the results:

Among all age groups queried, Millennials had the smallest percentage of respondents who stopped watching a video without finishing it.
However, this demographic also had the highest portion of people who stopped watching a video without finishing it because they had to do something else, though the main reasons they cited for dumping a video viewing were "boredom" and "not getting expected information."
They're also a distracted bunch. Millennials least likely among all age groups to focus solely on watching videos without multitasking.
Millennials also had the highest percentage among all respondents who chose to switch devices when watching a video.
Six in 10 Millennials have provided feedback on the videos they watch; and more than one in 10 (13 percent) have connected directly to video creators through e-mail or voice channels.
The three most important characteristics of the videos they choose to watch all relate to relevancy: They're genuinely interested in the topic; the video content matches their needs; and the video contains pertinent content.

"At TechSmith, we recognize that video has become an integral component in communication and learning. In fact, we recently conducted a viewer study to better understand people's viewing behaviors and preferences," said TechSmith CEO Wendy Hamilton. "The results provided useful insights, including [that] 98 percent of U.S. Millennials actually prefer videos that are longer than six minutes."

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

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