The macro view on micro dramas: Shorter, faster, and more addictive

From two- to-three-hour films to one- to two-minute micro-dramas, online content consumption is getting shorter, faster, and arguably more mindless

If you cross a gripping web series with reels on Instagram, you get micro dramas. These fiction shows, made up of two– to three-minute episodes, are the latest programming trend across the world. Each of the 30–50 episodes in a season ends on a cliffhanger — a murder, a marriage, a deception or redemption — among the scores of other emotions that could titillate you enough to move to the next one, and then the next. This constant emotional titillation is the only way to avoid being swiped away by viewers faced with a deluge of options to pass their