Gregory's ServerHuh, I wonder what [thing] is. *searches online*
*opens article*
*article is actually a video*
WELP, guess I'll never know! *closes tab*
 213 comments
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I don't understand.... Videos are one thing, but text is so much more efficient! I don't need to hear your opinion of emacs vs vi vs vim vs nano vs.... I just need to fix a systemd issue!!! Lol @bestiaexmachina Whew, glad I'm not the only one who loathes dealing with videos when I just wanted to read (or skim) some text. @bestiaexmachina this is one of the reasons I don't play video games as much as I did as a kid. Guides used to be widely available in text. That certainly is one approach, and it's interesting to know that's the impact. I have much the same feeling about podcasts. Videos, however, I find good at displaying and explaining dynamic systems (e.g., machines). I do look first at the length of the video. And in fact, I've watched quite a few videos about nutrition information when they're around 5 minutes. @Leisureguy Agreed! Some things I prefer to watch as videos, like tutorials on how to take apart my (non-openable) phone to put in a new battery or some cooking advice. But if all I needed was like two lines of code, it's definitely over the top. π @bestiaexmachina a whole thread full of us! I have found my Island of Misfit Toys... π₯°   @bestiaexmachina I think maths, geometry, and cooking are the only domains I prefer learning from video. With coloured whiteboard markers, visual intuition, and non-homogeneity respectively. Or the first season of Journey to the Microcosmos, which is sublimely soothing narration over in-microscope footage. https://www.youtube.com/MICROCOSMOS  @bestiaexmachina Exactly this. I've got time to read. I haven't got time to sit through 10 minutes of crap to get to the main points. @bestiaexmachina My personal favorite was an instructional video about how to set up Kodi on a Fire TV. Two or three minutes were spent on showing the person entering an URL using an on-screen keyboard. Fortunately in that case 'fast forward' helped.  @bestiaexmachina *opens 7500 links* *all of them are audio clips uploaded from random people, all pronouncing it different from each other, often obviously trolling* WELP, guess I'll never know! *closes 7500 tabs* @bestiaexmachina one day they will learn - if we want video, we will go to YouTube. We want to read.  Same with every news article' that leads me to someone's vlog or podcast.... @bestiaexmachina remember when Facebook and Zuck falsified data to trick the print world into thinking everyone wanted video and it destroyed an industry and the careers of videographers @bestiaexmachina π― Am I looking for a primer on how to take apart my broken washing machine? A video will do! Do I want to know *literally anything else in the world?* Just write it in a paragraph I can scan, thanks.  @bestiaexmachina same. I asked a guy who does the website for the local news why they can't just post a transcript and he said he was trained that people won't read. I have only met people that hate the video tho so I'm not sure who told him that or how they came up with it. @OkieSpaceQueen @bestiaexmachina I wonder whether it's hideously misinterpreted research. "People viewed the text version for 15 seconds, as opposed to 10 minutes for the page with the video"βbut the text people only needed 15 seconds to find and read the info, and the video ones spent 5 minutes trying to get the damn thing to play, 5 seconds assessing it as junk once it finally started, and the remaining 4 minutes 55 seconds trying to get it to stop again . . . @timtfj @OkieSpaceQueen That's an interesting theory, which unfortunately makes a lot of sense now that I think about it, haha. I wouldn't be surprised if this is exactly how it went! @bestiaexmachina @OkieSpaceQueen I'd be surprised if it isn't. π Though I suppose my time estimates might be off by, I don't know, maybe 10%? @bestiaexmachina I can't stand having to sit through a video when I could read something at a faster speed or just search the text for keywords. I've blocked sites that have just enough text to introduce a video (and really poorly edited text, at that)  @bestiaexmachina Huh, I wonder about [some thing]. *searches online* *opens article* *1/3rd of the way through, realize it's AI-generated garbage* *try 2-3 more articles with the same results* WELP, guess I'll never know! *closes browser* @dpflug @pluralistic Oh man, so much this! Useless texts just for the sake of SEO are the absolute worst. ML dreck "blogs" are Internet apocalypse. The death of "just Google it" and the birth of a new era. If the search engines can't find a way to avoid it, curated info banks will rise. Misinfo is as ancient as language, so we'll adapt. It just takes time. https://iorate.github.io/ublacklist/ can help bridge the gap while we reshape. @bestiaexmachina yup - a lot of SM browsing for me is on call at work, or at home while other things are happening, so anything with audio isn't possible. |
@bestiaexmachina This is 100% me.