From Scrolling to Sustained Reading: Digital Comics, Short-Form Video Culture, and the Transformation of Narrative Attention

Abstract

This study explores narrative attention as mobile readers transition from passive scrolling on social media feeds to sustained reading in vertical digital comic environments. Addressing a critical gap in media ecology and cognitive media studies, the research examines how kinetic muscle memory and rapid visual habits cultivated within short-form video culture are repurposed to support long-form narrative immersion. Utilizing a hybrid qualitative framework that integrates visual social semiotics, ergodic narrative theory, and user experience (UX) structural mapping across platforms such as WEBTOON, Tappytoon, and GlobalComix, the study maps the spatial and cognitive mechanisms that facilitate this shift. Findings reveal that vertical webcomics utilize haptic continuity, adopting the single-hand vertical swipe normalized by short-form video platforms while altering its cognitive outcome. By manipulating vertical negative space (gutters), creators convert spatial distance into physical scrolling time intervals, inserting micro-pauses that regulate reading velocity and counteract rapid visual scanning. Furthermore, when automated short-form video feeds induce passive scroll immersion, working memory deficits, and executive fatigue, vertical digital comics restore active ergodic agencies through user-controlled scroll speed, pausing, and re-scrolling. Coupled with platform publishing models that structure complex serials into bite-sized Minimum Viable Story (MVS) units, vertical comic interfaces provide natural cognitive resting points that mitigate digital fatigue. Ultimately, this research demonstrates that screen-based scrolling can channel fragmented short-form attention into sustained, goal-directed narrative engagement.