Why is everything "You Tubed"

[melmerby]

Hi all

 

Once upon a time if I wanted information I would look for it in a book which could be time consuming.

Then came the 'net. Great, just type a few search terms, a couple of minutes and I would be genned up.

 

Now if I try to find anything out it is invariably a 30 min "You Tube" video of faff and waffle which could have been explained by a few lines of text and a couple of pictures or diagrams!

 

Is it me?

 

Keith

 

EDIT I don't include Rudy's Traincontroller videos in the faff and waffle category!

[28XX]

Everyone wants to be a video star. Too much already. I prefer my instructions like:

 

1. Do this

2. Do that

3. Do the other

4. Sit back and admire

[Griffin Road]

Simply - 15 minutes of fame .......

[Ian J.]

Everyone thinks that video-everything is the in-thing these days, and haven't yet learnt that different things require different approaches.

 

So, video is just a fad and eventually everyone will go back to radio, until they realise that's a fad, then it'll be back to books, then papyrus, then stone tablets, etc, etc...

[kevinlms]

It isn't just You Tube, its everybody.

 

Stuff on the news, either on TV or news sites. They want to show you a video clip of say a road crash site. All it consists of, is a reporter standing in front of a set of cones or tape, with a smashed up vehicle in the background, with some emergency workers.

Its not like they're offering any video 'news', but someone talking, who could have stayed in the studios/newsroom.

 

You Tube can be good, on say how to dismantle something, showing exactly where the hidden screws/bolts/clips are.

[wombatofludham]

I don't actually mind YouChoob videos if they are well done and actually informative.  That Swedish guy making water from bogroll for example that someone posted a link to on here, I'd read about the technique but he actually showed how to do it which did help me, although I'm unlikely to need to model water, but the point is it was well done and helped fill in gaps in what I'd read.  Similarly some of the videos people have uploaded on other techniques can be useful, as have some of the better quality videos demonstrating DCC sounds which have helped me choose between different options (although why some people insist on filming videos "demonstrating" sounds on low quality mobile phones is beyond me).

 

The YouChoob videos I personally find irritating are those where someone does a "review" of a new RTR model.  They open a box (fine, I think I already knew how to do that) then hold it in front of a wobblecam describing what you can see (I expect they feel they are doing a YouTube equivalent of Audio description for the Visually Impaired, but more likely they are so far up themselves with their self importance they can part their hair when they break wind) then ooh and ahh over features before running it around a circle of track.  Sometimes I've been looking on YouTube for videos on installing chips or sound and instead it keeps finding dozens of these pointless videos which is exasperating.  There again, if we think that is pointless, I gather Video Gamers upload videos of their game play which attract thousands of views.  That really is pointless.

[Tim Dubya]

if it wasn't for youtube I would never have sussed out how to mount a tortoise, let alone wire one.  

 

I need moving pictures (AKA videos) to get me through.

 

It's how my brain 'works'.

[SRman]

Yes: YouTube for showing running qualities or demonstrate sounds in a model; photos and text to show what a model looks like. At least, that's what would make sense to me and best use of the media.

[Oldddudders]

I read that professional photographers on specific assignments are now increasingly required by the client to furnish video as well as still images. Pictures are no longer enough, apparently.

[Revolution Ben]

Hello all,

 

My view is that video - like newsprint, radio or text with still pics on the internet - is just another way of communicating information.

 

Sometimes it's done well, sometimes it isn't.  And different content will interest different people.  Video game play may not interest you, but given the number of views it must interest quite a few...

 

The trick for we consumers is to find the content we like, quickly.  Video makes this slightly trickier than the printed page because it's linear.

 

Turn a page in a magazine and you can "take in" almost everything you see quite quickly, and make a reasonably good assessment in less than a second about whether to dwell on the page or keep turning.

 

With video, that is harder though if you place your cursor on the time-bar on the lower edge of a You Tube video you usually get a small preview screen, and if you move the cursor along with the mouse (without clicking) you can see the content at any point in the video; if you then see something you like and click the video will play from that point.

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

[Dunsignalling]

It isn't just You Tube, its everybody.

 

Stuff on the news, either on TV or news sites. They want to show you a video clip of say a road crash site. All it consists of, is a reporter standing in front of a set of cones or tape, with a smashed up vehicle in the background, with some emergency workers.

Its not like they're offering any video 'news', but someone talking, who could have stayed in the studios/newsroom.

 

You Tube can be good, on say how to dismantle something, showing exactly where the hidden screws/bolts/clips are.

Exactly so.

 

It especially gets my goat that TV news reports about politics ALWAYS have to be read by some bod standing in front of parliament or No.10. In addition to it being an utter cliché, being "on location" doesn't add or show anything that wouldn't  be conveyed equally well by him/her standing in front of a back-projected slide of the place in the studio whilst saving the cost of the OB cameraman, sound man, transport etc. etc. Quite apart from the fact that the poor bloody reporter wouldn't be getting rained on........ 

 

Do so agree about the hidden fixings, though - that's what we should be really getting shown about our politicians.

