I don’t like these generational generalizations.
Not an xer but I feel the same. I’d rather read twenty minutes than watch a 5 minute YouTube video.
“Elder millennial”/Oregon Trail generation here, and I’d generally rather read it, too. I’ve found it often only takes 5 minutes to read an article where the video would be 20 minutes. Sometimes a video works better for a how-to, but often an article will be a faster choice.
It's also much easier to retain information skimming through text compared to a video of just a person talking.
Oregon Trail generation
Holy shit, you're 185 years old? What's the secret?
I'm getting really tired of the news "articles" that have a video as well... I can't stand clicking a post here on Lemmy and all the sudden a video is autoplaying... Like stfu I just want to read it, not hear some jackass newscaster and I especially hate the autoplay...
The best ones are when you scroll down the page and the video comes too. I wish suffering on no one but were I to meet that particular 'innovator'.
I’d rather read twenty minutes than watch a 5 minute YouTube video.
I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a video, YouTube or otherwise, that conveys information faster than an article. It’s usually 10 minutes of video to convey what would take 3 minutes to read while providing greater detail.
I ran into a small series of videos on repairing camcorders that actually delivered the video content appropriately. Basically no talking (I think at one point they poke the broken thing and make an "eh?" Noise to indicate you should pay attention to that). Shows the thing, shows the problem, showed removing the part, showed fixing it, and then putting it back.
In my experience visual modes of communication work better for conveying visual information. Describing how you should position yourself for doing a task is harder than just showing a picture from a few angles. Likewise, describing how something moves is easier with an video because you can see it moving.
Unfortunately, a lot of people aren't looking to make the thing they're making efficient, but to keep you there longer for engagement. Text is easy to skip around in, so verbose text describing what could be a 30 second video isn't as effective. Inflating something that would be a four minute read on history or something into a video gives something harder to skim and still get information out of, and it's way longer.
that is because videos have minimums to reach peak monetization
it isnt about efficient information exchange
I’d rather read twenty minutes than watch a 5 minute YouTube video.
Part of the reason why I have no patience for video as nonfiction is because I read a lot faster than videos (or audio) can communicate information. So for me, I'd rather read a 5 minute document than a 20 minute video, even if one is literally a transcription of the other.
At least with audio I can take that in while doing something else.
The worst is instructional manuals being replaced with videos.
Going back 10 seconds, 20 times, so that you can visually see how two pieces fit together is way more annoying than just looking at a visual diagram on a printed page. Especially when you've got both hands full with stuff.
I like a combination there. I want a diagram of the parts and how they fit, and a short video of installation or removal. Just like a picture describes a physical scene better than words, a video describes a changing physical scene better than a picture.
I still want text describing the steps of the process and a diagram showing what it should look like when I've done it right, I just also want someone to show me how to actually execute the tricky bit.
I would agree except the instruction manuals and diagrams are often shit or unclear (even IKEA ones sometimes). To thread a sewing machine it didn't tell me how to get one of the hooks out, turns out it's coupled to the motor so I simply had to turn the wheel. The video made that clear. And yes I'm stupid and it was probably obvious but manuals that come with machines you can buy off the shelf should be for idiots.
I hate it when I'm looking for a single piece of information like how to change a specific setting on my device and there's no text available, just a highly rated video that goes like:
"Hey guys, it's your boy ManualExplainer here and welcome to another video. Be sure to like and subscribe to my channel. And remember to click on the little bell icon so you get notified whenever I put up a new video. All right, let's get to it. But first, a word from today's sponsor."
😡😡😡😡
Also, I want to see the video. Not the video with someone next to it making faces as they watch the video.
The only reaction video worth watching is someone from that profession reacting and giving additional context as to why it works or doesn't
“[video] REACTION!” And it’s just someone’s head in the corner as they raise a finger to point at the original video
hv;dw (hate videos; didn't watch)
Conversely, some things should not be articles either. I tried looking up the temp for cooking chicken, and the amount of 20-minute reads out there to find out it’s 165° for chicken breast, is too damn high.
