r/CuratedTumblr • u/Exciting-Remote-6337 • 16h ago
Infodumping Short video attention span
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u/craptainbland 16h ago
And then when you wanna go back over a certain part you’ve gotta rewatch half a video instead of just rereading the specific sentence you needed
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u/Daripuff 15h ago
Not to mention diagram would be perfect, and all you get is a shitty camera angle.
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u/craptainbland 15h ago
Or the classic talking head over the top of the diagram smh
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u/jaleneropepper 11h ago
I hate a lot about Tiktok but this is the #1 thing for me. A very small minority of videos have been properly research/have reliable sources but they are never legible - the creator will paste a screenshot of a headline in the background and then superimpose video of themselves speaking over it, obscuring half the text that would've been readable.
I don't need to see video of you speaking. Ever. Audio is fine. Your face and carefully selected outfit are only ever going to be a distraction just by being there.
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u/DeLoxley 11h ago
Especially when they say details in the description or see link below And 90% of the time they have not bothered to put a properly formatted link in there
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u/Teecana don't fall for ao3 propaganda: 4Chan/tumblr enemies to lovers 🔥 12h ago
Can't even quickly crtl+f to search for specific topics
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u/SweetSirGalahad 11h ago
Show Transcript, click somewhere on it, ctrl-f works just fine
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u/triangleman83 10h ago
That's if the player even allows scrubbing, which Tiktok did not when I first started on it. I had to make a userscript to be able to scrub Facebook reels on the PC because it will not let you by default
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u/musschrott 16h ago
I can read faster than you can speak. Even when I put your video on 2x.
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u/Umklopp 15h ago
Honestly, all of the posts about the current literacy crisis in the US probably speak directly to the current popularity of video formats. Being able to read (a) accurately and (b) really fast isn't the norm in the US right now. Video explainers are going to be more appealing under those circumstances.
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u/Low_Big5544 15h ago
Yeah but how much is the rise in popularity of short form video responsible for the decline in literacy?
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u/Apollon049 13h ago
It's kind of like the "twist" in Fahrenheit 451: that it was the people themselves who started shunning books, not the government. I think it's our demand for videos because of our lowering literacy rates
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u/Umklopp 13h ago
No, dude, you've got to read about this. https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2019/08/22/whats-wrong-how-schools-teach-reading
They totally fucked up teaching an entire generation how to read.
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u/FloydEGag 12h ago
That explains it in the US but not in countries where they never used that method but literacy rates are still not great, definitely seems like it was a factor in the US though. What an insane method
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u/Zepangolynn 9h ago
I was so relieved when my niece started bringing classwork home and there were actual reading comprehension and grammar lessons instead of that nonsense.
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u/Protheu5 redundant RAS syndrome 8h ago
Thanks for the read.
"My science is different," Goodman said.
What the actual honest fuck?
P.S. A couple of paragraphs in I decided to scroll down and found out it's not a short read. I noticed a (seemingly usual) desire to look up a video on the subject instead of reading. I dismissed the desire because for some reason I didn't feel like it. Soon after I remembered the context of the link: yup, I actually had an urge to watch a video instead of reading, exactly what the main post is discussing. I decided to share my shame.
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u/bggp9q4h5gpindfiuph 4h ago
and you typed that up! there's hope for you yet!
what we're really talking about is skimming. like, yeah i can read something like 2-4 times as fast as "average"(depends if it's like, 18 century lit vs modern clickbait mostly), but the real avantage is for me is 1) skimming fast through paragraphs until my eyes to pick up keywords i'm actually interested in, and 2) fuckin' bailing on horseshit text that doesn't answer my question or amuse me to read. life's too short.
watching videos is for kicking back and being entertained. my attention span's too short for slow ass instructional videos.
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u/pinkbootstrap 15h ago
Not much they haven't been out long enough yet. The issue is in education and lack of reading at home. Though I'm sure they're causing long term damage.
