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Most of us know what "tl;dr"(*) means, right?
I'd like to propose a video equivalent: "vo;dw" or "video only, didn't watch". I'm getting more and more impatient with web content that is presented solely in video format. The problem with video over text is that I have to consume video at the pace and in the order in which it's presented. With text content I can (a) skim it quickly to see if it's worth reading in detail, and (b) skip around to the parts I find interesting (or skip over parts I don't need to see). In short, *I* can control how I consume text content(**), whereas my consumption of video content is at the mercy of the creator. I've said too many times, "I'd like those nine minutes of my life back".
So: even though I love my friends dearly, if anyone posts a link to a video I won't watch it unless it's accompanied by either a concise summary of the content or a pointer to a transcript. Life is just too short.
(*) "too long; didn't read"
(**) though I'm really annoyed by articles that are broken into a zillion pages so as to maximize ad impressions. I'm starting to give them a pass as well if they don't have a "View as one page" option...
I'd like to propose a video equivalent: "vo;dw" or "video only, didn't watch". I'm getting more and more impatient with web content that is presented solely in video format. The problem with video over text is that I have to consume video at the pace and in the order in which it's presented. With text content I can (a) skim it quickly to see if it's worth reading in detail, and (b) skip around to the parts I find interesting (or skip over parts I don't need to see). In short, *I* can control how I consume text content(**), whereas my consumption of video content is at the mercy of the creator. I've said too many times, "I'd like those nine minutes of my life back".
So: even though I love my friends dearly, if anyone posts a link to a video I won't watch it unless it's accompanied by either a concise summary of the content or a pointer to a transcript. Life is just too short.
(*) "too long; didn't read"
(**) though I'm really annoyed by articles that are broken into a zillion pages so as to maximize ad impressions. I'm starting to give them a pass as well if they don't have a "View as one page" option...
