this post was submitted on 19 May 2025
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me_irl

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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."

😡😡😡😡

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago

God bless the people that put the video highlight on Sponsorblock or write the solution in the comments.

[–] [email protected] 135 points 4 days ago (9 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 89 points 4 days ago (2 children)

“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.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 4 days ago

It's also much easier to retain information skimming through text compared to a video of just a person talking.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Oregon Trail generation

Holy shit, you're 185 years old? What's the secret?

[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Surviving dysentery is probably the big one.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 days ago (3 children)
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[–] [email protected] 40 points 4 days ago (2 children)

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...

[–] [email protected] 31 points 4 days ago

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'.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 days ago

The autoplay kills me too. I used to complain about it but we seem to be in the minority.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 4 days ago (2 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 days ago

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.

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[–] [email protected] 95 points 4 days ago (4 children)

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.

[–] ricecake 32 points 4 days ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 days ago

I put something together I got at Walmart like 10 years ago and it came with print instructions that had links to .gif files that were short and looping showing each step clearly

I though "oh wow if some random Chinese product does this surely it'll spread" and now feel so dumb for having thought that

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

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:

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago

I don't see the problem?

The article clearly demonstrates how the web became unreadable with a handy diagram...

/s

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 days ago

Firefox reader mode FTW.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Ublock origin is your best friend

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

(Press the image if compression quality really bad)

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Also, I want to see the video. Not the video with someone next to it making faces as they watch the video.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 days ago

The only reaction video worth watching is someone from that profession reacting and giving additional context as to why it works or doesn't

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 days ago

“[video] REACTION!” And it’s just someone’s head in the corner as they raise a finger to point at the original video

[–] MrScottyTay 18 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm millennial and i hate those videos too

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 days ago

Everyone that's functionally literate hates those videos

[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 days ago (5 children)

Millennial weebs read twice as fast as Gen x. Those fanmade anime subs can roll through quick.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 4 days ago

hv;dw (hate videos; didn't watch)

[–] Ulvain 30 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 days ago (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Gen X. My parent and grand parents didn’t do shit. It’s not generational. They weren’t bad , just not great. That’s pretty universal.

They didn’t read to me, and I’m an avid reader.

I read to my kids, but they all lost interest in it pretty quickly. Only one of them does it as an adult.

It’s all situational my dude.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 4 days ago (5 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 4 days ago (2 children)

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)

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 days ago

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.

[–] sturger 17 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Post a pithy hot-take in text? Nobody reads.
Post a screenshot of the same text from a social media site? That’s bussin!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

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.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 days ago

If you see a millennial doing that then slap them and call them an embarrassment for me

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 days ago

Also: Please just give us the f'ing text instead of a screenshot of text.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 days ago

I am a Millenial and I prefer to read than to watch a video short from social media...

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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/

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 days ago

I know plenty of people that "can read fast." Unfortunately, they don't comprehend anything they read until they slow the fuck down.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago

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".

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 days ago

"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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

I'm a Millennial. I'd rather burn a house than pick a video from a choice of (video, article).

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