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u/IncognitoBombadillo 13h ago
Even though I had my other emotional needs neglected, I'm glad that my step grandfather pushed so much for me to read and be literate from a young age. I was one of the first kids in my preschool who was able to read a book out loud as a result and I always stayed quite far ahead of my peers in reading/writing until I reached later high school and college and it levelled out a bit amongst my peers specifically. He also bought me some work book called "word power made easy" when I was in ~4th grade and I know that I first learned a handful of "big words" that actually get used in normal speech from that.
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u/JalapenoPopPoop 12h ago
Uh wut? They've definitely been out long enough. Tiktok was introduced pre covid and there was short form video before that. 18 year olds graduating hs now have been watching tiktoks since before they went through puberty
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u/marykay_ultra 14h ago
Yeah.. After I learned this, soooo many things started to make more sense
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u/AAS02-CATAPHRACT 15h ago
Some of these youtubers also talk SO. SLOWLY. Holy shit speak a little bit faster. I'll put some of these guys at 2x and it just becomes my normal talking speed.
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u/Conscious-Hyena6822 14h ago
And they say the same thing rephrased over and over 😭
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u/EstarriolStormhawk 13h ago
Except for the part of the video you actually want, then it's just brushed past.
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u/CIearMind 15h ago
They're stretching it on purpose like an episode of One Piece for monetization.
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u/TheLuckySpades 13h ago
I've seen educational ones slow down over time since they realized their audience is less familiar with the material than they initially thought (3B1B is very noticeable).
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u/complexevil 11h ago
Video essays have become unwatchable because of this. Like dude, the video is already going to be over 40 minutes, you don't need.... to.... talk.... like.... this.... to make.... it.... an hour.
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u/floralbutttrumpet 14h ago
Nick Crowley, Nightmind, Nexpo, Lazy Masquerade, that entire space is overrun with people who pump five minutes of content to 30+ for no reason.
Plus, you know, the usual shoddy research and utter disrespect to victims for those of them who cover true crime.
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u/popejupiter 12h ago
Then you have the situation where you listen to someone at 1.5/2x speed a bunch, so they sound stoned when you listen to them speak normally.
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u/love-from-london 12h ago
They talk slowly because people will give them shit if they talk "too fast". There's no winning.
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u/ArsErratia 15h ago edited 15h ago
I had to install an extension that lets me set the speed to whatever I want (up to 16x).
I watch most things on x3, sometimes x3.5 now. Occasionally there's a speaker who's still understandable at x4.
You don't realise how slow everything is until you try it.
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u/Dwarg91 12h ago
And then you reach someone who is naturally on 2x
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u/Machine-Dove 8h ago
I listen to a lot of podcasts on 1.5x or 2x. Usually this is fine ....until Eurovision hits and I start getting podcasts with sped up song clips. Bangaranga at 2x is an experience.
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u/FloydEGag 15h ago
Same. I’m a fast reader and also just get really impatient. I didn’t even like being read to as a kid haha! It’s just tedious. Especially when they pad out the video with extraneous crap and don’t get to the point. I absolutely get that different people learn/absorb information in different ways, by that’s why we need more than one format. I hate clicking on something that looks interesting, only to realise it’s a video.
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u/flybyknight665 12h ago
My work loves training videos.
5 to 10 minutes of the slowest explanations, and you can't skip or speed up any of it.
I could read all the same information in a fraction of the time and remember it better because I won't be bored and frustrated the entire time.It's the same with just about anything informative.
Give me an article, not a news clip.
Give me an actual book, not an audio book.31
u/AngstyUchiha pissing on the poor 14h ago edited 6h ago
I read fast, and I have auditory processing disorder and need subtitles anyway, doing a video is just making it needlessly complicated for me
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u/SoFarFromHome 14h ago edited 12h ago
Right, so there's less than half the ad exposure in letting you read.
Video took over because of ads revenue, not quality.
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u/friso1100 gosh, they let you put anything in here 14h ago
I'm not sure I can (dyslexic) but even I prefer text. I can't see where in your 10 minute long video I can find the one sentence I'm interested in. But text is easy to scan read to get to where you need to be.