The problem in that case is SEO. What you need is a table of cooking temps or just a single number, but what ranks high is a web page that mentions "cooking", "chicken" and "temperature" a million times.
(Or be like Gen X and keep a cook book and a scattered assortment of notes in a drawer)
Some thermometers have common safe cooking temps printed on them, its very helpful
As a xennial with ADD, send me the short, I'll watch it, hunt down the article, read it, then spend 3h down a rabbit hole to understand the validity of the claims and the bias of the news outlet, then I'll get bored and stop typing in the mid
I can send you the article, but you're going to get two "would you like to subscribe" popups and dozen more ads sprinkled between every third sentence.
Like, I get that the video shit is annoying. But it almost feels like a competition in print media to make it worse.
Case in point:
Firefox reader mode FTW.
Ublock origin is your best friend
I don't see the problem?
The article clearly demonstrates how the web became unreadable with a handy diagram...
/s
TBF as a middle millennial, if you want me to click on the link you sent me, it had better not be a video
Whenever I've got the time to sit down and watch a video, it's going to be one of the million things I've already been meaning to watch.
An article can be consumed in way more situations
This is the type of boomer engagement bait you'd see on Facebook. It's basically "UpVoTe If YoU aRe GeNx!1!1". Sure, the discussion here is higher quality, but it still makes me cringe to see this kind of stuff being posted unironically on a site I use.
Also: Please just give us the f'ing text instead of a screenshot of text.
Hi, millennial here. Do you know why some millennials and a large portion of gen z suck at reading? Because their boomer/gen x parents didn't read to them as a child.
I grew up on my grandmother's lap, with her actively making reading fun and encouraging me to read along - I was reading, and comprehending, YA novels by grade 2.
My little brother though, who did not have a parent/grandparent to teach them to love reading, can't read worth shit. He was well into highschool before he even attempted a book like animorphs, and still didn't really comprehend the plot any better than grade 2 me.
So no, this is not a generational/phones bad problem, it's just another example of how boomers and gen x let their children down when it came to raising them with life skills, and then making fun of them for it.
Post a pithy hot-take in text? Nobody reads.
Post a screenshot of the same text from a social media site? That’s bussin!
I'm millennial and i hate those videos too
Everyone that's functionally literate hates those videos
I think the proliferation of videos as primary information sources is a huge part of how propaganda and disinformation became so effective and powerful. It's why we've done a collective nosedive into regressive politics and can no longer agree on the objective facts regarding.. well.. anything!
Information delivered by video tends to be trusted on the way it's delivered rather than the content itself. So we're thinking less critically about what we choose to believe.
"Ummm" ... "yeah, ya know." "Ummm." "Jeeze, I hadn't thought." Scratch scratch scratch" ... supressed burp. "Sigh." "Hmmm....ummm." "Hahahahahaha."
Yeah, fuck all that. Give me the info: Issue. Rule. Analysis. Conclusion. The big video push is social media grooming for the algo.
I am a Millenial and I prefer to read than to watch a video short from social media...
If you see a millennial doing that then slap them and call them an embarrassment for me
I do wonder how much of video's proliferation is because we (in the US at least) fucked up teaching a generation of kids how to read. I'm told one of the dominant strategies for teaching reading was just bad. Well meaning people went all in on it, and then kids just didn't learn to read well.
You can read about it here, or listen to it as a podcast https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/
Zoomer here! Written articles are amazing for fast information, and I go to them when I want a solution to something I already have a decent understanding of. Videos are especially nice for something you haven't done before and want a real-time breakdown of the information.
I know plenty of people that "can read fast." Unfortunately, they don't comprehend anything they read until they slow the fuck down.
If my friend sends me a TikTok as a source of information, I'm gonna start questioning my choices in friends (/s but also sorta not)
All posts need to have the same title: me_irl it is allowed to use an emoji instead of the underscore _
