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Why Does Everything Have To Be Video?

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MilesAhead:
it caused me to waste a great deal of time looking at videos when I could have probably been doing something more useful.
-IainB (November 23, 2016, 03:51 AM)
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That triggers a pet peeve.  Why does every explanation how to do something have to be a video now?  It drives me nuts.  I want to know (something made up just to illustrate my point) how to change the HD resolution of a video player, let's say.  When the answer could be "go to main menu, click Options, then Display, then HD Settings, then click the desired resolution."  Instead a google search brings up a video I click on. "OK, here's were we go to download the player, then double click it to install.  Keep clicking Next.  Then go to the site for the free registration.  Now we go somewhere to play a video.  Choose any video.  OK, now go to the main menu and click Options..."

Arrgggggg!!!   :)

IainB:
...Why does every explanation how to do something have to be a video now?...
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-MilesAhead (November 23, 2016, 06:55 AM)
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Well, it's a bit of a digression, but I think I can answer your question.
I didn't know that what you refer to was the case until fairly recently, when a tech support guy in a PC hardware supplier shop told me that, if I wanted to find the latest workaround for a certain product (a TP-Link USB Wifi dongle), to get it working under Windows 10, then I should search YouTube, and NOT the discussion forums.
When I asked why that was, he said that it was easier/quicker to produce a short YouTube video than it is to document a solution.
Anyway, I followed his suggestion, and discovered that he was only about half right, and eventually I found a fix via a forum discussion that led to a new hardware flash update for the dongle, and new drivers.
Recalling the advice to search YouTube, I looked in YouTube for other fixes and workarounds for other problems, and I was surprised at the number of vids there were for supporting this and that, but most of them were mediocre.

My theory as to why this is is that a large number of people probably find it easier to make an amateur video on YouTube, and probably get more satisfaction from viewing their video and hearing their own voice, than there are people able to enjoy documenting a solution and seeing it in writing - because of relatively low levels of literacy.
Similarly, a large number of people probably find it easier to, and thus prefer to, watch a video - because of relatively low levels of literacy.

I generally find watching a video for information to be a slow and tedious exercise, so I only do it as a last resort, if I can't find it documented somewhere.
Having said that, I do think that training videos - e.g., demonstrations showing how to use a piece of software - can be tremendously useful and often succeed in being the simplest/fastest way of communicating something, but the presenter has to be trained and skilled in communication and making presentations - and self-aware - for this approach to be successful.
Only today I saw a classic example of how NOT to do it, on a Microsoft website offering Office 2016 training videos - I was looking for something for my 15 y/o daughter to use for Excel training.
In this video (sorry, I didn't keep a link to it), the presenter was a young Asian-looking woman who sounded like a native English speaker. She spoke in what sounded like clear English, but with a very slight twang - possibly Aussie or Kiwi.
Unfortunately, even though she possessed a nice voice, her elocution was very poor. Not only did she speak too rapidly (maybe nervous, I don't know), so that she kept clipping some of her words, making them hard to decipher, but also she started sounding her vocal fry register about halfway through each sentence and continuing it to the end, and sometimes tailing the tone of her voice upwards at the end of the sentence, thus contorting a statement into a question.

So I rapidly switched off the video and hunted around for one presented by a better communicator, for my daughter.

The unconsciously-made vocal fry and the upwards tone would have to be two of the most annoyingly bad, distracting and avoidable bad speech habits a person can have - they are typically habits of immature girls with poor language skills, though I did once hear a young man unconsciously performing the upwards-tailing tone at the end of every single sentence. These bad habits can be learned by girls at school as a form of unconscious protective colouration to gain acceptance by a group, and can often be accompanied by excessive use of redundant words including "like" and the phrase "you know". They can be crippling habits, in terms of career development.

MilesAhead:
My theory as to why this is
-IainB (November 23, 2016, 10:38 AM)
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Well said.  I agree a well produced video can substitute for a convoluted written explanation of a task with many steps.  I also agree on the "I was like, whoa" discussions I hear these days.  I often think of the film Valley Girl when I hear young people conversing.  Even in business meetings one might hear the employee relating to the manager the reasons the customer was "pissed" instead of using a word like "annoyed."  It is kind of funny if you can keep from laughing out loud during the meeting.  :)

I too have noticed a lot of my  searches for tech fixes resulting in YouTube hits.  :)

wraith808:
I think its a bit simpler than that.  You can monetize youtube channels and videos pretty easily these days.  There's no way to monetize text explanation.

Deozaan:
That triggers a pet peeve.  Why does every explanation how to do something have to be a video now?  It drives me nuts.-MilesAhead (November 23, 2016, 06:55 AM)
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I know someone who would let his wife's teenage brother play games on his computer. He found that this teenager wouldn't really play much of The Incredible Machine because it had a lot of text to read. But the teenager would play copious amounts of The Incredible Toon Machine because all the dialog had animations and voice acting, so he could just watch and listen instead of having to read a wall of text.

Don't underestimate how many people are visual learners, how many people don't like reading, and how images/videos are much less abstract than words.

Even if you can't understand the language, watching a video can often give you enough information to do the thing you're trying to learn.

There's no way to monetize text explanation.
-wraith808 (November 23, 2016, 02:10 PM)
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Then why am I running an ad blocker?

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