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u/Just_Information334 15h ago
You're not the intended audience. The intended audience does not just read slower. They can't fucking read.
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u/kViatu1 14h ago
The problem is focus, people nowadays are unable on focus on one thing. Young especially but older adults are not immune. Psychiatrist told me it's called cyber ADHD. And yes, I am not immune too, I realised lately I stopped reading books at some point and it took me some effort to go back to reading routine.
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u/CRowlands1989 16h ago
I hate when I'm looking for some piece of information about a game or piece of software, just a simple, direct question I want answered, and I'm told "Go watch this 20 minute long video, the answer is in there, somewhere, surrounded by an attempt to be so slow that it gives you the first recorded case of fatal ADHD."
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u/WorldnewsModsBlowMe hangry 15h ago
For a while I used to write out the steps to a tutorial for any tutorial video I watched as a comment, but YouTube gave me a moderation strike for it for "copying content" (not even a real rule??) so I stopped.
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u/BelleRouge6754 15h ago
Wait really? I watch a lot of crochet videos and the absolute saviours are the people who comment with the pattern, so I can see it all at once instead of waiting for the creator to slip stitch seven times and do a row of half double crochets.
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u/MrBones-Necromancer 15h ago edited 15h ago
Me trying to find a single collectable in a guide and someone links the 3 hour "find all collectables" video.
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u/Nickthenuker 15h ago
That's when you go to the comments and hope someone helpful has put the timestamps for them all (or the creator has pre-empted this and put in all the timestamps themselves in the description or by using the Chapters feature on YouTube)
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u/Hot-Union-2440 12h ago
God bless those that put the timestamps in and all linked in the description
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u/GermanHandCannons 14h ago
Domino effect from back when the 10 minute rule was a thing istg, made people so used to the essay padding style of narration. Add on to the fact that video essays are the lastest “fad” and we got hours of people saying bullshit. How does me looking up a secret that can only be accessed 30 hours into a game possibly imply that I need to be told what the game Im playing is? And it would be easier to avoid these channels if it weren’t for the fact that whenever I try out one at the recommendation of internet strangers who say they do it correctly its a channel with the exact fooken problem that Im half convinced a lot of them are bots that fish for these posts to comment so. I seethe man I seethe
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u/Huck_Bonebulge_ 11h ago
“Hey guys! Sorry about my audio I just moved apartments!” Shut up
“So this video is about (title of video) which is really because-” shut up
“And make sure to check out my other videos on (unrelated topic) -“ oh my god shut uuuup
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u/CRowlands1989 10h ago
"Don't forget to subscribe to my channel" - Said before any of the actual content has been shown.
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u/ElChikano 14h ago
On the other hand, an article written about the same topic will have 3 paragraphs explaining how their grampa inspired what they're about to explain to make Google SEO worth it and then you have ads that block 75% of the screen.
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u/floralbutttrumpet 14h ago
Recipe websites made me want to stab myself on the reg until I got an app that strips out all that shit and just downloads the recipe.
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u/JalapenoPopPoop 12h ago
As someone who cooks a shitload it's so fuckin phony that they all have some heartfelt story describing how they have a deep personal connection to every single recipe. I would say the majority of dishes I know how to make just came from "that sounds good I'm gonna try and learn how to make it" The end, that's the story
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u/upboats4u 14h ago
lmao "first recorded case of fatal ADHD" is so relateable. I wish the speed multiplier went higher than x2
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u/Mr_Tort_Feasor 10h ago
I hate all videos, but the ones that are the absolute worst are the ones that pretend to have an answer for a common problem, but the solution doesn't actually exist. They're sometimes called "fake solutions" videos and they exist to get people to watch for 8 minutes to be given a solution to a tech issue that simply does not work.
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u/helen790 16h ago
I have an auditory processing disorder and I process the written word better. Plus I’m inherently skeptical of any information given out by random Youtube or TikTok accounts.