 

John

[griffgriff]

if it wasn't for youtube I would never have sussed out how to mount a tortoise, let alone wire one.  

 

I need moving pictures (AKA videos) to get me through.

 

It's how my brain 'works'.

I think this is one for the RSPCA

[Oldddudders]

. Quite apart from the fact that the poor bloody reporter wouldn't be getting rained on........ 

ISTR that in the era before the gates went up, possibly still today, Downing St was known by the Press Corps as 'Pneumonia Alley'.

 

I am also baffled, on the occasions that I watch UK tv, by the regularity with which the weather person is subjected to an outside broadcast. Since I believe there are very strict rules about the size of crew that must accompany any such broadcast, this strikes me as a gross waste of money.

[bertiedog]

The unsettling videos are the unboxing type, 15 minutes of un boxing, then a few moments on the subject....as if the process is a rite rather than a chore. It's really down to Apple and the camera phone, it radically altered the way images are used, boring pictures have now become boring video...and there are videos of paint drying on there too.....

 

Stephen

[Oldddudders]

The unsettling videos are the unboxing type, 15 minutes of un boxing, then a few moments on the subject....as if the process is a rite rather than a chore. It's really down to Apple and the camera phone, it radically altered the way images are used, boring pictures have now become boring video...and thereare videos of paint drying on there too.....

 

Stephen

Don't overlook the fact that some videos are specifically designed to send you to sleep, albeit they do tend to say so. ASMR is what gives you the clue, and YouTube has loads. Auto Sensory Meridian Response is, I think, what it stands for. Very relaxing for a percentage of viewers, a mystery to the rest! Some such vids have over 5 million hits.

[Vistisen]

I think this is one for the RSPCA

I can't believe that Youtubbbe have not removed it!

[runs as required]

Ah, you really do all sound like old fRts!

I totally depend on the web these days for car maintenance. Gone are the days of a Haynes manual for the most wayward of Citroens - they've all got into 'lifestyle' carp.

Bring me a car with some kind of glitch, I'll google it, and over a coffee you and I can find and laugh at the amateur video on how to fix it.

Hey presto!

Job often done in not much more time than it took to watch the video.

dh

[jonny777]

I think that I will stick to being a boring old fart.

[Ian J.]

The issue is appropriate or best use of a medium. Certainly when it comes to fixing things, or assembling things, where a technique of manipulation is required then video wins hands down - the current previously mentioned example of the toilet paper water technique being one. Others include how to perform specific moves in video games (such types of which I've referred to more than once). Sometimes though a still picture describes something best; or a section of text.

 

But there are many videos that simply aren't doing anything other than promoting the narcissistic egos of their makers. The world does however seem to be getting more narcissistic by the second. I blame Faecesbook.

[Tim Dubya]

I think this is one for the RSPCA

Having re-read that, you're right and I shall turn myself in (they are b@stards to catch, mind).

[Free At Last]

Having re-read that, you're right and I shall turn myself in (they are b@stards to catch, mind).

 

Take care to mount them the right way round too.

[Tony_S]

I agree that the car ones are very useful. Especially the ones about how to remove things like headlamps.

[Metr0Land]

I agree that the car ones are very useful. Especially the ones about how to remove things like headlamps.

 

I used to find them very useful but recently when I was looking to find a video on a problem with my car I now find yotube swamped with videos of people selling the same/similar models so it's more and more difficult to find the car maintenance ones.  2 general probs of course are that people don't take down old videos, and youtube's idea of what I want to see is as bad a fleabays.

[BG John]

It's like the early days of desktop publishing, when what needed to be a simple typed sheet of paper had to be produced with at least 20 different fonts in 50 different colours, with every special effect the software included thrown in!

[t-b-g]

It isn't just You Tube, its everybody.

 

Stuff on the news, either on TV or news sites. They want to show you a video clip of say a road crash site. All it consists of, is a reporter standing in front of a set of cones or tape, with a smashed up vehicle in the background, with some emergency workers.

Its not like they're offering any video 'news', but someone talking, who could have stayed in the studios/newsroom.

 

You Tube can be good, on say how to dismantle something, showing exactly where the hidden screws/bolts/clips are.

 

Couldn't agree more. The ultimate was when we had some bad flooding around here. The news folk sent a crew, including probably a camera operator, sound engineer and presenter, right into the heart of the flooded area as the floods were still rising and the emergency people were warning folk to stay away. They then filmed against a backdrop of almost perfect blackness.

 

They managed to waste resources, ignore police warnings and look extremely stupid all at the same time.

 

I often wonder how much more organised things would be if, for each news event, all the papers and TV channels just sent a handful of really good reporters who would then let everybody have their videos/stories. We wouldn't need all that dreadful duplication and the media "scrum" with people almost fighting to stick a microphone under the nose of some poor sod who is expected to answer 28 questions all at the same time. It makes the media look like a pack of wild animals fighting over a carcass.  

 

Having said that, when I wanted to change a bulb in a car that I wasn't familiar with, a "Youtube" search found me a step by step instruction on how to do it, so I am not exactly against such things.

They managed to waste resources, ignore police warnings and look extremely stupid all at the same time.