I will scroll through 100+ items in an Internet search looking for written instructions before I'll ever even consider watching a 1-minute instructional video.
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@Alice wait, let me post a video of me searching the internet for instructions to avoid watching an instructional video.
@Alice for me it depends. Often videos are more complete. Written instructions often link to other instructions or assume knowledge that I don't have and first need to look up. When I see someone building a simple proof of concept from the ground up in a video it often helps. But of course most of the times text is better.
@Alice
I'm glad I'm not the only one.
@Alice This. So freaking much this. So so very freaking much this...
Why do people insist on putting instructions in a stupid video with some annoying person shouting "HELLO, WELCOME TO MY VIDEO" and then mumbling stuff while music that doesn't remotely fit plays over them and it's just them clicking stuff on their desktop and typing text into a document.
There was literally no reason that it couldn't have just been a simple blog post somewhere and made life for all of us a thousand times easier.
(Also, I manage what Youtube "remembers" me having watched. Yes, I know the true history can never be deleted, but the history that feeds into its recommendation algorithms and such can and I do, so each time I'm forced to watch through one of these I also must delete it from the history.)
@Alice I don't care if it is how to change plastic into gold, if the video starts out Hi, I'm .....too late I'm gone.
Ditto.
I read my information. If you need an actor to read your information to you, you're probably getting played.
@Alice if this is a club, sign me up
@Alice There is one exception.
- mid/late 2000s
- communication via Notepad
- Linkin Park as background music, no other audio
- Unregistered Hypercam 2
- tutorial shows you exactly the steps you need and nothing else
I do watch the videos, especially if it's a process. But learning to write useful instructions is much easier than putting together a video, anyway.
@Alice
Unless its something which needs a visible demonstration (like most stuff related to computer/phone hardware), I 100% agree.
@Alice you get me, you really really get me 😊
@Alice did this the other day looking for instructions on how to transcribe a video I didn’t want to have to sit through again…
I mean, I could make it up. But it’s a shame that I don’t have to.
@Alice If only they were that short…
The vast majority of the time, I am struggling with doing one (1 [uno]) thing that sounds like it takes 2.58 nanoseconds if you know what you’re doing, and the manual is just “Scan the QR code for our FAQ/AI hotline” and the other options are 15-45 minute unboxings/reviews with no chapters or organization and I watch 1.5 collective days worth of videos watched to 97.5% before I bail and turns out they demonstrated it during the sponsor read.
@Alice If a post suggests that someone's talking head video makes a significant point, I will read the transcript.
If you have nothing to show me, only something to tell me, do not use a video.
If you have something interesting to show me then use a video and do not talk over it nor insert your head as a picture-in-picture.
@Alice you mean the 5 minute video where the person explains the issue 3 different ways to feed the Algorithms, then does the thing for a minute, then concludes with another minute of watch my other videos, like and subscribe blahblah?
Yeah "video first" makes a compelling case 
@Alice I've always wanted to purposely make bad tutorial videos. The upfront logos and shitty music, 4+ minutes of yammering about nothing related to the video, host is poorly mic'd up, more background noise than voice, trails off numerous times on wild tangents, answers phone calls from scam artists in the middle of it. Good times.
@Alice monkey paw curls another finger: here's a list of 100 AI generated text summaries of badly made tutorial videos.
@Alice now that's some self defeating behavior I can get behind!
@Alice Is there such a thing? I always thought those videos had to have at least 3 minutes of shitty production logos, overly loud EDM, and lots of 'like and subscribe' algorithm pleasing yammering right up front.
@thriftwicker Yes. But my point is that I won’t even do it for a 1-minute video, let alone a 3+ minute video.
@Alice Unfortunately this option is less and less viable as 99% of those results is likely to yield LLM-generated slop at this point, and often it’s hard to tell without clicking through and wasting some time on way too many of them…
I am the opposite; videos sometimes help explain things better because of the visual instructions, but at the same time, if the subject is more of a reasoning problem that does not require as much visual information, I prefer text.
@Alice hahaha one minute! That's not even long enough for buildup. How are they going to get you to subscribe without ten minutes of parasocial backstory leading up to how they learned to load this particular string trimmer?
@Alice Saaaaaame!
@Alice Opposite *shrug*
Just a few years ago, it was worth it. Now, I'm not so sure
Google search was amazing for a short while, now it's not -gave up on it- and others are not as good
Also, accept all the cookies, disable your adblocker, allow notifications and subscribe to continue.
@Alice 💯 Same.
With reading at least I get to dictate the slowness or speed I am reading things. And I can almost always block ads and things like "Don't forget to like and subscribe!".
@Alice I do prefer the written instruction about 1/2 the time. But sometimes the video is so much better, in particular when trying to replace a part, or fix a broken thingamabob.
@Alice
I should have known it was time to give up on humanity the first time I saw a YouTube video consisting of a screen recording of step by step instructions being typed by hand into Notepad. Often with "whoops that was wrong" corrections.
But wait, I've got a podcast that'll cover that for you!
Agree! Let me read.
@Alice similarly it’s concerning that a lot of podcasts are moving more towards video.
@bobthomson70 😂 Don’t bother turning on that camera unless there is some cinematic benefit; otherwise, I don’t want to watch you wearing your big dumb headphones and talking into your big dumb microphone!
@Alice 💯 there is no other way!
