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Did TikTok Ruin YouTube?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ส.ค. 2024
- Its time we talk about the complicated, controversial, and potentially problematic world of short form video content.
Patreon: / zackarysmigel
Twitter: / zas11s
Instagram: / zas11s
Everything else: linktr.ee/zackarysmigel
Here are the chapters for this video. Feel free to jump around accordingly:
0:00 Introduction
1:52 TikToks Historic Rise
3:32 TikToks First Major Roadblock
5:10 TikTok Shop and TikTok Creativity Program
7:22 First Layer of Proof
8:30 TikToks Bizarre and Questionable Brand Missions
10:19 So TikTok Kinda Sucks
11:34 Special Sauce
12:02 Why TH-cam STILL Feels Different
12:31 The Launch of TH-cam Shorts
13:30 Shorts and TikToks Influence on TH-cam
14:34 Second Layer of Proof
15:24 The Secret Reason TH-camrs Might Be Quitting
16:53 More Creators That Have Problems With Shorts
19:34 How TH-cam Values Short Views
20:38 What's the Point?
21:13 That's the Internet, Baby
22:15 The New Wave
23:16 Did TikTok Ruin TH-cam?
Channels featured in this video:
/ @hankschannel
/ @allietricaso
/ @swellentertainment
/ @thecommentssection
/ @gametheory
/ @gettheetothestitchery
/ @shadiversity
Note:
I deliberately leave the channel icons and video titles on each video for reference in case anyone wants to see the full videos featured in these documentaries. If anything is unclear, or for additional references, please reach out, and I will happily provide a link to any of the following content discussed, featured, or used as a b-roll in the video.
Copyright Note:
Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research.
Music:
All songs featured in the video are from:
- Epidemic Sound: share.epidemicsound.com/8mvwnm
- TH-cam's Audio Library
- Kevin MacLeod's royalty free music library: incompetech.com/
- Ian Taylor's RuneScape Music library owned by Jagex LTD. Please check out their music on Spotify if you are into that style. I cannot emphasize enough how good the music is.
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Creators note:
Hello everyone, I hope you're all savoring the spring season. I'm thrilled to finally share this video that's been on my mind for quite some time. It's a subject that has truly captivated me, and I am super relieved to be able to share my findings with you all.
I have some really exciting videos planned for this summer, so if you are not subscribed already, please make sure to do so. As always, I am so thankful for the support. Every time I upload, I'm shocked by the positive comments I receive. It really makes this all so much more rewarding.
Thanks so much for watching,
Zackary Smigel
#youtube #videoessay #zackarysmigel
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Should I quit TH-cam and join the NBA? instagram.com/zas11s/
My dude, let me buy you a milk tea from Mobogo for this wonderful hit piece lmao
I mean yes if you can get away with it
yes of course
fuck no
You can balance it
Literally deleted tiktok and insta to stop mindlessly scrolling but kept insta for long form stuff- my weak ass brain ended up scrolling again
There is a youtube shorts extension that blocks shorts from showing up!
I personally see IG as more of a comment/reddit type. where every video has a group of epople fighting, i find the comments funnier than the actual video. always checking to see what epople said, or helping my brain not rot since most of the time people make fun of how horrible IG is.
And the endless amount of transphobic, and racist on IG is crazy tho
im an artist and i have to use instagram for marketing purposes. until i figure something out i cant delete the app even if i wanted to, and i really want to
@@XAnderson27, I use a shorts blocker on PC and youtube ReVanced on my phone!
I like that I can passively do this (download once, configure, never think of again). I like youtube creators and want to take back control.
Or connect to better people on Insta that don't produce shite
I think a lot of the problem is how intrusive TH-cam makes it. Not only do Shorts take up so much of the home page but I've seen them put recommended shorts in between actual information like the history page or subscriptions tab. They offer the option to remove the shorts tab from the home page, and despite saying it will be hidden for 30 days it appears again when you refresh the page. In many cases Shorts are even prioritized over longform content, the content this platform was entirely based around. It sucks for both creators and viewers, and only seems to benefits TH-cam's higher ups (and not even in the long term).
to be fair the current ppl in charge at google aren't really thinking of long term, considering how hard they're sacking google search to increase ad revenue
click the little x on the shorts section on your homepage, it'll make them go away for 30days, dont watch a single short in that time, a few months go by of you clicking this x button on the shorts sections on your homepage and it wont even appear anymore 😆 your welcome
@@Ninjalette666 Reread their comment. It doesn't get rid of them at all.
