Sometimes I’ve people message me something from YouTube that isn’t a song and I find it painful to watch through in order to respond. The belief here is that video sucks for anything else other than entertainment as a consumer. I thought to write out a post divulging the pros and cons of this belief.
First, the pros. Because of this belief, I don’t waste much time on YouTube. Sometimes I get baited by small tidbits, but more often than not I only go on to listen or share a song. For example, Only available on YouTube. But other than that, I just don’t go on YouTube at all. If you want to be entertained, wouldn’t it be better to go to stuff that has 30+ people working on it for profit? Saves time (to spend recklessly on other stuff) and eliminates a vector of psychological warfare (but to be fair I think the 30+ people masterfully integrate their agenda too). No parasocial relationships at least. I wonder how many minds have been shaped by YouTube.
The cons. I will admit that there’s probably better content on YouTube for learning something than imagebaords for example. Or TV. I mean, come on. Listening to podcasts probably would’ve been a better influence on my life than going on imageboards. Instead I just shoveled unfiltered manure, pure in form until my brain matched and then grew fungi in its culture. I know that the stuff people link me that’s relatively long in form has some kernels of truth in it. But I just want it in text form. You can skim in text form. You only have your imagination and your text to juggle with. It just feels right to read stuff instead of listen slowly for people to go through 50% of filler I just don’t care about.
I can’t say with certainty which is the better path, but considering how addicting video-centric platforms are, I will keep my belief that probably formed due to some contrarianism.