If I can offer a little bit of a counterargument: if you are the one conveying information, making a video can be so much more efficient. If my colleague asks me how to do something in some application, I can make a video recording my screen and send them a link in half the time it takes me to type out a string of "click this, scroll down, find that, open drop down menu, click this, unless you don’t see it, then do that . . . ". Likewise, when giving feedback on student essays, I can have their essay on screen and narrate my way through it so much quicker than I could type out whole paragraphs of specific commentary. Finally, I can go over every question of a MC test and then give the link and kids can just go to the ones they missed. Actually typing out reasons for each question just wasn’t ever going to happen.
The only time I post a video is when it’s a segment - or piece within that segment - from PBS Newshour. If I can’t copy video url at current time to cue in the bit that’s relevant, I’ll say, “starting at so and so”, with a quick little precis as to what I’m showing.
I cannot remember the last time I used the word ‘precis’.
Oh where are those fucking cedillas anyway?
I occasionally check in at a RWNJ message board. They seem to love videos, and the longer the better. For example, in a thread titled “Biden*s latest gaffe” (it’s a fictional example, but the asterisk is real and is because they believe Biden’s election to be as questionable as Barry Bonds’ baseball statistics), they will simply say, “Check this out,” and give a link to a video. Nothing more; no summary, nor any “The real issue is addressed at 47:31 of the video, where Biden stumbles over a word.” Nope, just a video, with no summary.
The fun part comes when someone calls them on it: “Hey, how about posting a summary, so those of us who don’t have 57 minutes during our work day to watch a video, don’t have to watch it?”
The OP, who posted the video link: “Watch it later when you’re off work. You’ll see.”
Well, when I’m off work, I’m busy cleaning the cat box, preparing dinner, enjoying sports on TV, going out for a walk or bike ride, taking care of my plants, shopping for groceries, or enjoying a good book. Or other activities that don’t involve my computer. RWNJs aside, if you post a video link, then a summary of your point, and how the video addresses that point, would be nice. In other words, use your words to make me want to watch your video; don’t just assume I’ll do so because you said, “Hey, check this out.”
There’s no cedilla in précis.
If the vowel after the c were, say, a or u, it would get a cedilla, as in aperçu.
I çaught this one trying to run away with an eßzett. Good thing, too, who knows what kind of unspeakable sibilance they would have gotten up to. No one wants to hear that шыт.
Ah, I cee. Thanks. 
The context in which it bugs me the most is, I admit, a VERY low-brow one. Which is that I love a good listicle, particularly in one of my areas of interest. Am I interested in the top 5 most underrated (items) in (area)? You bet I am! Do I want to hear your 10 predictions for what might happen next in (series)? Your ranking of the best and worst movies in (cinematic universe)? Absolutely I am interested. I’ll happily scroll through and read your list and your little comments and… wait, it’s a VIDEO. Well, damn it, why did you get my hopes up?
Well, as bad as that is, how about those fucking lists or stories that could be a page of text with a few images, but no, they have to be spread out across 37 pages. Some of the material could be interesting, but no way am I going to slog through your multiclick swamp.
Add &wadsworth=1 to a Youtube link to apply the Wadsworth Constant.
Okay, Boomer.
I’m right there with you; I love printing out instructions as opposed to trying to queue up a video on my phone. But we are dinosaurs.
My friggin’ phone has actually answered one of my questions with an unironic answer of “Okay, Boomer.” Such a little punk.
Well, failing short-term memory is a symptom of advancing age. But there will always be some older people who want instructions. Written instructions are good.
I love ifixit, which gives you step by step photos with instructions.
I have availed myself of that site many times.
There is a tremendous irony with the whole “videos replacing text” thing. These videos are filled with CGs (superimposed words) that cover large parts of the video so you can’t see what is going on and have to constantly stop and rewind the video if you want to both view the video and read what’s on top of it.
If the goal was to give you pretty video to watch and not force your tiny brain to have to read words they failed on both fronts. Wow, that is truly the suxxor.
.
Especially the ones
.
that scarcely have
.
a sentence per click.
.
Burma-Shave
Here are the top 100 best movie scenes ever made!
#100
(click) …
#99
(click) …
#98
(click) …
#97
(click) …
The worst ones are where the video is actually necessary for the instructional part, but they skip over that to chat or sell stuff instead.
I’m in the UK and am on biological drugs for arthritis. You inject them at home, but due to covid I was never shown how to do it in person. So, fine, there’s a video. It’s American. Twenty minutes long, and the first ten minutes are all about “Don’t be scared of injections” and “don’t worry about fees.” I’m not scared of needles and don’t need to worry about insurance costs.
And you couldn’t skip ahead in the video. If you restarted, you had to watch the entire thing. No rewind to watch a bit you’d missed.
The actual injection part turned out to be about a different type of needle, so “press the purple button” was irrelevant. And then for some reason they decided not to show an actual injection into a leg, just showed someone holding the needle in the air and pressing it down.
Totally useless. “Don’t worry, there’s a video that will show you how to do it.” Nope, there isn’t, actually.
I feel your pain. That sounds incredibly horrible.
Thank you.
It’s also extra annoying because the injection requires hand skills that are usually impossible for someone with arthritis to self-inject (which is ironic), but I missed three doses because I didn’t know if it was me that was doing it wrong. I wasn’t, it’s just physically not possible for me to do it. If the video had been clearer I’d have known sooner that it wasn’t something I could do.
Ah yes, two abominable implementations of the technology. Video with text on the video and no speech (or some very lame music track) is an annoyance because then you have a problem, as mentioned by I_Love_Me_Vol.I, that the onscreen text interferes with the visual. And as pointed out it’s actually slower than narrated video.
Machine reading meanwhile not only sounds terrible but it is so often clear that they lifted someone else’s content.
…
BTW, people doing instructions or unboxings: it’s 2021. BUY a tripod, a brace, a headstrap, double-stick tape, whatever, to hold the smartphone while you make the video. STOP ONE-HANDING YOUR WAY THROUGH IT.
They’re TRYING to help you develop the good habit of not watching unboxing videos…