@@Grimfang999 considering i have literally gotten rid of them myself by using that method.... what part of my comment did you misread? ill take my own success as proof thanks.
@@Ninjalette666 Different people are in different testing groups for features, so what works for you won't exactly translate to other people. I had a few accounts lying around about back when sharts first released and blocking them and ignoring them worked on some accounts, and not on others. A/B testing is happening constantly on youtube, especially with pushed features like shorts.
Getting the 3 pointer first try and then filming all those failures for the outro was a nice touch, most wouldn't go to the trouble
TH-cam mobile often opens to shorts automatically, which is infuriating
It opens shorts if you last watched a short before closing the app
@@bitndragon I never watch shorts and it does it often
Strange that's never happened for me and i mostly watch TH-cam on the app
While I have an extension to block ads on mobile, I do not know how to block shorts on it sadly. ;(
Not watching on your phone is better for your eye-sight anyways, so don't.
It’s funny how Vine died because there was no way to monetize. Then Tiktok blew up and short form content was back again… and has soured because it is impossible to monetize.
Vine couldn't do it despite that nobody made money by being on Vine. I think part of the problem is everyone expects every new social media company to pay popular creators. Nothing gets to be just for fun anymore.
@@KTSpeedruns this is exactly it! Tumblr sucks ass now but when I was 14 it was the most amazing place bc no one cared about being paid once they were popular. pop a kofi link in your bio and bosh, sorted.
Tiktok blew up at the right time, durring Covid many people were home and were making Tiktok videos for fun.
history really repeats itself doesnt it?
but yeah vine needs to be brought back
Watching shortform video is basically like reading negative books that subtract knowledge from your brain.
As a long form content watcher, it’s SO hard to find long form content that’s actually about things I enjoy. We need a specific “long form content enthusiasts” area. TBH, put YT shorts on its own seperate app…..it muddy’s things up too much when its mixed in with the long form content platform
Sorry, but I fail to understand how you cannot find anything about the things you enjoy .. or you must have a very weird taste in content. You can find videos about litterally everything. For me it has been easy, I like a ton of things and have many hobbies and interests, so please indulge me what you are looking for that is so hard to find?
I know for sure watching shorts, ANY shorts at all .. isn't going to fix this lack of long form content.
I don't think a separate app is the solution. YT Music is its own app and it barely functions at all. Seems like the fastest way to hurt quality shorts creators even more
@@pinobluevogel6458 for me personally, most of the stuff I find these days is either things I have already watched or things very derivative of things I have watched. Finding new, interesting topics isn't impossible, but it does take a little more effort than I felt like it did in the past
I find the algorithm only shows me the same 10 or so creators I already watch. Really hard to find NEW content/creators! I find I have to do really strange search terms/keywords to try to find new things. Which is bizarre, since apparently tens of thousands of videos are posted every day.
Right? I search up anything and all I find is recommended stuff and shorts instead! I don't want other things other people watch, give me the videos I'm searching for!
If TH-cam gave people the option to filter out shorts, I wonder how many would? I would. Shorts are not why I come here.
Well, technically you can
I think it's highly distracting to have them, but it is not impossible to ignore them. There are times when it's harder, especially if it's very precisely in your field of interest, or a very good looking woman on the thumbnail.
@@pinobluevogel6458I definitely ignore them
About as many people that use the subscription feed instead of the default home?
Not many. The masses are ignorant and lazy; they're not going to go 2 layers deep into the settings menu...
Thing is, there are four or five shorts creators who I enjoy...But I would entirely like to skip all the rest!
Every few weeks I send feedback through the TH-cam app to request an option to hide Shorts.
So far the results have been them increasing the number of shorts that appear in my feed.
