haunter a day ago

This is my main problem with the modern Youtube meta, every single "serious" topic video is +30 mins length. 10 years ago we were perfectly fine with 10 mins stuff but of course algorithms and advertising and nowadays most Youtuber is pushing longer and longer videos as if we are watching peak evening television reporting...

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  • kalleboo a day ago

    Some creators still do 10 minute videos but whenever I watch one I feel I'm left with more questions than answers, I really prefer the deeper dives.

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  • fishgoesblub a day ago

    And people click on the those videos, and YouTube recommends them because people like them.

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  • robertlagrant a day ago

    Evening television reporting spends about 30s on any one topic, so much so that the dominant effect on the viewer is however the presenter framed the topic initially. This is nothing like that.

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    • hdgvhicv a day ago

      Typical package in the U.K. is about 3 minutes, the main story will have 10-15 minutes on it, with probably two pieces from different correspondents on different angles, an in studio interview, and a live.

      There’s then the in depth programs which spend half an hour or an hour on a specific subject (dispatches, panorama etc)

      People are less interested in long form news though, so public service broadcasters in the U.K. have a duty to reach as many people in as many ways.

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  • Sesse__ a day ago

    There's a perfectly good format for long-form dives: An article. But no, everything needs to be a video because otherwise, how would anyone bother to consume it.

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    • rs186 a day ago

      His videos have so much higher information density than texts can offer. Videos are just much more efficient and can explain things better for those topics.

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      • bigstrat2003 a day ago

        I can read an article about 10x faster than watch a video. I don't have a problem with Alec's videos per se, but it's crazy to claim that video is the medium with higher information density. Text is always going to be the better medium for transmitting information, except for cases where the unique advantages of video (moving pictures and sound) help.

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    • TylerE a day ago

      No, for the kind of content he produces video is absolutely essential, since much of it is either demonstrating audio and video playback (including things like artifacts and color distortions), and showing how the internal mechanisms operate on partially disassembled machines.

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      • Sesse__ a day ago

        You can do that just fine with the occasional video inside the article, though. I mean, significant parts of the video is just panning by some device while he's talking.

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rs186 a day ago

Please no.

His videos are long but every minute is worth it.

Let someone else make watered down videos that appear to cover everything but don't actually explain anything.

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numpad0 a day ago

I think the problem is that a lot of creators had ran out of low hanging fruit contents. I feel his script more repetitive than before.

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gosub100 a day ago

I respect the guy a lot but I'm not going to watch 2 45m video about gas lanterns. But that's a good thing that we have choices and people like Alec who will put that much effort into the research

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