YouTube Shorts - You’re mildly infuriating!
Ever since I was forced to update YouTube on my devices, I got really annoyed with YouTube Shorts. At first, they were easily turned off. Then the option to turn them off disappeared from Settings - General. So I installed apps that allowed to skip out on Shorts. Then just a few days ago I could no longer have Youtube Vanced installed.
I’ve since learned do deal with this annoyance, but do I really have to mark “Not Interested” from channels I don’t subscribe to or “Hide” from my subscribed channels? On my Linux- and Windows PC’s I have regular blockers. But I mainly watch content on devices hooked up as small entertainment screens in the kitchen, bathroom and bedrooms. And those are iOS or Android.
All I want are steady streams of content from my favourite relaxing subjects and channels. Without shorts or AI-derived “Hey, this video from a channel featuring a redneck with 15 AR-15’s shooting coyotes in the desert might be your thing!” inserted into my playlists or streams. But the AI-derived autoplay content is beside the point.
YouTube Shorts - You’re mildly infuriating!
Shorts are mostly just disappointing. Sometimes I don’t notice that I’m clicking a short because the title seemed interesting. Then after 30 seconds it’s already done, and all those times the content wasn’t even that good! You would think that maybe they could condense the best parts of a long video into a shorter one, but instead they just lack any depth and information.
In the same vein, the way Instagram is pushing their (autoplaying) Reels is even worse.
Some channels do this, and I think it’s a really good use for the platform. Nerdforge is one channel that comes to mind - she has a few videos that are a 1 minute short (e.g. https://youtu.be/5QNIgDFq-vw) summarizing a 20 minute video (https://youtu.be/ZVqa7j6jG0Q)