June 8, 2022
<aside> 📝 This is part of my 30-post speed writing goal I’m calling my Dry Run. Judge me not for my quality, but that I wrote this at all. More here: Writing: A “Dry Run”
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https://embed.notionlytics.com/wt/ZXlKd1lXZGxTV1FpT2lJNE16TmlaV0k0TUdWa1pqWTBZMkppWVRRMk16Y3lPVFU0WmpFNE1EaG1ZeUlzSW5kdmNtdHpjR0ZqWlZSeVlXTnJaWEpKWkNJNkluTTBNR1I0WVc1cmRVeDJOR3BtTXpjMVMwUlFJbjA9
https://twitter.com/_konsella/status/1534247247675895810?s=21&t=hmFpMo9rRsH-lJ8z8RIWxg
The other day I saw a tweet where someone said “no one reads articles” and making your ideas into anything but a youtube video is a waste of time. And I’m here to write this article because I disagree.
On the one hand, I get where this guy is coming from. Video content has become extremely popular the last few years, and it’s clear that younger generations in particular prefer it. And that preference applies to informational content. Lots and lots of people watch content to learn over reading.
I’m 27, just a couple years older than the older gen z, and I’m sure I watch more videos than my parents do. I probably watch something on youtube close to every day, and I open tiktok even more.
The things I watch on youtube every day are actual video content that loses important contex (or changes completely) if tried to put into words. Think sports highlights, physical how-tos, product demos, live music performances.
When learning or absorbing info, I want to read instead of watching.
| What I Want in Informational Content |
|---|
| As fast or slow as I want |
| Ability to skip the fold |
| Gives me time to think |
| Clear thoughts from the creator |
When I want to learn something, I want to decide quickly whether it’s worth my time. It’s important that I can go my own speed, even if that means skipping through things.
If I want to skip through things, I need to easily know how much to skip. Let me figure out what’s an ad, what’s a self-plug, and what’s the actual content.
If I’ve decided it’s good and I want to consume (at least most of) it, I hope it gets me thinking. I need time to digest it and think about it, even as I’m taking it in.
And what makes it good, above all, is that the creator clearly communicates their thoughts to me. The creator doesn’t even have to efficiently or quickly communicate their thoughts, though that’s obviously preferred. But as long as those thoughts are communicated at all, I’m happy.
| What Articles Excel At | What Videos Excel At |
|---|---|
| Quickly Skimmable | Visual presentation of hard-to-describe details |
| Stops when I stop paying attention | More entertaining— in theory |
| Easy for a creator to edit/revise | Easy for a creator to make the first draft |
The biggest reason why I prefer articles is that I can skip around seamlessly. Yes, I can skip through a video. Yes, I can speed up playback in a video. But it’s simply not as easy. The time commitment to an article is lower than that for a video.