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.
Yep. Absolutely despise shorts. For all the reasons you say, on top of the fact that 98% of them are bullshit and wrong.
Which is bizarre, because I get sucked into facebook reels once in a while. I blame the cat clips.
(I always browse with the volume muted. I despise shitty sound effects like the fake laughter, shitty music, or the AI voice.)
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.
It also makes my head hurt
Man I was sure this was about shorts vs pants too. Pants all day every day. Is that another adhd thing now?
No, shorts are awesome.
Especially booty shorts.
I thought it was about the stock market. And I haven’t the faintest of clue what a short is, except that it’s used in films about the stock market lol
I know you didn’t ask but an opportunity to info dump is always fun.
Shorting is basically borrowing stock from someone, selling it. and then buying it back later before the person wants their stock back. Since (mostly) all shares are equal, as long as I return to the same stock, there’s no reason to hold onto a specific share.
If a stock is going down, if I borrow a share for a week, sell it for $100, then in 6 days buy it for $50 and return it to you, then I’ve just made $50.
It’s a way to make money when the stock market is going down, but is often riskier because with buying stock, you can just hold indefinitely. If I buy a $100 share, and the price goes to $0. I just lost $100. The most I can possibly lose is $100.
But when shorting, you have to return the shares to the actual owner at some point, and since you sold the shares, you MUST get them back. But if I sold your $100 share, and in 6 days it is now $10,000 (this wouldn’t happen, but for example), and I don’t have $10,000, now I can’t return your share to you, and I’m in REAL big trouble. The amount of money I can lose is technically infinite, and since I don’t have infinite money to lose, it probably just devolves into legal issues.
So I essentially bet that the market crashes and thus make bank on it?
Youtube shorts are like Instagram reels, nobody likes them but they are probably good for “engagement” aka keeping people on the site for as long as possible.
“nobody likes them but keeps watching them” - that confirms my theory that it’s digital crack. I intuitively want to stay away because I feel that it cannot be good for my brain
yes. after you get used to it, it sucks you in for hours on end and you don’t even notice.
all with completely useless “content”. there is some interesting stuff, but you can get it in regular videos better.
Yep. My guess is that the entire purpose of them is that they aren’t fulfilling enough on their own to satisfy you, so you just go to the next one, ad infinitum. It’s the media equivalent of potato chips.
I like some Shorts. Long-form videos are great, but way too often I see 15+ minute videos about a topic that shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes to discuss.
yes. There is a youtube extension called unhook (?) which lets you remove them from pretty much anywhere on the site.
I hate them so much for all the reasons you mention and a few more.
But there are times that I prefer them over a 2-3 minute vidoe padded to 12-15 minutes for monetization.
I honestly prefer text over either of those options. Saves time and doesn’t over stimulate. Plus, if I lose focus I can just go back, which would be tedious in a video.
More importantly, you can search text to get straight to the point you need. Doing that in video or audio is not possible, you have to memorize timestamps
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
Do none of you remember vines??
I basically only watch YouTube on my TV via Roku, I hate shorts and wish there was a way to block them on the Roku app.
If google really wants to push shorts then make it a separate app. If someone is watching on a TV then chances are they aren’t looking for short form content, so stop pushing it on that medium.
They had one years ago called Vine.
I remember that being an ok way spend a smoke break, I couldn’t imagine living on it the way people use shorts/Tik Tok. The algorithm must be way more intense now.
Instagram’d algorithm, at least, will prioritise reels over everything else - leading a lot of accounts to post still images as “reels”
I get what you’re saying but Vine was an independent company that got bought by Twitter then killed.
I was thinking that Google should make their own app called YouTube shorts and take on tiktok that way. Google/YouTube is trying to have an all in one app, the problem is that muddies the waters and when you stand for everything you stand for nothing. Not to mention that YouTube spent years promoting longer for content and that’s what the user base thinks of now when you say YouTube.
You can play off the YouTube brand with a separate app and still get the branding boost. But actively muddying the waters and annoying your user base is just… well I would say bad business… but given their track record, it’s pretty on brand for a Google property.
Ah, I’d forgotten that Vine was independent at first. Thanks for the correction.
I have no idea what you’re talking about.
I believe they’re talking about YouTube shorts.
Ah, I’ve never seen those. Between Youtube that asks for login when on VPN and uBlock origin I don’t recall ever seeing these.
I love how someone can unironically not know what I’m talking about, even though I thought I’m a rare weirdo reading blogs via RSS feeds without actively using any social media except for reddit and lemmy
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 went to India. 42 °C in the shade. Had the opposite problem.
That is an insane temperature. I was in the high desert in California when the night temps never really dropped below 37.8C and day temps hit that, but it was a super dry heat. 90% of the time I was just day drinking in a big assed metal barrel full of water so it wasn’t too bad. I can’t imagine doing tourist stuff in a place i want to explore in those temps.
It was work stuff, but also super dry heat. I would have died otherwise, probably.
Ugh! My work uniform is technically PPE, so I’m required to wear it…black T shirt, black trousers that are too heavy for summer and too light for winter, and a black coat. The labourers get to wear shorts. They don’t use power tools and mostly just run materials around in a truck with AC… bastards…
Ah so that is where this reference is from! I’m too uneducated / young, only played the GBA Generation games
You could’ve seen it if you played Fire Red/Leaf Green ;)
I too absolutely despise the whole format.
Shorts are cancer and vertical videos need to die.
Sometimes I get clickbaited into watching one because yt doesn’t let me hide them forever (is there an extension for that maybe? Surely it’s doable with css or something), and they’ve been alright. Though the ones I clicked on have only been from one creator and I don’t mind fast talking (not sped up) and those didn’t have the fast cuts.
I also really don’t get the appeal of the format. I’ve been sent shorts from other creators and it just feels worse than the same thing as a proper video. It doesn’t overload me because it’s essentially how my brain operates anyway, but that’s also why I want things that make me take a break from constantly thinking in overdrive by simply being slow.
I use a Firefox extension called Youtube-shorts Block that does what it says in the name. I think my ADHD brain rejects them for the same reasons a lot of other people are mentioning here…
Thanks, I’ll have to check that out
