While it is no secret that exploitative practices are interlaced with capitalistic tendencies, the practices are becoming intolerable. Signing up to pay usually takes only two clicks that are prominently visible whereas cancelation options are hidden away in deep settings requiring multiple clicks. Pricing often feel arbitrary with no reference points. Every large company grows with the intention of exhibiting monopolistic behavior. This is not sustainable and should not be tolerated.
Exploitative patterns like those idiotic youtube thumbnails the creators are using to draw extra attention to emotions not actually present in the video?
Or making half hour videos for all of 14 sentences of actual content, to stretch the ad-income as much as they can.
Yeah, that. Wish I could give a video -1 view instead of +1 after clicking onto it. Fuck youtubers such as this one, they’re part of the problem and don’t get to have a say in what we should or should not try to care about.
If it isn’t a text file which I can read in 1/10th of the time it would take me to watch a stupid video (if not less), I’m just not bothering.
Plus it’s always a video, but never actually uses the medium. It’s just shots of the host talking to the camera. Very very rarely showing clips or screenshots that could even better be embedded in an article.
Can you do a lot with a video, if done well and for the right subject? Of course, and for those it’d absolutely be the correct choice. But people like the guy linked in the OP are neither capable of nor interested in doing that, as it’s just a business to them. It increases income, so long youtube videos it is. That’s one big takeaway anyways: Content creators talk about this shit not because they care, but because it gives them money. It’s a business, not a passion.
Install Blocktube or another extension that stops videos from starting when you open the link, and read the transcript. It used to be at the top, just under the video itself, but now they’ve moved it to the bottom of the video description so you have to go through all the affiliate links just to get to the fucking transcript button.
But once you’ve found it, transcriptions are your best friend: skim it to see if there’s any real reason to watch (usually not) and enjoy that portion of your life that you just saved for things that YOU want and not what Google and that content creator want. The transcript will also tell you what portion of the video you need to watch, if actually watching it suits your needs.
I also regularly speed up videos; 1.25 is great under most circumstances, 1.5 if they’re really trying to draaaag shit out. You can always slow it down again, but it’s great for getting through the fluff if you need to hear it all (like repair videos for something you’ve never done yourself).
The “best” you could do in this case is use ad blockers, don’t use an account and never interact. Even a negative interaction counts. It’s all “engagement,” even if negative.
I installed a Channel Blocker and got into the practice of opening unknown videos in Private Windows. For some fucking reason, YT seems to think I want to hear about people complaining about being suppressed by the algorithm. I would leave nasty comments for those videos if not for the fact that, like you said, any interaction counts as “engagement”.
Youtube face.
People feel the need to monetize everything in their lives just to survive (not thrive). Consider directing your anger towards those who have purchased our government from us. Rather then being mad at the digital equivalent of a dude on a highway offramp holding a cardboard sign and begging for living expenses.
Who the fuck would rather repeatedly pause and in pause a fucking video, skim past bullshit, skip ads, or hell even USE YouTube over a block of text somewhere that c9ntains the info you were looking for.
People watch this dog.shit. is it because its.the only.place you can find info anymore? Or do people actually LIKE this format?
seriously. “I want to learn about resistors!” doesn’t send me to a nice pretty static graphic I can reference, or a text explanation of the meaning, its some shit head (honestly probabpy a pretyy cool if somewhat anodyne engineering nerd) talking for 20 minutes with an seo title and like 2/10 of the pieces of information I needed in a totally unsearchable format.
and that last bit might be the important part; its not manually user searchable. this matters, and I think its what the companies want, why they love video. it gives them more control.