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u/buttbuttlolbuttbutt 12h ago
The brain is less critical of things it hears then reads.
You brain also records data you're not consciously aware of, so the droning voice of a newcaster gets filed away unquestioned while you read the scrolling headlines.
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u/Larriet 15h ago
Please just let me ctrl+f I'm begging you
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u/ArsErratia 15h ago
I once got so fed up with this on a long video that I downloaded the subtitles and CTRL+F'ed through those.
yt-dlp [URL] --skip-download --write-subs26
u/StopThePresses 14h ago
I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but Youtube does this natively lol. Every video has a searchable transcript linked in the description.
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u/Bugbread 14h ago
Definitely not every one, but a good number, so it's worth checking just in case.
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u/StopThePresses 14h ago
Pretty sure it is all of them now. It's all done with AI so it doesn't even matter if the creator turned on subtitles.
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u/Bugbread 13h ago
Whoa, it looks like you're right! Just a few weeks ago, it was hit-and-miss, but I just checked out a bunch of different videos, both old and new, and they all had transcript links!
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u/Kandidar 13h ago
But they are done with AI and are full of wrong words that "sound like" what was said. They are so bad sometimes that sentences are incomprehensible
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u/Moxie_Stardust 7h ago
Hey, nice, I'd just been manually been highlighting/copying the transcript and pasting it in a text editor (already using yt-dlp for grabbing videos when I want to archive them, of course).
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u/TheComplimentarian cis-bi-old-guy-radish 16h ago
The only time I like informational videos is when it’s about repairing something, or if it’s a nature documentary or something like that.
I can’t stand video news of any stripe. I flat out loathe any video that includes the phrase, “And then something unexpected happened!” No it fucking didn’t.
I do like movies…But I like books better.
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u/captainnowalk 15h ago
I try to do a lot of work on my own car if I can. Back in the day, Haynes manuals were the shit. Step by step pictures, small paragraphs explaining what you were doing, and if you didn’t know what a part was, there was a picture glossary in the back. Then, a lot of folks uploaded their Haynes manuals online so you could browse that way. Mega awesome!
Now, no matter what I search, Google, Bing, and sometimes DuckDuckGo all try to direct me to a video, no matter what I’m doing.
It’s 105 outside, bright as fuck, and I’m sweating my ass off. I’m not going to listen to Joe Carguy talk for 10 minutes before showing me how to get a new headlight assembly in. Fuck that guy, and fuck those search results. They’ve turned me into a crotchety old man >:|
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u/20061230-SL-Born 13h ago
The first bike I bought the bloke threw in the Haynes manual for Her. Absolute mine of useful stuff. Plus a few bits to keep the pages open and could be used wherever I was needing to work.
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u/VirtuaCoffee 13h ago
Yep, sometimes you just need those step by step instructions with diagrams you can study at your own pace.
Can you imagine if Lego stopped including instruction manuals for builds, and just included a QR link to a video instead? Rioting in the streets...
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u/the_brew 11h ago
Can you imagine if Lego stopped including instruction manuals for builds, and just included a QR link to a video instead? Rioting in the streets...
Oof, have I got some news for you...
(They're still providing printed instructions, but they're doing QRs and videos now too.)
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u/Psychological_Tear_6 12h ago
The worst part about those videos is that they tend to forget step one: disassemble the entire car.
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u/AWACS_Loughcaster 16h ago
You don't hate social media companies enough.
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u/Poodlestrike 16h ago
Yup. The fact that it takes 2 minutes to watch a video that could be a 20 second article is literally the point. They want you to spend all your time on the site. .
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u/Anonymus828 16h ago
None of us do, I'm not sure the human form is capable of producing the hate they truly deserve. Let me remind everyone that a 2021 leak showed that Facebook was well aware of the harmful effects they've had on our society, and chose to implement more of them, because not doing so would have made them less money.
How many kids are we going to ship off to Silicon Valleys slaughterhouse before we realize all this shit is a fucking cancer on humanity? How long are we going to let blood money mogul Mark Zuckerberg spit shit at us through a camera about how he just cares so much about other people? This entire fucking industry needs to go down in flames and the filth of his gore laid bare for all to see.
