Passing Thought on Communications

A recurring comment I’ve seen online in the past year or two is the complaint about links that ostensibly go to news articles, which then turn out to be videos. It’s one I can agree with (it takes at least twice as long to watch a video as it would have to read an article— even more so if there are ad breaks), and I’ve wondered if it’s a generational thing— I’ve long since noticed that most people under thirty would sooner text than speak on their phones (another one I agree with). At least one of those complaining about the videos thought it might be due to PR firms erroneously taking the popularity of YouTube, TikTok, etc., to mean young people want all information in the form of videos.

OTOH, “people monologuing about their opinions” does seem to be a widespread YouTube genre, and there must be somebody watching. So maybe it’s more that I tend to follow people on platforms like Tumblr or Dreamwidth, and particularly those whose posts I enjoy; and therefore I’ve been selecting for the text-adept?