Many people are now talking about the “death of the ad-supported internet model,” and I can only say that it can’t come quickly enough.
The main reason why it all switched to ad-supported is the massive costs of storing and streaming all that high-definition video. And for what? So I can see every pore on Joe Rogan’s face while he sits in front of the mic and talks for 3 hours?
Or so that some video game dweeb can read his essay about why an obscure JRPG is the height of postmodern art over 30 minutes of game footage. Or all the channels trying to imitate Kurzgesagt with shitty animation and information they gathered from browsing Wikipedia.
Face it. Most of this video is unnecessary. 99.9% of all possible information can be relayed through text, pictures, and the occasional sound file.
Furthermore, most video content creators are unnecessary too. I can just read about a laptop’s specs and the reviewer’s experience with it. I don’t need LinusTechTips to stare at me with his reptilian eyes while he destroys the inferior product with an oversized novelty mallet.
Most of what’s on YouTube and other video-heavy social sites is not insightful, not creative, not informative, not fun, not sexy, and honestly shouldn’t exist at all.
I agree.
I still hang around on some oldschool forums (like, UBB or VBulletin) for niche topics because honestly it’s just way easier both to contribute and obtain information in the form of text or maybe text plus a couple of pictures. I don’t need a 15 minute video with intro, outro, cringe music, multiple pleas to like-comment-subscribe, and a plug for the Patreon. All I need one .jpeg that shows me where all the fucking bolts are hidden on the machine I’m working on. Etc.
It’s infuriating that this idea that “everything is easier through video” took such hold. Even in the corporate context. We now have “instructional design professionals” advising corporations to ditch manuals and handbooks in favor of videos. The company I work for took that to heart, and everything is a video.
Oh, you need quick info on how a small part of a process works? Watch this 3-hour video the CEO made that touches on every process in the company and no there isn’t a table of contents with timestamps.
I started using some software they bought at work and I hate it. They do not supply a user’s manual. You can watch their videos or pay them for training. Even clicking help in the program just takes you to their videos webpage. It’s infuriating to me that they pay an outrageous (in my opinion) amount of money to license software and the company can’t even be bothered to provide a manual. Software training videos are worthless to me.