19:26 - I can confirm this is 100% true. Last year I decided to try my hand at making 1 minute short animations in blender (as at the first quarter of 2023, all my analytics were down by around 50%) to try and boost my channel a bit. The subscriber boost was insane, from the first short ( March 6th) to the last (June 24th) I gained almost 200k subscribers ... and for someone who was in a slump for around 2 years it was a great feeling. But after about 10 shorts I realised that the shorts were not translating into actual views/revenue or anything else ... nothing changed except the number beside my username. It made me feel awful as i had this feeling that youtube had kind of ... tricked me into making shorts in return for a vanity number. I felt disappointed in myself that it worked on me as I really wanted that gold play button. Anyway ... i'm rambling. Thanks for the insightful video!
i 🩶 you volgun i used to watch your videos all the time i hope your days are swell 😊
Vanity number is a good way to put that subscriber growth from shorts that doesn’t translate.
I've been watching your videos for YEARS now.
I love your SCP content.
Your voices are amazing.
Am I the only one that has seen my subscriber count = views??!! We need to stop dogpiling on shorts because I wouldn’t watch TH-cam without them. I like getting a recipe from a short or seeing a cute animal video. Sometimes it doesn’t take 5 minutes to explain something. IMO the problem with longer videos is there is so much filler content like just get to the point. This is a good video makes good points but I see the need for short, regular, and long videos.
I gained 1.8m shorts subs. I've only met 3-4 that actually knew my name from watching my videos. but I have 8k long form subs on a different channel, and those people message me & comment on videos like they're genuine friends, they know my name, and multiple life events ive shared with them through my vids. shorts and long form views are completely different
I've heard about events where TikTok creators with millions of followers have like 5 people that come out to meet them because almost no-one actually cares.
The difference in investment is staggering. I think most people that are invested in a channel are generally thankful for all the work that is put into it and how much fun (or occasionally: meaning) it can bring to someones life. Not every channel is supercreative or superinteresting, but the ones that are we truly treasure. That is why so many people support channels by using clickthrough ads, or making donations and getting paid subscriptions, because of the value we gain from it. We care about the channel, the creator and keeping it alive.
No social media platform can stay in their own lane.
I HATE shorts. They are almost always pointless. I wish there was a filter so I never had to see them.
@@FMJP Please tell me how. I cannot find it.
On desktop there's an extension: TH-cam shorts block but on mobile it's on android only
@@taado and what is it??
@@boghund look up 'hide youtube shorts extension [your browser]'
@@boghund the one I use is just called "youtube-shorts block" and it's on firefox
I CONSTANTLY lose hours to shorts and it feels so infuriating that I played right into it... I wish companies wouldn't jump headfirst into stuff because they see a big number and then get surprised that it didnt work out
I thought reels was bad in the way that it sucks you in and you just scroll without thinking but shorts is so much worse there have been days where I looked at shorts for 3 hours straight because my ADHD brain is fucking broken and I saw one thing that I clicked on and then sat there for 3 hours it feels so frustrating knowing that I got honeypotted
I hate shorts because sometimes I get gross stuff on my timeline. Or worse-
.... To be continued?
SAME. I still can't watch cat videos cuz I keep seeing cats and kittens getting SA'd.
I always dislike and say not interested to videos including my phobias and they continue to appear on my feed.
@@tatlyntael30Disliking means you will get then sown more. Only click no interested
@@ramenaddict1676
WTF? I hope you report that content.
I remember at VidCon a few years ago they had creator meet-and-greets for TikTokers with millions of subscribers, but some of the TikTokers had no fans come out.
I loved your video but about the youtube monetization thing I just wanted to add that 10mil short views is about 4000 hours of watch time. On my channel I focus on shorts and livestreams the most and the youtube shorts audience watches my streams but for a very short time (1 min or so) so then the rpm is really bad and I dont make much unless its from donos and members. What I have seen in shorts and tik tok is a surge of content that is misleading or promotes a scam since creators get paid basically nothing unless they do something like that. Anyway good video you got a subscriber!
I hope I'm not sounding too much like giving uncalled for advice, or that you don't know how to run your channel. You know best what your channel is about and how you run it is your choice and nobody elses.
Now having said that, I do think that the overall consensus on people running youtube channels that also do shorts is that the short form content users do not transfer over very well to long form content, nor are they (for the most part) interested in watching most of what those channels have to offer, besides the short form stuff.