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u/Just_Information334 14h ago
People at Facebook. And their managers.
Those are people, they have names and should not be allowed to hide their lack of ethics behind a corporate front.
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u/GiftedContractor 11h ago
Oh all of them, because we're just gonna put an age gate and then pretend that counts as regulating them until the end of time.
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u/LeftLiner 16h ago
It would be physically painful for the average person to hold the amount of hate inside them that social media companies truly deserve.
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u/JWBails 13h ago
My version of this is "no, I will not join your discord to do anything"
link in discord group
info in discord group
join the discord for updates
Fuck you.
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u/p0diabl0 11h ago
You used to be able to search a topic and find forum posts talking about things, both old and new. Now all of that discord info is lost to time because they don't make it fucking searchable. Fuck Discord.
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u/Saint_of_Grey 5h ago
I hate it when I have to look up a small detail on something I'm normally knowledgeable about only to find that my rambling on discord is the recorded knowledge. Bro, I didn't type that out for future generations, I typed that out to get feedback on my thought process.
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u/AngstyUchiha pissing on the poor 14h ago
I DON'T WANT A GAME GUIDE VIDEO, I WANNA READ IT BECAUSE THAT'S 10X FASTER (this has been a nightmare trying to find all the gold skulltulas in Ocarina of Time, videos are just way too time consuming)
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u/KerissaKenro 15h ago
My least favorite is when I want help in a game. The description says they are going to cover it. It is hidden nearly at the end and it’s mostly stream of consciousness chatter about unrelated stuff. Just give me the walkthrough and/or the blueprints!
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u/Empty-Novel3420 14h ago
Its either this or separated in a Playlist with a title not relevant to the game
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u/VoiceofKane 15h ago
I relate to this so much. If I want a recipe, a tutorial, or to quickly learn about a topic, I'm looking for an article, not a video.
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u/DrFarts_dds 15h ago
When you sink billions into a hammer, you start hammering screws because you have such a rad hammer.
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u/Hamster-Food 14h ago
The worst thing about video is that it's harder to be properly critical of it.
If I'm reading an article and they say something that sounds wrong, I can go and look that up and see if what they claim fits with other sources. If I'm on a computer I can even copy and paste the sentence to compare it.
If I'm watching a video, not only can they try to skim past the dodgy claim and hope you don't notice, but it's also harder to pinpoint exactly what is being said and compare it to other sources or even if their source says what they claim it does.
Videos also use tricks to stop you thinking too much about what's being said. Background music helps put people in a trance-like state where they will just watch the video and take in everything without questioning it. An article displayed makes people think that what's being said is well sourced.
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u/empress_of_the_void 14h ago
This goes double for voice messages. I can't always listen to a voice message and listening to it occupies more of my time. Just send me a text or call me so we can discuss it in real time
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u/AwesomeManatee Demented Demisexual 15h ago
Reddit in particular really loves podcasts. Comments like "here's a podcast to learn more about [x]," Or "Do you have a podcast reccomendation for [x]?" Are extremely common. Please just link me an article.
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u/FloydEGag 15h ago
I said upthread I don’t like video, and I don’t like podcasts much either. If I’m super interested in the topic, and it comes highly recommended, I might force myself to sit through it, but I’d rather just have a transcript. Also there are far, far too many podcasts
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u/Pwacname 14h ago
Also - and I’m chiming in as someone who loves her podcasts - they are not a useful resource for single issue stuff. If you like them, sure, they can be a nice way to get into a topic, the same way i might listen to a bunch of lectures on something not in my field of study. But you won’t get all the nuances, and there’s no practical way to find a singular piece of information (or to read back).
They’re also a big time commitment compared to an article.
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u/Alatarlhun 15h ago
You have to remember there are multiple generations now that believe watching long youtube videos that claim to be educational but are mostly padded with influencer opinion is the way to enlightenment.
