• Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    5 months ago

    It’s why I barely watch YouTube at all and mostly read news and get frustrated if the only source is a fucking YouTube video.

    You know what’s really easy to cite? A text document.

    You know what’s not so easy to cite? A six-part 14 hours-of-video deep dive into Disnleyland queueing and ticketing systems or whatever.

    No, stop, write it the fuck down. You definitely wrote a bunch down in service of making this fucking video so why not also just release that for fucks sake? Are people so unable to get involved in reading anymore?

    Some things are more helpful as a YouTube video, like How-To videos where you can see more clearly what is happening when a written instruction can be unclear. It’s also useful for speaking truth to power by recording cops who are breaking the law and so forth. But those are specific use cases.

    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Are people so unable to get involved in reading anymore?

      I don’t know know if this trait carrys over to Lemmy, but on reddit I would get my best upvotes on messages that were 1-2 sentences, usually with a quote or reference to something popular.

      You know, thoughtless content where I’m just reminding them of a quote from the office, or a small joke. Anything more than a paragraph and people replied "Whoa! I’m not reading that mountain of text! Meanwhile it’s less text than would be on a pamphlet.

      It reminds of something Bo Burnham said in a song from Youtube Live, which was planned as an annual celebration of youtubes biggest stars featuring live performances on stage. Bo Burnham had just broke out. He said:

      “It’s youtube, it’s what this country’s been needing, an entire generation of kids who don’t waste their time reading!”

      That was 2009. Which means at the youngest, those kids are now at least young adults. And the older ones are pushing 30 now.

      Excuse me as I go cry looking in the mirror at my grey hairs, pondering how many more years until I need a cane.