December 29, 2013

"My biggest problem with unworthy is one of my biggest problems with the 2013... internet...."

Says a commenter at Metafilter (and by "unworthy," he means Upworthy).
... i don't want to look at your fucking video to consume your content. I have no problem with videos, i just think they're the wrong medium for a lot of things. Video of something specifically happening, or some visual/multimedia art? Cool. Video documentary of a situation or about a person? fine. Stupid video of someone talking about something with a couple still photos overlaid a few times? Fuck. OFF.

There's an "idiot switch" safety step that's being skipped here. People need to be asking themselves "What would be missing from this if it was simply written out, maybe with a couple inline images?"...

I think unworthy is a far more sinister cancer than even buzzfeed. All the time people send me links to stuff on there and go "omg check this out". Click through at my desk at work/on the loo/etc and go "oh, video, nope"....

You want me to watch a 4:30 video of something i could read in like 45 to 60 seconds even if it was towards the thick end of content these videos ever have?...

There's a lot of pasta sandwich going on here. It's just the wrong type of content for the media.
Things were different back in the days of Rickrolling, when you didn't know you were clicking to a video, and as soon as you saw that you got to a video (that video), you knew you were tricked and you clicked away. Now you know by the teaser that you are getting sent to a video and you're somehow supposed to believe that if you spent a little time watching the material roll out — in that annoying, exasperating way that video subjects you to its time frame — you really will get to experience the promised feelings. Your heart will explode into a sunburst of tiny sparkles or whatever.

You'd think that by now — at the portal to 2014 — we'd be steely and unteaseable. Who would waste 8 seconds anticipating that this video will restore your faith in humankind?

***

Are you like me? When you read the words "if you spent some time watching the material roll out... you really will get to experience the promised feelings," did you switch over to thinking about Obamacare?

I'd like to think that by now — at the portal to 2014 — we'd be steely and unteaseable.

17 comments:

iowan2 said...

As a rule I dont do video. I always come away after 3,7,12 minutes thinking I have wasted all of the time I've spent watching.

MadisonMan said...

Video content is a waste of time. I won't watch.

The ultimate in tl;dw

MaxedOutMama said...

No, this didn't make me think of Obamacare. It made me wonder why people get so aggravated about something they don't have to watch!

If ACA were optional, it wouldn't be controversial, would it?

Choice buffers a lot of potential societal frictions, but I guess in the case of your post's subject, it doesn't work for everyone.

tim in vermont said...

I hate being linked to a video without knowing it.

Sometimes audio works, because you can play it in the background while reading other things, but video is far too demanding for almost unfailingly small payoff.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Two words:

Blogging Heads.

Ann Althouse said...

"No, this didn't make me think of Obamacare. It made me wonder why people get so aggravated about something they don't have to watch!"

Have you been noticing those maudlin teasers? You can't help seeing them. I find them aggravating. It's aggravating to know that people you like (on Facebook) are delighted by such stuff. It's viral, and seeing a virus rage is disturbing if it infects your friends.

And I'm tired of all the news sites like CNN and Fox and ABC where you click because of a headline and then all there is is video. I'm not going to take the time to watch that. It's all very slow.

And by the way, it's worse on the radio. On our long car trip a week ago, Meade kept playing the satellite radio stations that are the audio from TV news shows, and I found them exceedingly annoying. All the teasing about "Wait until you see what happened next" had me reaching for the earplugs.

rhhardin said...

Flashblock prevents videos from starting unless you click to start them.

You just get the empty frame otherwise.

SGT Ted said...

One of the most attractive things about the net is that IT IS NOT TEEVEE. One gets to read at their own pace and not be subject to blahblahblah talking head bullshit and time wasting egomania of cameras on them while they yak.

Why are people still think that turning the net into just another fucking TEEVEE station is a good idea? If I liked TEEVEE, I wouldn't NEED the internet.

halojones-fan said...

I said something about a Two Minutes Hate the other day. The person didn't understand the reference.

jr565 said...

The perveyors of the free internet movement kept talking about how professional content like songs peformed by professional musicians and movies and tv shows would be replaced by content on You Tube.
it may get a lot of hits. Butt it is so much trash.
Cat videos and boring videos shot on an iphone, badly lit where people give their opinions about cat videos. The only worthwhile stuff on You Tube is where people talk about art that is still being produced.
Video reviews of movies and video games. For example. But htey don't replace the art itself.

jr565 said...

Sgt Ted wrote
Why are people still think that turning the net into just another fucking TEEVEE station is a good idea? If I liked TEEVEE, I wouldn't NEED the internet.

I don't know about you, but I can read a book a lot quicker than I can read content on the internet or a tablet.And the internet is multimedia. So, why simply read text when you can also watch videos would be the argument.

Freeman Hunt said...

I wouldn't have used the same language, but I agree with everything this person wrote. I despise the Rise of the Inane Video on the Internet.

Joe said...

The internet is already LSD for narcissists; talking head videos take that to the next step.

Carol said...

I wrote it here long ago: Video is old school. Words are the new hotness.

Unless it's cute puppies or something.

MattL said...

I watch a lot of martial arts videos on youtube. As long as the producer knows his stuff (and there are quite a few worth watching).

Cat videos, etc, are good time wasters. I also like watching Reason TV where they interview clueless people. But for most stuff...give me a transcript already.

Worse than video is the podcast thing. I don't get that at all.

Sam vfm #111 said...

They do it on video because they get paid for it by Google. You make a deal and Google can play ads during or before your video.

Henry said...

RSS is dying, and that's a huge loss for people who derive knowledge from information -- as opposed to people who derive knowledge from authority. Our brains are designed to respond to persuasive talking. Text gets past that bias.

Transcripts beat video. Both deceive, but video deceives better.

It is no surprise that literacy preceded liberalism.