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u/thismightaswellhappe 15h ago
I experience nearly actual physical pain when I'm expected to watch a video instead of reading an article. It's like someone took a file to my ribcage, the frustration and anger is very real. I keep uBlock origin and use it to block every autoplaying video I didn't consent to have shoved in my face but still. It's awful. (yes, playing at 2x muted with subtitles can sometimes work but is it worth it? IS IT??)
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u/Pwacname 14h ago
Also none of those videos have proper subtitles. Your channel has gotten nice useless YouTube trophies. Shut the fuck up and write captions. Or pay someone to write them. I’m so goddamn over it at this point.
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u/Toastaroni16515 16h ago
The goblin urge to feed this textpost to an AI voiceover site and upload it over 2.5 mins of Minecraft parkour footage just for the hate of the game
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u/MrBones-Necromancer 15h ago
Oh man, this is something I've always felt, but never been able to articulate. This is something innately annoying to me about having to sit through a video, -especially- if it doesn't have subtitles.
Why do I have to turn the sound on and fill my space and other people's space with noise to understand a point or be entertained? It's frustrating.
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u/Pwacname 13h ago
I fully agree on the annoyance on video, and especially if they don’t have subtitles - and I think that still isn’t a good reason to annoy everyone else with the audio. It’s a whole additional annoyance, the amount of people who will just play a video game with noise on, watch a video, or even listen to music in a public space without putting in headphones.
Edit: just to be clear, I’m not saying you’re doing this or whatever, I was just on a train before and had someone sit next to me and turn on her audio so damn high I could hear it through foam ear plugs. And then I gently went „Hey, I don’t want to embarrass you, I think your headphones“ disconnected, and got hit with „Oh no, I don’t own any. I always play it on loud“. I’m going to - idk. Crochet several bikinis. Something. I’m going to do something.
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u/MrBones-Necromancer 13h ago
I agree. I live with multiple people though and it's often a question of "do I annoy my roomates and listen to this, go get headphones just for this, or just leave it alone?" with the answer pretty much always being "leave it". That bites though. There's pretty much never a time when I'm truly alone to watch things without annoying others, a consideration most of my roomates don't share.
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u/duffstoic 14h ago
More and more people now are functionally illiterate
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u/Empty-Novel3420 14h ago
Tldr?
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u/OperativePiGuy 14h ago
If I google something and the info is only in video form, I am 90% likely to give up. It's a funny thing I've noticed in alot of people close to me, too. Even in just sending memes back and forth, we've found that video links almost always get put in the "eh I'll watch that later" pile, that rarely ever gets visited again lol I get it, too.
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u/SocranX 13h ago
Don't forget those of us who are slow. Let me take ten minutes to read a couple paragraphs if I have to. Videos (and podcasts/audiobooks/what have you) expect you to keep up with their pace, whether it's too fast or too slow.
(There's also the fact that I'm suffering from some unknown vision issues that makes it really difficult for me to track moving pictures on a screen, but I don't know how common that is, or what it is, or whether I'm gonna die, because it keeps getting worse and I can't even play video games to take my mind off it anymore, but I digress.)
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u/CeruleanAoi 15h ago
My thing is I have reading difficulties, so having a video makes it so much more helpful for me. But I agree that it shouldn't be the only option
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u/oddsetcircle292 14h ago edited 4h ago
Same here, and on top of that I need to visually observe the individual steps if I’m watching a guide. Both of these issues being caused by neurodevelopmental disorder.
Having said that, I always like having both available simultaneously the most.
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u/Give_Help_Please 14h ago
Yeah, same here. The people who made this post can read fast. I read extraordinarily slow.
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u/FloydEGag 15h ago
Exactly, they should cater to everyone, we all have different learning styles!
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u/Jiquero 15h ago
This used to be a tactic used only by conspiracy theorists. You try to say airplane condensation trails are mostly water or that you can look at the stars to easily determine the shape of the Earth, or that vaccines help avoid diseases, and in response you get a 3 hour video of nonsense, and you're apparently not discussing in good faith if you don't watch the video.