So focusing on your core audience that watches the long form content, that shows up for the livestreams for longer than a minute and keeps on returning or even donating to the channel is the only way to go. Make stuff that you are passionate about that will satisfy THAT audience and skip making stuff for the people that do not invest into your channel or its more serious content. The quick growth of eyeballs is not real growth, the conversion is really low and it lowers the visibility of your other content in the long run.
Also, making money doing short form is also not feasible, so that makes the decision much easier.
Yes. Yes it did.
true.
Yes, i did
nah
They didn’t have to. If creators of longer form content had been transparent from the beginning that Shorts are snippets of larger work, the watchers would subscribe (or not) in a more educated way and have a better idea of what they’re getting into.
When a talk show posts clips from episodes on youtube, that’s literally their version of short form content. They usually make it very obvious with an intro/ outro that the video is from a larger work, and the viewer can decide if they want to just watch clips, watch the full work, both, or neither, at their own pace.
Brandon Sanderson is a successful author and his youtube channel is direct marketing for his books, live talk archiving, and the podcast he started with his friend so he wasn’t totally bored when signing books. And even items 2 and 3 on that list are indirect marketing for his books.
When he started posting shorts, they were just chunks from his larger videos and/ or book ads. Since it’s all marketing he really doesn’t lose a ton if a certain video does lower numbers.
More people need to learn how to make their shorts into a vehicle for the content they actually want to market.
@@amaahda yah
I got almost 5 million views every single month for 4 straight years but then youtube shorts launched. That month, my views dropped for the first time. Literally since then I've only been able to get almost 2 million views every single month for the last 3 years. As someone who has been very consistent for the last 9.5 years I can say that more than half of users went to watch shorts and didnt come back. The only way I can see to make up for the lost audience is to make even longer videos since they pay more ad revenue. I think thats why we've seen an explosion in very long form content. I'm kind of just tired of everything being a short or a long video essay. I miss fun, nonsensical creative 5-15ish minute videos. Even I feel pressured to extend every video and I know that doesn't make the content better. Idk in the end it is what it is. We can only try and adapt and do our best.
Thanks for sharing, I was wondering what the deal was with these 2 hour videos. I like longer videos but at the same time, a lot of it is just filler. Sucks that the entire internet is basically being incentivized to create bad content instead of quality. The same thing is happening on forums and it sucks.
I'm a silent viewer and I stopped watching most accounts bc they feel like watching TV and I hate it. I'm slowly subscribing to content just like this. I love supporting a creator that u can see they don't want to become Jimmy Kimmel
Sometimes it feels like QVC, everyone flogging products and services and courses.
I know you said you didn't want to speak on politics, but I actually have a fairly common anecdote regarding your covering of Shadiversity. I (like many others) found that channel through Shorts because we were interested in HEMA and the topic of Medieval Europe (and knights, I love knights). His channel was cool, but when you delve into his non-shorts content it's a lot of stuff like raging on "Woke Disney" "Liberal Warhammer" stuff like that etc, that drove me (like many others) away from the channel
I run into that issue too with a few TH-camrs. Their shorts are about more obscure historical stuff, but their long form are going off on rants about the "downfall of society"
Viewer habits have definitely changed in the last two or so years. And not slightly, drastically. One app that ran rampant during that time is, well, we all know.
personally, this whole short form content dilemma started with vine, it's just that we didn't start seeing the negative side effects until years later. I wish youtube shorts was it's own app.
It would help if it was it's own app and it would be on phones only. Still, having people taking time off of making actual content to make these shorts is not a good thing, nor is the effect of scrolling content on the brain a thing that needs to be sustained.
And Guess who came out when Vine died? The Paul brothers.
Yep. Oh I saw it nearly immediately. Habits affect long term. I knew it was gonna make people who consume it to have short attention spans. Warned as many as I could. Fell on mostly deaf ears and blind eyes. Same thing with texting habits. Told people that it's going to affect their writing and typing habits. Same thing. Now we have a bunch of people who are narcissistic, accuse but can't handle accusation, always want to be right but don't do enough research to be accurate, can't think or reason, mistake intelligence as following directions of experts without even understanding what they are following, and that don't even have the attention span or mental fortitude to read less than a paragraph trying to act like they're competent to tell people what they should believe about subject matters that are massive in information and reading material.
It's not exactly rocket science to figure out why society is heading straight into idiocracy.
