Some people say they are addictive, but to me shorts are an absolute nightmare, I despise them, I hate them, I’m allergic to them.
The ultra quick cutting, the often chopped style, the accelerated voice talking at you without pause or mercy even at 1.0, the subtitles in the center that I cannot disable. It’s an attack on my senses, pure overstimulation.
My wife sends me couple of shorts each day and sometimes it’s even interesting content-wise, but I absolutely hate this horrible format, procrastinate watching them and wish back a world where this form of media did not exist. It all started even before shorts in the way people did videos, and somehow it spiraled into this kind of hell scape.
Anyone else feeling like this?
EDIT: thanks everyone, now I feel validated, thought maybe I’m the odd one with so strong negative feelings about them! And sorry about the confusion about pants and stocks (that provoked some funny answers though so no regrets). Yes - as you have all figured out, I’m talking about the annoying short videos almost everyone seems to be addicted to.
I’m glad to find other people with similar experiences to mine trying out short form video. I tried TikTok a few years ago when I realized how big it was and that I was missing out on entire cultural touchstones but I just couldn’t. Too much music I don’t like, too much randomly clicking and hoping I like a video, too much visual and audible noise.
Seriously why can’t I just see the title and uploader of a video before I click? What if I don’t want to watch this person or this particular video? Why do I have to decide while watching the video instead of relaxing with a bit of silence between videos?
Honestly the whole UI was just mentally and visually exhausting. I think I made it about 20 minutes of trying to get into TikTok before I finally just said “not for me” and gave up entirely
I like to wear them.
Watching the short form content video kinda thing… no thanks. I refuse to touch those with a 10m stick, I also find it quite irritating when my gf watches them in bed. Every 2 seconds I hear some entirely different scenario, pretty stressful for me.
If I want to watch videos, I usually just take some time for that. I’d say my average video length on YouTube is about 30-45min
Yep, that could be me!
Below the infinite trash stream of the algorithm there is still some actually good content in sane formats that does not taste like greasy mind fast food.
Every few days I find myself losing a few hours to them that would’ve been better spent doing literally anything else. So yes, in that sense I hate them.
“Shorts” / “TikToks” / w/e are just short form multimedia content taken to their logical extreme. Small tidbits of context free, useless information, slammed into your soul so fast you miss all of the important bits and just get the buzz.
Shorts or longs…I hate the click-baity ones.
Man I was sure this was about shorts vs pants too. Pants all day every day. Is that another adhd thing now?
I too absolutely despise the whole format.
Shorts sre awesome, way better than pants unless it is cold out or I am doing something that would scratch up my legs.
Oh, you mean the youtube shit. It is the worst of that video format and they all suck.
I can’t wear shorts, people ask if I’m riding a chicken.
I keep turning them off in YouTube but that doesn’t stop them coming back. Good to know I’m paying for a hostile product. I won’t forget it.
You can use a patched YouTube client that removes ads and shorts. A few minutes worth of work to set up but worth it imo
https://github.com/KobeW50/ReVanced-Documentation/blob/main/YT-ReVanced-Guide.md
I only watch shorts from creators who I know generally make quality long form content (
Red NileNileRed, Miniminuteman, etc); then it’s usually something that actually is a short topic they wanted to present, not something they’re just trying to cram as much into it as possible in 60 seconds.NileRed/NileBlue is who you’re looking for. If you’re watching a channel called Red Nile, you may be watching stolen content…
No, you’re right, I’m sleep deprived as shit right now lol
I especially can’t stand it when either of these two things happen:
- The subtitles show one word at a time (???)
- The subtitles are animated
The one word at a time is because studies have shown it improves reading speed with no loss of comprehension.
That is what I thought looks like those speed reading techniques, but by force. So annoying. Not sure the “without loss of comprehension” is so true, all that I read says that speed reading is pseudoscience
I didn’t say anything about speed reading. I said it improves reading speed. It lets people read as fast as someone is talking, which is important in videos where people aren’t talking quickly and aren’t enunciating each word.
Speed reading is something different, all this method does is give your brain one word at a time to focus on.
