We are obsessed with watching video

According to some researches, nowadays people spent 40 minutes a day for watching videos just on mobile phones. We are obsessed with watching video. But why?  In order to answer this question we should deeply examine psychological reasons behind it.

In ancient times we had to hunt for food in order to survive. We are able to see potential food from a long distance thanks to our well designed eyes. However, potential foods such as animals were also aware of the hunters.  They were hiding or stood still when they realized hunters. But thanks to our powerful visual system we can easily detect them when they were start to moving. Before we see anything else ,our eyes prone to detect the movement.

Another method of testing how sensitive we are to movement is going a place that you go to regularly. When you look around you’ll notice that there are some objects that you’ve never seen before and you will be surprised to not realised them before. The reason of that is because they have never moved.

We love movement

We love movement, we want to see movement. It address to our instinct to survive. So we shouldn’t be surprised that we like watching videos. That means video is no longer optional for businesses. Videos are not only appeal to people’s desire for movement but also they are more catchy compare to static images. In addition, there are studies that when we watch moving pictures we can understand things more easily. So using video is more sensible if you want people to remember your business or your products. Furthermore, there are some studies that when people watch movies their brains are “in sync”. Their brain activities are almost the same. This shows that people tend to understands same things while watching videos which decreases the potential for misinterpretation that could come from text alone. It is obvious that moving pictures have powerful effects on our brains.   

Movies are so good at creating emotion

In order to understand power of moving images I think we can also look the effects of movies on us. A movie can evoke much stronger emotions compare a static image.

In order to understand movies, we should examine how filmmakers guide us through a dramatic plot. In one study, while people watched clips of feature films ,psychologist Tim Smith recorded eye movement behaviour. Interestingly, while they were watching clips they start to look same spots on the screen at the same time. Smith calls this phenomenon attentional synchrony.  Indeed, according to Walter Murch, the Academy Award winning film editor and author of  In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing, considering psycologhy of viewer is very important think for good filmmakers.  “What is the audience going to be thinking at any particular moment? Where are they going to be looking? What do you want them to think about? And, of course, what do you want them to feel?”

In our generation it is very hard to find someone who does not watch movies or TV dramas. We can spent entire weekend for watching a TV series . We can learn from studying our addiction to movies as they have been formulated specifically to stimulate our brains.