Film Students & Short Attention Spans: Can They Finish a Movie?

The ability to focus, it seems, is becoming a casualty of the modern digital landscape. A recent trend highlighted by The Atlantic is impacting an unexpected group: film students. Professors are reporting a growing inability among students to sit through full-length movies, even as part of their coursework. This isn’t simply a matter of disinterest; it’s a demonstrable struggle with sustained attention.

Craig Erpelding, a film professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, articulated the shift succinctly: “I used to think, If homework is watching a movie, that is the best homework ever,” he told The Atlantic. “But students will not do it.” This sentiment is echoed by approximately 20 film-studies professors across the country, who have observed a decline in students’ ability to remain engaged with feature-length films, particularly over the last decade and accelerating since the onset of the pandemic.

The problem isn’t limited to introductory courses. Akira Mizuta Lippit, a cinema and media-studies professor at the University of Southern California, described students exhibiting behaviors akin to withdrawal symptoms when deprived of their phones during screenings. “The longer they go without checking their phone, the more they fidget. Eventually, they give in,” he explained. A screening of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 classic, The Conversation, revealed the extent of the issue. Despite being instructed to focus on the film’s crucial final scene, many students succumbed to the urge to check their devices.

The consequences of this diminished attention span are becoming apparent in academic performance. A particularly striking example involved a class screening François Truffaut’s 1962 film, Jules and Jim. Following the screening, more than half of the students failed a multiple-choice quiz testing their comprehension of the film’s ending, confidently asserting incorrect plot points – claiming characters hid from Nazis (the film is set during World War I) or socialized with Ernest Hemingway (who doesn’t appear in the film). This level of misunderstanding, instructors say, would have been unthinkable just ten years ago.

While some professors acknowledge that a resistance to older, black-and-white films or subtitled movies has always existed, the current situation feels qualitatively different. Lynn Spigel, a professor of screen cultures at Northwestern University, noted that while some students have historically found older films slow, “the ones who are really dedicated to learning film always were into it, and they still are.” The concern now is that the number of genuinely engaged students is dwindling.

The issue extends beyond simply a lack of engagement with classic cinema. The rise of “second-screening” – simultaneously using a smartphone or other device while watching a film – is a contributing factor. This habit has fostered a preference for easily digestible content, leading to a demand for narratives that can be followed even with intermittent attention. As Will Tavlin reported in n+1 magazine, screenwriters are now being advised to structure their scripts so that characters explicitly state their actions, ensuring that viewers who are only partially engaged can still follow the plot.

This trend reflects a broader shift in viewing habits. The proliferation of short-form video platforms like TikTok has conditioned audiences to expect constant stimulation and rapid transitions. The expectation of instant gratification and the ease of switching between tasks have arguably eroded the capacity for sustained focus. The result is a generation of viewers who struggle to immerse themselves in the slower, more nuanced rhythms of traditional filmmaking.

The implications for the future of film education, and potentially for the film industry itself, are significant. If students are unable to engage with the foundational works of cinema, their understanding of the art form will inevitably be incomplete. The challenge for educators is to find ways to recapture students’ attention and cultivate a deeper appreciation for the power of long-form storytelling. Simply assigning shorter clips, as some professors are now doing, feels like a compromise that undermines the very purpose of film studies.

The problem isn’t merely academic. The ability to critically analyze and appreciate film is a valuable skill, regardless of career path. Film, as an art form, reflects and shapes our understanding of the world. If future generations are unable to engage with this medium in a meaningful way, they risk losing a vital tool for cultural understanding and critical thinking. The situation, as one Reddit user succinctly put it, is “crazy” – especially considering the effort required to even enroll in a film studies course.