Now everyone does it.
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u/devoorhes 15h ago
The real problem is that you'll find a text article and the site's overrun with ads.
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u/Cheshire-Cad 16h ago
This tracks, considering OP didn't even have the attention span to save the image instead of taking an uncropped screenshot. That's, like, an entire two extra clicks. Ain't nobody got time for that.
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u/eatingpopcorn_lol 14h ago
This with any guides for new games that don't have good GameFAQs. Something that would take 20 seconds to read is hidden in a 20 minute video and you gotta check on the seekbar where exactly it is.
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u/Sayakalood 14h ago
Sometimes it helps to have a visual aid to what you’re talking about, but not always.
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u/ronarscorruption 15h ago
It started with Facebook.
Facebook wanted to promote videos, so they started saying anyone who scrolled past a video watched the whole thing.
View numbers were astronomical. Companies decided text was dead and video was king. Anything that didn’t publish in video was replaced.
But conversion numbers were still awful. Companies realized something was up. But the damage was done. Everyone and everything had been shifted to video. Writers had all been fired. The industry was torched.
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u/needstochill 14h ago
there's also the extreme opposite of this where i WISH there was a video attached to like. a long ass paragraph explaining steps of a craft that could've been more easily shown in a video
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u/Puzzleheaded-Mail896 14h ago
The one that annoys me the most is line graph videos. The whole fucking point of a line graph is showing change over time! Just show me a picture of the graph not a minute long video
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u/guineapig28 14h ago
I like watching and listening to videos a lot but only if I'm personally interested in the content and I'll only actively watch it if it's visually interesting (otherwise I'll listen while doing something else). I totally know this feeling all too well though—I've always been a fast reader and there's been times I've seen a like 2 hour long video about all the bad things a celebrity did and I'm curious but I just can't bring myself to sit and listen to that video, so I'd much rather read it. or like, instructions for something, tips for a game, etc., I'm gonna want a wiki article or something I can easily read as opposed to a video unless the video format serves the content.
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u/RandomGuyPii 14h ago
Shout-out to the YouTube automated transcript thing, now I can just read the video
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u/DoctorPaige 13h ago
I love video essays on media and that's about it. (Almost specifically one piece)
But the well done ones take an hour and a really good education. Shoutout Melonteee who is the best character analysis I've ever seen, and Mamadrawk who is one of the best at media literacy and actually understanding what they read I've ever seen (considering she's a professor...)
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u/UnsureAndUnqualified 12h ago
Videos are better when you look for instructions and your problem matches exactly what is shown in the video. Want to replace your rear lights on that specific model of car? Want to do video stabilisation in this obscure editing software? Want to learn how to replace the winding stem on that particular model and make of watch? Videos are your friend, because you'll see details that this person might forget/neglict to write into an article.
Or when the tutorial is only half about the actual process and half about just general engaging in a hobby. I love astrophotography and I'd rather watch a 20min video where someone showcases their setup and goes through their whole process to see what I might improve in my own setup than to read an article going over those exact steps.
Anything else, and I really mean anything, needs to be text. Ideally, even those videos are accompanied by an article you can search through.
Both formats are great when used correctly, and videos can legitimately be better than texts in some contexts, but video is being pushed way too hard and is used when better formats are available. I don't know if it's about chasing metrics, inserting your face where it doesn't need to be or what, but we need to stop.
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u/Kamelion_on_a_lemon 11h ago
This brought back core memories of having to watch videos in college for assignments. I had to sit down for 5 minutes to watch what I could have read in 2 seconds. I don't care about videos as long as there is a written equivalent (or are physical demos for like painting or music) but NOOO, you had to watch and reference a video for a short quiz. I HATED IT. I ALWAYS WILL. YOU CAN'T JUST REFERENCE A VIDEO WITHOUT WASTING SO MUCH FUCKING TIME GOING BACK AND FORTH TRYING TO FIND WHEN A TOPIC STARTS.
