I’m a long-time lurker, and I recently started doing some videos that aim to do pretty much the same thing Cecil’s been doing for years. The idea is that people nowadays are more likely to watch a short, engaging video on youtube than they are to read a page of text. Plus, some topics really benefit from the visual aid.
Anyway, to get to the point, does anyone have a topic that might work well for this medium?
If you’re interested, it might be worth checking our current stuff as examples:
Booze, Drugs and your Brain (Part 1 of 2: the second part will involve serotonin and dopamine)- we had it on Reddit and people seemed to like it! How Drugs and Booze affect your Brain - YouTube
We really enjoyed making these, but we need suggestions on where to go next, and what people’d like to see. We’ve got a few ideas right now, but if anyone has a general question they’d like explained in a very straightforward way, or a suggestion for how ‘science-heavy’ vs ‘approachable and casual’ you’d like it to be, please let us know! We can get each video done within a week or two.
That’s is certainly not true for me. If I’m looking at text, it will take almost no time at all (5 seconds max?) for me to decide whether or not it is worth my time, and if I decide that it is worthwhile, then I have the option of skimming, reading, or studying. With video, it can take forever to get to the good part, and then I have no choice about how much time I spend watching it.
Sorry about the hijack, but the news media seem to agree with the OP. Half the headlines that I click on end up being a 3-to-10 minute long video. I cannot spare that much time for every single interesting headline. I wonder whether people really are more likely to watch these videos, or whether the people making them think that people are really more likely to watch.
(I do agree, however, that certain content is communicated much better visually than in text.)
You’re not wrong. And we’re not trying to mislead anyone, either.
I’d rather read, myself, but this isn’t really about stealing audience. It’s more of a means of spreading info in a different medium that might have a different appeal and even a slightly different audience.
We have a rule here against asking members to provide input on off-board projects, although we do often allow it if you ask permission first. Permission wasn’t asked for or granted in this case though, which means I have to close this.