Reel Culture and Literary Consciousness: The Impact of Short-Form Digital Media on Reading Habits in Contemporary India

Since the early days of print, deep reading has been a literary practice that has always sustained imagination, reflective thought and critical awareness. However, the digital revolution of the twenty-first century has had a dramatic impact on the way people read and the way that they consume culture. The proliferation of smartphones, low-cost internet, and algorithmic social media has led to a new media landscape in India over the last few years, which has created a new type of digital content: short-form digital videos such as Instagram reels, YouTube shorts, and AI-generated visual stories. This paper aims to explore the change in attitude of today's Indian readers and to examine the changes in their reading habits, reading attention, interpretive approach to reading and literary engagement particularly of the youth. The focus of the study is on the shift from the deep reading to fragmented digital reading in India's changing media landscape, and on the theories of Marshall McLuhan, Neil Postman, Jean Baudrillard, Maryanne Wolf, Nicholas Carr, Sven Birkerts and Walter Benjamin. Speed, or instant gratification, as well as emotional provocation and visual overload, are said to be the defining features of Reel culture, which don't lend themselves to ongoing contact with literature or to opportunities for reflective interpretation. The paper argues that this is a significant shift that India today is undergoing, from print-based literary sensibility to digitally-mediated cultural experience; literary experience is now in competition with algorithmic entertainment for public attention.