But what you say IS a kind of technique that hyped for a while in the “speed reading community”, e.g. here is an implementation https://codepen.io/keithwyland/pen/yLyLNz
Or a post about it https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/ye6583/whatever_happened_to_spritz_rsvp_kindle_word/
I personally find it exhausting.
I despise them because they’re shallow as fuck, “content” that requires zero brain to enjoy (I do enjoy some of that shit on occasion, but not in the form of short videos, I prefer the lazy approach of putting something on and not having to move a finger for 10+ minutes).
Another thing that makes me hate that kind of video is that it’s a breeding ground for “reacts”, as if the longer form of that wasn’t already a piece of shit. Neither of these problems are exclusive to YT, they’re just following on Tiktok, like Instagram didReaction videos are the worst, in any form. I’m waiting for the day until there’s a reaction video loop referring to nothing than other reacts in circle and nobody knows what the actual underlying video was. The recursive reaction from hell.
The only type of “reaction” content I like is experts validating or refuting non-experts’ videos in their area of expertise. I think they add a lot of value to these platforms by promoting critical thinking and the value of experts.
Then again, I hate shorts, so I rarely see even those. So maybe I’m off base.
Yeah agreed, but that presupposes that the person watching can distinguish someone just babbling and someone who actually is someone qualified to comment on some topic. And I guess the latter kind is a drop in the ocean, because expertise is a limited resource but opinions and bullshit are cheap.
I thought you meant the short pants. I love them. I’m so sweaty all the time and long pants feel uncomfortable on my legs even if loose. Only wear them when necessary. Shorts are a godsend.
For patriotic reasons I am against them, only children and tourists wear shorts in my country.
What country is that? If you don’t want to share I get it. I only ask because that’s what everyone said about Spain, and everyone I travelled with refused to pack shorts except for me. It was the height of summer, in the middle of a heat wave. Literally every single local was wearing shorts.
Funny enough, it is a Spanish-speaking country
Haha that’s crazy. It was like 38C when I was there, if it was that hot in your country people would really still be wearing full pants? I admire the dedication but I don’t care if I look like a tourist, a child, or a tourist child I’m going to be comfortable. Unless I’m going to an event or place that has an actual dress code I guess. I’ve been to weddings and funerals in 38-39C temps and I suck it up out of respect. But on vacation? Miss me with that pants shit fam.
It’s humid here so the heat index gets into the high 30’s regularly, and people still either dress formally for work or wear jeans, it is kind of nuts
I use ublock origin and you can add a custom filter. They put the shorts in a specific panel that you can block easily.
Am I a bad person for considering doing this to my partner’s computer without their knowledge or consent?
I totally understand. I dont think you’re a bad person for toying around with the idea if it’s hurting them.
I’ve thought about doing the same thing to my mom’s phone on her ReVanced app and then just go "huh, I guess YouTube broke something for everyone in ReVanced again. Sorry! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ " since I’m the one that sets it all up for her and researches and fixes it when it breaks. She has super bad untreated ADHD and she gets sucked into them super easily and ends up spending tons of time watching and getting worked up about nonsense, harmful, ‘conspiracy theory’ garbage made to target, upset, manipulate, and take advantage of people like her… It’s concerning me. It’s wrong.
But it also feels wrong to lie to her and make changes to her phone without her consent, ya know? I don’t know…
I’m curious to know if you end up doing it, and if so, how it goes.
*Edited to add: oh god I didn’t realize how long and rambly this comment ended up until after I posted it WHOOPS! 😅 My apologies. I guess if any community will understand, it’s this one, ha!
It might be worth considering telling her that you think it’s unhealthy, and asking if she’d be up for testing blocking them and seeing how it makes her feel. After a month (or whatever you decide) if she wants them back you can do that.
Knowing my parents, they wouldn’t agree to this no matter how good or reasonable it seems. They aren’t addicted to shorts, but they are to conservative media, and it seems really unhealthy for them and seems to have made them worse people. Maybe you’ll have better luck though. I think if you do it without her consent it’d be even worse if/when she finds out.