@@Itsallsotiresome I think you are taking it a step too far with all this doom and gloom. We have a Millenial generation that is somewhat ruined, but they turned out quite okay overall. At least their morals are mostly fine and their idealism usually comes from a good heart.
Gen-Z however, are shying away from this a little bit. For quite some time, there are huge movements away from fast media, into slow media. Reading books is more popular than it ever was over the last 2 decades, so is music, creating art and other slower entertainment forms like Lego or boardgames. Alpha gen, while lesser known and still young, has had somewhat similar trends.
Yes, people using the scrolling video shorts are ruining their brains, but it is an addiction. Like any addiction, be it alcohol, gambling or scrolling content, it can be treated or people can quit it
Also, most of the issues you bring up are not from watching too much Tiktok, but from lacking good education and lacking proper information sources. The issues arise because of centralized governments trying to decide what is best for humans, instead of teaching people to think critically and letting them figure it out on their own. You are entirely correct that younger generations have a lot of people that lack both the proper framework and the proper motivation to make something out of their lives.
This is also why we see people in their early twenties (or even younger) suffer from burnout and depression. They lack grounding, do not carve their own path and feel lost in a world that is neither welcoming, nor supportive to who they are and what they desire.
But I see good things too, younger generations, like all previous ones that came before them, are still open and inquisitive. They are not stupid, they are simply lost. It is human nature to discover and self correct over time. I don't see this issue lasting forever by any means.
@@pinobluevogel6458 You didn't even regard in consideration of how I explained how specifically tiktok is affecting them and instead reframed it as an absolute without the details which is dishonest and not accurate as the basis for responding to, so I'm not going to bother replying point by point because if you managed to misunderstand what I said even when I laid it out word for word, a point by point reply probably isn't worth my time. We're just gonna have to agree to disagree.
i very recently started noticing that like the second thing in my recommended on mobile is 10 rows of shorts and its been driving me crazy
you can remove it from home
I switched from using the TH-cam app to using it in my phone’s browser. For whatever reason it’s made it way easier for me to resist clicking on shorts and getting sucked into an hour long scroll session.
I wish they would release a feature to let me disable shorts completly, and let me enjoy the long form content that I love
It is a feature, just gotta re-put that checkmark every 30 days
@@BLET_55artem55 can you tell me where the feature is on the iOS app?
If you don't have IOS get TH-cam revanced for no ads and disable shorts for free and a LOT more feature that is not available in the official app. It's pretty worth the headache of an install
Same here. Firefox Mobile with uBlock Origin to block ads. 👍
All great points. One thing though that I think should be added is that although the ad revenue for TH-cam shorts is very low, and non existent for TikToks under 1 minute, people with lots of followers/subs are making good money if their shorts have a sponsorship in them. But that is probably a very low % of creators (that I am unfortunately not part of lol but I have some friends who do get some good sponsors for their shorts). Also, hoping your next video is “Shooting 3 pointers for 30 days”
I luv ur content!!! Aaaa
The ending was a masterpiece the fact that you spent 20 minutes to few second bit is amazing
Man, the editing of this video is on a whole new level! I’m impressed! As for the whole social media thing, you are right. It’s great to see you man, keep it up! 😁
I had no idea that shorts were available beyond the mobile app. It makes even less sense to me on a computer or TV. Like what?
We almost need to have separate shorts and long form content. I sometimes want to subscribe to only shorts or only long form from certain creators, and I really don’t like that my feed is all mixed up with both in my subscription box. Sometimes I like someone’s shorts, but their only long form content is for example live streams of video games I don’t play, so it spams up my sub box
It might be a great idea to split up the subscriptions, but this overlap of people making both short and long form isn't gigantic. As someone that is subbed to mostly people that skip short form content altogether, I only regulary visit few channels that do both. Most of those channels have amazing long form stuff, but only do short forms as a short teaser or commercial to their 'real' content. You know, the actual stuff, the meat and potatoes .. which is coincidently also the stuff that is making them money and giving them sponsorship deals and everything else.
