Many people are now talking about the “death of the ad-supported internet model,” and I can only say that it can’t come quickly enough.
The main reason why it all switched to ad-supported is the massive costs of storing and streaming all that high-definition video. And for what? So I can see every pore on Joe Rogan’s face while he sits in front of the mic and talks for 3 hours?
Or so that some video game dweeb can read his essay about why an obscure JRPG is the height of postmodern art over 30 minutes of game footage. Or all the channels trying to imitate Kurzgesagt with shitty animation and information they gathered from browsing Wikipedia.
Face it. Most of this video is unnecessary. 99.9% of all possible information can be relayed through text, pictures, and the occasional sound file.
Furthermore, most video content creators are unnecessary too. I can just read about a laptop’s specs and the reviewer’s experience with it. I don’t need LinusTechTips to stare at me with his reptilian eyes while he destroys the inferior product with an oversized novelty mallet.
Most of what’s on YouTube and other video-heavy social sites is not insightful, not creative, not informative, not fun, not sexy, and honestly shouldn’t exist at all.
I totally get where you’re coming from about the whole ad-supported internet thing. Totally not cutting it. I agree, most of the time, text, pics, and sound from podcasts, for example, can do the trick.
But, here’s the curveball: AI is changing the game. While I’m on board with your views, AI-generated stuff is kinda shifting my perspective. It’s pumping out texts and images that might not always be accurate, which is messing with the reliability of plain old text-based info. There’s this flip side where videos, despite the AI advances, are tougher for it to fake convincingly. So, oddly enough, if you’re after solid info, videos might be the way to go in this wild AI era. Old information though that was posted before this AI push, still the way to go.