The use of content and its business strategies have changed over time. For instance, people are weighing the benefits of short-form content over long-form and vice versa, creating a topic of debate. Hence, here we are discussing the pros and cons of both forms of content and their benefits to the client or audience in recent years. 

To explain in general terms, long-form content contains >2000 words put in context, e.g., compendium, paper magazine, white paper etc., that gives in-depth information. However, until recently, due to developments in digital technology, long-form content has been reported to have put extra time and effort into maintaining the quality of updating new topics. Short-form content highlights or states the concept in infographics, short video scripts, short blogs etc. They are easier to create with less effort and can be informative at the same time with high rates of readability (≤1000 words). 

Both are equally important, but after considering the factors affecting the content mentioned below, short form has been reported to show its merits over long form. 

1. Clients/audience understanding: Visuals and infographics in short form provide a better view of the concept than theoretical explanations. For example, short briefs on evidence of a drug candidate specific to disease conditions or surgery are more easily understood than plain-language summaries and pictorial representations. Patient materials require easier representation of plain-language summaries and pictorial representations.
2. Preference/interest of audience: It depends on strategies or business models (sponsor, client/doctors) or on patient conditions. However, the expert of “Google ranks these pages higher” states the benefits of long-form content for its credibility over the years. 
3. Social media handling: Email Blogs, HTML, and e-magazine articles are developed for a shorter understanding of content than paper-based articles. Twitter and Instagram have also influenced the public. For example, an Instagram post with a short video (scripted) on how ingredients of a specific oil benefit hair loss with scientific data backed up.  
4. Time taken for reading/audience attention span: It is observed that users take only 8 seconds to read an online post and 15 minutes to review a long online blog. Hence, to digest the context, it is necessary to provide snippets of evidence to keep the audience engaged.

Focusing on the statistics article by Gil Appel, in 2019, it reported that the number of social media users is 3.29 billion globally. Due to modernization, the use of mobile devices has increased, leading to the consumption of short-form content in short video formats. Data by Maxwell Iskiev reported that 90% of marketers use short-form video for content generation. Expert Yelena Petic in 2023 conveyed that about 74% of customers prefer short videos. An article by Brian Liang in 2016 stated the cumulative benefits of short content over long content (Fig 1A). Also, Neilson Norman (Figure 1B), in his data, compared long and short-form content for viewers’ attention span, stating a rise in short-form content. These data suggest that modern times have used data consumption in a quick scroll. A lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, Dr. Williams, stated short tweets and videos have kept the attention span longer by releasing dopamine (happy hormone) in the brain. All in all, short form has taken over the market and is the new trend.   

Hence, to master the area of short content, the best practices one should note while creating are  

1. Stating the exact information for trust-building
2. Get to the point for conveying information, not in a roundabout way (brand takeaways).
3. Edutainment and boosting creativity.
4. Staying updated with digital technology, etc

Whatever the requirement for content consumption, while working at the foundation level, “quality of content matters the most” irrespective of short or long form. So, keeping this in mind, writers should provide information that is engaging for the audience.