Just be a little more selective with your subscriptions and you probably can navigate this a lot easier. Also, it is not hard to make a bookmark of someone's channel and go to that once in a while and see what they're up to. Using a sub is really meant to promote the channel as a good one, rewarding it with a supersmall (but if many do it quite large) benefit.
maybe youtube shorts should be a separate app
I don't even look at my sub box... it makes me uncomfortable for some reason...
you’ve become one of my favorite youtubers, always look forward to a new upload
incredible analysis here! was interested to see how the video was gonna come together in the end and I have to say you really nailed it!
I think its important to mention when it comes to Shadiversity is that he is a controversial creator and generally believes that he got canceled. So his viewership regardless of shorts is not a great measure.
he's probably getting squeezed especially hard by shorts. i know he alienated me as a viewer a good while ago, and its not like im opposed to sword content.
He sort of is cancelled, in that people fucking hate his content and voluntarily made the choice to stop supporting his bad content. Which is what being "cancelled" always has been, a person losing support for doing something the people previously supporting them find objectionable and deciding to stop.
The main problem is he just creates a shitload of slob nobody cares about.
There are a ton of creators that have been shadowbanned, meaning they get shown to less and less people intentionally. In some cases even people that are fully subscribed don't even get to see updates from the channel, which is just criminal for an open platform. This is mostly political though, not for hobbies / interests / casual stuff.
What did Shad do?
Another great video. Thank you for taking the time. I hope TH-cam doesn't ignore you (us).
I do think the major flaw for shorts on yt is being passive instead of active. Yt is an active platform which trying to become this hybrid is affecting both systems.
But for shorts I think the passivity of it it’s actually on why it looses money since there are little space for ads where those are really difficult to convert onto buyers.
Finally I think for monetizing shorts would be a new problem, rather than on how a video less than a minute can make money, how to integrate ads onto them; I think ads would take screen space and harm even more the videos. Great video btw
That trio of recordings that ended with "They're all connected" at 1:27 is an excellent bit of planning ahead and editing!
i haven't watched the video but tiktok definitely ruined youtube. i hate short form videos
TikTok didn't ruin TH-cam. TikTok didn't force TH-cam to jump on the shorts bandwagon and integrate it so poorly. All the shorts on TH-cam are clearly made for TikTok originally, and they often cut off awkwardly and lazily bc TH-cam had slightly different time limits. And yet TH-cam saw how poor quality everything was and was like "yeah, we should definitely push this to everyone all the time."
TH-cam ruined TH-cam.
Im sorry you went through that or im happy you went through that
I haven't clicked a single short for a long time anymore because I would end up myself scrolling through them endlessly in my bed when I actually needed to sleep. Once I had searched up art to see art related shorts, in just after five scrolls, there comes up an ad, and after that, there will be shorts that are non-related to my search bar (especially videos of re-uploaded videos from others and their avatar or face somewhere at the edge just smiling lifelessly like they did something, videos being a clickbait and boring and everything, or even gaming from livestreams) and they all annoyed me that I gave up on shorts generally.
I guess I can agree that TH-cam should have brought their shorts in a form of another app like they did with their music app. I don't understand why they haven't done that yet.
Amazing video btw!
I never used Tiktok ever. I do remember there was a option to not show Shorts on here. I think it's a competitive version against Tiktok.
I deleted TikTok a while ago and have occasionally been watching reels and shorts. I’ve noticed since watching shorts that my homepage has been very boring lately. It hasn’t been recommending me stuff I usually watch, or it has been recommending me things I don’t like. Before I almost never had an issue finding something to watch off my homepage
You are the best thing i have discovered on TH-cam in years, i can guarantee. Keep marching foward. I hope you will not be censored one day, your videos are eye opening and very critical while being classy. Cheers from Brazil
As someone who works with dozens of channels, I saw this trend happening early last year. I had a client go through exactly the same situation where a Short went viral and it brought in so many low-quality subscribers that it took months to recover regular views. I've advised clients to create SHORT channels as beta tests for a long tail strategy to avoid hurting their channels more by mixing both. With that, even with that strategy channels are significantly dropping because all the attention is being driven to the format thus taking away audiences to long-form.
I can definetly confirm it fucked my adhd sideways
but I am very happy that you uploaded mr Smigel!!
Been talking about elements of this with friends lately; glad to see you made a video about it.
