An episode of Black Mirror depicts a dystopian future where videos pause if you look away, forcing you to watch the whole thing. I would have preferred dystopian fiction to remain fiction, as a warning of what the future might look like, but which we must not allow. But unfortunately it feels like it’s being treated more like an instruction book for actors like YouTube.
I’ve been on Youtube since 2006, and it’s still my favorite of all social media. I spent the first few years watching stop-motion Lego clips and Nerf wars. I am also extremely grateful that YouTube contributed to my general education during my teenage years, when I started consuming what we would today call educational material. Thanks to channels like Crash Course, Vsauce and Lessons from the Screenplay, I learned a lot about history, culture, science and the world at large.
I’m not against advertising, but I am against greed.
Sometimes I prefer binge-watching a bunch of video essays to binge-watching comics, but that’s something I’ve been doing less and less over the years. Partly because I’m a big boy now who doesn’t have as much free time as before, but also because the advertising experience on Youtube is not what it once was.
I don’t subscribe to Youtube Premium – and I don’t want to either. Call me old fashioned, but I haven’t paid for Youtube for the majority of its existence and feel no need to now. Ad blockers have solved most advertising problems over the years anyway. Considering I already subscribe to a handful of streaming services, that hundred bucks a month that would go to Youtube feels better spent on something else.
I’m also not completely against ads, as long as it’s not about streaming services. Watching a commercial for a few seconds before the video I want to watch, or even getting an intermission, isn’t much of a sacrifice. But when I get several commercial interruptions per video, which often run two snippets at a time, which can rarely be skipped, and soon even commercial breaks on – then it feels like someone got greedy. I’m not against advertising, but I am against greed. It feels like they are forcing me to subscribe to Youtube Premium.
Edin created his first Youtube account in 2010, when he was nine years old.
I worry that today’s youth may not have the same educational experience with Youtube that I had at their age. Either they have to put up with endless ads, get an ad blocker that might not work, or ask the pears to shell out a hundred bucks a month for Youtube Premium, which maybe not all parents of young children can do. At this point, it’s probably easier for the kids to just switch to the fast food entertainment on Tiktok instead, where the same quality content is much harder to find.
When competitors do better
I’m probably a little embarrassed to admit that I use Tiktok. But if there’s one thing I have to give them, it’s that their ad experience is significantly better. The only real ads I see are in the feed and I can scroll past them as easily as any other video. Sometimes I have to wait a few seconds, but I can handle that. The same goes for Instagram with their Reels.
This brings me back to that Black Mirror episode. When commercial breaks become more frequent and rarely skippable, when ad blockers become less practical, and when we’re also going to get commercial breaks, then it doesn’t seem so unreasonable that they will literally force us to watch commercials soon. I don’t hope Youtube is headed in that direction, but I wouldn’t be surprised – okay, maybe a little over the top. If something like this is even suggested by someone at the company, then I’ll take my digital pick and pack and leave the platform for good.
Source: www.sweclockers.com
