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.
While I agree that the pivot to video was a massive turning point in the dumbing down of political discourse, I think it’s more to do with the pace and passive nature of video/audio: the people are getting news and ideas at the cadence that the broadcaster deems appropriate instead of at the pace of the listener which would happen in reading or face to face transmission.
If something was missed entirely or misunderstood it is far more tedious to try and hunt down the segment that needs reiteration than it is to read it again (or ask for clarification). This means people that miss something will just try to pick up any context later in the broadcast and if the broadcaster doesn’t deem it important or relevant (or maliciously omits it), the listener has no further interaction with the idea. And then the idea is lost beneath the rest of the news agglomeration.
My favorite trend is where youtubers record a screenshare of a word document they have open on their computer that they proceed to read to me, slowly.
I’m especially delighted when the youtuber selects the text as they read it, as if to make sure I don’t get lost.
ETA: I’m just saying it’s a good thing we streamlined video platform monetization, so 1.6 million other viewers and I can not read that document together. I’m not sure what generation was responsible but, good for them.
I’m a boomer and I approve this.
I hate it when I’m looking for a single piece of information like how to change a specific setting in 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.”
😡😡😡😡
God bless the people that put the video highlight on Sponsorblock or write the solution in the comments.
I’m millennial and i hate those videos too
Everyone that’s functionally literate hates those videos
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:
I don’t see the problem?
The article clearly demonstrates how the web became unreadable with a handy diagram…
/s
Firefox reader mode FTW.
Ublock origin is your best friend
(Press the image if compression quality really bad)
I usually block this popups too
Can try the anti-adblock-adblock list lol
Amen to that, brother.
I fear for the future, because this generation won’t know something if it hasn’t been tictokified or taught by an “AI”.
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.
I’m also a millennial. I had a lot of classmates and friends whose boomer parents actively discouraged reading. I mean the whole stereotype of the weak nerd that just reads books and is being bullied for it is pretty old. A lot of my friends even back in elementary school had a TV in their bedroom the second cable/satellite TV became a thing here. I had classmates whose parents discouraged them from going to university or reading advanced books because that is for nerds and only working with your hands is real work. Matilda was written in 1988 and while the parents in that book were a caricature, I knew parents who’d scoff if their child read a book or dared talk about going to university.
The millennial children of these parents grew up to consume internet click bait and are now not teaching their kids to read books. The internet and smartphones definitely accelerated the problem, but it started much earlier.
Because their boomer/gen x parents didn’t read to them as a child.
As a gen-Xer, this hurt to read. If I knew my classmates were going to grow up to be such dipshit parents, I would have slapped some sense into them. I mean, a lot of them were already pretty awful as teenagers… but, that wasn’t a phase? Man, I am sincerely, deeply sorry.
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.
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?
Surviving dysentery is probably the big one.
It’s better to not diss Terry at all if you can help it
It’s so hard. He’s got a girl’s name.
Bees.
*Jerry Seinfeld enters the chat*
So… underage girls?
I think I’d rather die young.
…huh; I guess that’s one way for me to learn about this.
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.
that is because videos have minimums to reach peak monetization
it isnt about efficient information exchange
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.
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.
generational warfare is dumb as shit
Except for the fucking Boomers.
true. fuck boomers in particular. 😂
Lmao, “for the love of bananarama” “in Prince’s funky name, amen.” Who types that?
A millennial pretending to be gen X.
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.
Yeah, its irritating how instruction manuals forget that people don’t know.
Its ridiculous that they don’t explain how the “default” is. Needle at its zenith, so everything is lined up and accessible, and presser foot up so the tension is disengaged. I’ve taught a few friends how to sew, you’re not the only one with these struggles.
hv;dw (hate videos; didn’t watch)
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
Well said
Post a pithy hot-take in text? Nobody reads.
Post a screenshot of the same text from a social media site? That’s bussin!