VATS joke on the basketball hoop was ace lmao
I personally would like the option in each app to remove ethe short form content. If TH-cam didn't advertise reels to me on my feed or have a button for it I would never use it. Its a dopamine pit, I want the option to opt out because short form scrolling is too tempting and worthless.
Great video! I don't understand why if TH-cam can see that shorts are terrible why they don't have an option to remove them from your home page and searches. I don't want the low effort rubbish, otherwise I'd have downloaded TikTok
thank you for validating the concerns ive had with short form content over the past 2 years, you said what id been fearing this whole time
Yooooo great video; I personally just finished my capstone about the effects of TikTok on society for YSU and will absolutely share your vid with my classmates
Watching this on a second monitor while playing OSRS and hearing the music in your video definitely tripped me up for a minute! Thank you for continuing the conversation about short form video content, it's something I've tried to discuss with my peers but often I'm not taken as seriously as I'd like to be.
I got an ad for TikTok with some anoying ass ai voice saying "strawberry or nut" while cutting a chocolate dipped strawberrie while watching this video 😭🙏
i really appreciate your videos. they add a sort of consumer consciousness to social media usage that controls so much of our lives
Interesting that TH-cam didn't think that would be a possibility before rolling out 'shorts'. Feeling for all content creators really hurting from this though!
another zackary smigel banger! i wouldnt mind youtube shorts if the algorithm wasn't awful and also just reposted tiktoks that ive seen a few weeks before. instagram reels are fine tho from the small amount of time i scrolled on there
I hate to complain, but as a creator here, it's been rough for the last year. Just like most creators, I've had a sudden and steep decline in veiws. Even with a bump in quality and production value, I can't replicate numbers from a year ago. I wasn't surprised at all when I saw creators quitting. Just glad someone's shining some light. Great video!
A lot more creators, I think. Everyone is a creator, means fewer in the audience.
To be fair, Shadiversity kind of shot himself in the foot on top of that.
Yeah that also bothered me. Shad anti LGBTQ+ awful rants hurt him way more than his shorts, and that's just one of his dumb opinions
Love your stuff dude, so impressed by how consistent the mic quality was despite switching locations so much 😂😂
This is one of your best yet! Great perspective on TikTok and shorts.Zack, you’re so good at editing that’s informative and entertaining.
Another on-point banger - Zack refuses to miss in these videos (or on the court, apparently)
I live in Canada, we never got the Creative program and we also have not gotten TikTok shop either, there's been 0 monetization effort here. We've just been watching and making TikToks for the love of the game
Sounds like heaven no TikTok shop 😭
your videos are so good! looking forward to the next
The major issue with short lenght content is that it is usually very bad quality content. I don't know if this related to Tiktok and shorts but since a little while now, my TH-cam recommandations became terrible, I spend so much time looking for something to watch and what I'm getting is random videos with a very clickbait title and thumbnail with barely actual content at all or videos I already watched last weak sometimes even a decade ago. Even on Tiktok I'm spending so much time skipping videos on the first second because I already know what the content is, it became so predictable over the time. It feels like all social medias try to get your attention as fast as possible and ignoring keeping people watching. I uploaded two videos recently that have got many more views than my videos usually get and most people stopped watching after 30 seconds, the percentage of viewers remaining until the end is between 5 to 10%.
Mostly because "it became so predictable lately". Ppl already know what your vid will really be and how it will go and click off after they get it (usually under a minute) or when they hear a specific point (either because they were looking for it or because they don't want to hear about it for the 600th time this week)
I think extremely short form content will be a short-lived period in the long run. EXTREMELY long form content making a rise seems to be a sign of that already.
And yeah, there's genuinely good shorts out there, and it's fun to play around with a new video format, but 90% of it really is just content farming trash.
Babe (imaginary), wake up. New Zachary Smigel just dropped.
hear me out
bold and brash from that one spongebob episode is the best part of this video
I never used TikTok but I still managed to get absolutely addicted to TH-cam Shorts. I had to force myself to only watch long-form content and I still feel the aftermath of the addiction.
Short content was complete disaster for me. I wish I never tried it.
I've discovered your channel via that "I promise, this video should be here" video and that was an instant subscribe. Always solid content, congrats!
