The Conundrum of Mobile Video and Independent Choice
Photo by Kaique Rocha: kaiquestr.wixsite.com/kaiquerocha
The United States lead mobile video consumption in 2015 with exactly half of all video consumed via smart phone or tablet, according to a study from IAB. Video content of any kind, from a one minute Instagram video to a 45 minute Netflix episode, is being consumed on devices the size of one’s palm. Marshall McLuhan’s quote that “the medium is the message,” is ever prevalent as the ratio of screens to eyeballs shrinks. The iPhone is yourphone or my phone, but never our phone, and such as it was designed, mobile video is distinctly individualistic. The question of what “message” this quickly growing platform sends, or how it influences already existing messages, is largely up to speculation. Here are two foreseeable outcomes nonetheless.
For romantics, relics, hipsters or high artists, consuming videos on a screen so small, whether on the toilet or during the daily commute, is blasphemous. There is an argument to be made about decreasing attentiveness of viewers when video goes mobile. Price aside, we perceive a level of obligation to finishing content we see in theaters or on a television set. The level of obligation to finishing content viewed on mobile devices is next to none, considering the saturation of equally and immediately accessible content as well as the independent nature in which we are watching. In essence, viewers now have more of a choice, or the feeling of more choice anyway. This isn’t inherently bad, of course, as it raises the demand for captivating content. The concern however, is that audiences will cease to expose themselves to challenging, important video content that they need or ought to see but may not want to. Whether it be social commentary in art or news of unsettling conflict around the world, the individual consumer is detached from social pressures or criticisms that might otherwise guide the nature of their video consumption.
The positive implications, on the other hand, of video consumption without social pressure or criticism is the potential for a viewer to have a wider range of exposure. That is to say, a viewer may be more willing to open themselves up to unfamiliar or uncomfortable content using a mobile device than they would in a theater for $10 a ticket. IAM also states that 36 percent of the study’s respondents watched long-form video content (over 5 minutes) on a daily basis. Whether it’s a 30 minute episode of your favorite show during lunch break or a indie movie you can fall asleep to that night, convenience of the mobile platforms frees up the viewer to new and unfamiliar areas of content. One element at play here, with a potentially higher influence, is the social component of a theater setting, or a home television set for that matter. We can feel uncomfortable watching certain things around other people: for those we don’t know, it’s a matter of what they will think about our taste in content. For our friends or family, it is a much more intimate version of the same concern. In any case, that uncomfortable stimulation is eliminated on a platform designed for your eyes only.
According to Ooyala, the number of video plays on mobile devices has increased by 170 percent over the past two years from 17 percent in 2013. Insivia also cites YouTube’s findings that mobile video consumption increases by 100 percent every year. Mobile video is the new medium and it’s coming fast. In the same way that theatre as an art form remained after the invention of motion pictures, movie theaters and home TVs are likely to remain prominent regardless of advancements in mobile video consumption. Content producers are still catching up with the new medium, and the more they do, the greater separation we will see between home and mobile video content. Never the less, addressing the prospects of such advancements is equally as important as the advancements themselves.
Sources:
https://www.iabuk.net/research/library/mobile-video-2015-a-global-perspective-research-and-infographic
http://go.ooyala.com/rs/447-EQK-225/images/Ooyala-Global-Video-Index-Q4-2015.pdf
http://www.insivia.com/50-must-know-stats-about-video-marketing-2016/