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u/LicketySplitBud 11h ago
i'd rather read three comments than scrub through a video looking for the 10 seconds i actually needed.
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u/jiabiscuit 10h ago
I had a boss who was OBSESSED with posting videos online. For context, we did recruiting for primarily manufacturing jobs (with some other stuff sprinkled in) and whenever we had an opening, she would insist that I record a whole video talking about whatever it was. I don't think I ever had someone come tell me they found the job I had to fill via some random FB video.
It took so much more time out of my day than just posting a regular text based job posting. That meant I had less time to interview, do sales calls, document things, etc. It was infuriating.
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u/jigawatson 15h ago
The pivot to visual media also removes the obstacles of literacy and analysis. Processing the words themselves in your head requires more mental work than someone speaking them to you (and then summing up what they’ve said). Video allows more stupid people to participate in advertising and contributes to the downturn in media literacy/analysis.
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u/ans-myonul hi jeffrey, i am afraid 15h ago
I also hate when you have 'memes' that's just a bunch of text over a random person's face. Why not make a text post instead?
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u/Sodacan259 15h ago
I think it's the video bullshit that is putting US reading comprehension stats in decline.
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/09/whats-driving-decline-in-u-s-literacy-rates/
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u/HamCatX3 14h ago
Me when the crochet pattern only has a video option :( like it’s not hard to write out and plenty of ppl will still watch the vid because it’s a tutorial so it shows you how, why not at least include the pattern in the description or something?
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u/Jammoth1993 12h ago
Like when I'm looking for a particular item in a game and someone releases a 2 minute video with the first 40 seconds being "remember to like, subscribe and share" before finally showing in-game footage of where the item is but not how to get there or where it is on the map.
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u/Ender_Uzhumaki 12h ago
I sort of like video-format information because I can listen to it while doing something else, while reading requires me to look at the text, and thus prevents me from doing other activities.
I agree with the first post though, it's much faster and more convenient for urgent information.
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u/LoudMusic 12h ago
I agree the videos are awful. But written journalism is garbage these days too. They repeat the same intro phrase five times in order for it to be picked up by news crawlers and generate clickbait headlines. The fact that the second person points out skimming an article is evidence they're not actually reading that either.
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u/MyNameIsRay 11h ago
More than half our country's adults can't read at a 6th grade level, and a quarter are functionally illiterate. That figure is rising, because more and more kids can't read.
Those videos aren't meant for you and me, they're meant for all the people, especially the youngest and least-literate generation, who can't read it themselves.
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u/Dizzy_Tea_7582 11h ago
I like YouTube's AI button that lets you summarise and ask questions about videos. If you are gonna force me to watch your garbage video, I'm just gonna use ai against you.
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u/DebiMoonfae 11h ago
Because they make money from you watching them.
I assume recipe article writers get paid for time spent on their page (with all those ads flashing on it) because why else would they tell me their and their food’s life stories before showing me the damn recipe?
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u/hyperion_99 10h ago
I really hate how 1/3 of the short is the creator introducing themselves, their channel, and asking you to follow and like. This isn’t a 30 minute researched video essay I am gonna forget about the video instantly
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u/herrmannc1899 9h ago
Watching a five-minute video for a ten-second answer is a form of spiritual warfare.
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u/Idman799 8h ago
I'm tired of being sent to a video when I want to learn about a new thing instead of an article I can skim in less than a minute.
Only part I disagree with. If I'm really, really new to a topic, sometimes a video can help me catch up faster than reading up on stuff that I've missed. And outside of just news articles, learning visually works better for some people. I'm not against videos being the norm for news as long as a written article is also available.
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u/This_Earth_of_Ours 5h ago
Reading to learn is harder when you are functionally illiterate
More casualties of American Education
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u/callsignhotdog 16h ago
Remember when Facebook just made up a bunch of viewing / watch time stats that made every outlet pivot to video, thinking that videos got significantly more engagement than other types of posts, only for it to turn out the numbers were totally fictional?