For me 20 minute long is the sweet spot. I will only watch a short if it is from one of the channels I already like and follow, so for me they serve only as a "reminder" of said channel. Considering I subscribe to quite a few, I might miss a video hence shorts are a good hook back... Always stayed clear of tik tok and always will
I've always wanted shorts to be a separate app. This might be the best time for them to do that
I think the platform should ditch trying to monetize for the creators and just let them find partnership deals.
That being said I despise shorts.
I'm so happy the TH-cam algorithm show me your channel a couple months ago. It's always well explain and well edited. Thank you for your work ✨
Wonderful video. Also, your choice in BGM is fantastic!
I've now watched the whole video and, as in your other videos, I have to say that you address exactly what I've been thinking all along or have noticed when using the apps. I hate shorts and actively try not to click on them, which is really not easy with the way YT (for whatever reason) promotes them.
What I've also noticed recently is that my watch history just doesn't work. I find this very troublesome, as YT is constantly suggesting videos that I've already watched - do you have similar experiences?
THIS. This is IT! I can barely find any NEW content in recommendations and have to update them like 40 times to find ONE vid that I haven't watched (most of the time it's some deranged political commentary on something like Kazakhstan elections or Nintendo games reviews which I do not care in the slightest) and it's SO ANNOYING. I pretty much HAD TO subscribe to tens of YT channels that I've watched one vid from that seemed relatively interesting to me just to maybe have something more to watch than 4 12-20 min long vids a day. I'm honestly loosing my mind of how it keeps showing me vids that I'VE JUST WATCHED 2 HOURS AGO multiple times and keeps shoeing them for WEEKS!!!! I might as well ditch watching YT and listen to podcasts or smth (40% of my current "watchlist" are 30 min - 1,5 hours long video essays anyway)
@@BLET_55artem55 yes, good to know I’m not alone. That’s so weird because it frustrates me quite a bit and it almost feels as if TH-cam actively tries to discourage me to use the platform lol.
Yeah I’m too subscribed to a bunch of creators and activate the bell (which at least works well for me) but I have to admit, I rarely look into the subscription box and rather was used to finding those videos in my recommended.
Wonderful essay. It reminded me of a few of my favorite quotes from Fahrenheit 451 that I think are sadly prophetic:
"We bombard people with sensation. That substitutes for thinking.”
“Classics cut to fit fifteen-minute radio shows, then cut again to fill a two-minute book column, winding up at last as a ten- or twelve-line dictionary resume.”
I honestly hate shorts the most because they take up my notifications if I have notifications on.
Yes I’m amazed at how in depth your responses are! I saw the Shadiversity video recently, and watching people’s favorite youtuber’s retire left and right is the end of an era. Appreciate all your effort and sharing the real time basketball shots 😜👌🏼
The RuneScape music is just... Perfect
Yes. It's either short-form or long-form, no in-between.
I don't normally check trending but I checked lately and all the trending was shorts and that was frustrating to see
Another great essay/discussion! Dissect the TH-cams man, so good
Yes.
Shadiversity has also alienated a bunch of his viewers from his past mistakes. He's usually unable to admit when he's done wrong or is wrong, and has very controversial views on AI art generation and creatives as a whole.
So he himself has split his audience.
As I mentioned in the video, in reference to him, "I want to emphasize that I don't agree with everything said in this video." I chose to include him because he was throwing such wild claims around and as I said, I don't agree with his claims. But yes, there's definitely a lot more at play then he is leading on, but discussing those things, I believed that to be beyond the scope of this video.
if you hit not interested on every youtube short you get recommended, they stop popping up on the homepage, it actually works… BUT its still not enough tho i need the whole tab gone 😭
I literally jumped from TikTok to TH-cam to watch longer form content from the people I was watching on TikTok. I watch a lot of tradespeople content (plumbing, electrical, automotive repair) and I love putting on a 40min video, putting in my earbuds, and just working as the video plays in the background.
the man is back
TikTok butchered TH-cam.
TH-cam shorts needs to be its own app or website
I do TH-cam for 11 years now. Since shorts, everything is been slowly dying no matter what i do. I hate using the phone app now because its so crowded with stuff, and shorts taking lots of real estate. Shorts also are making viewers watch less and less, on a platform where watch time matters. Also, shorts and the new way youtube algorithm has been working (wich reweards spectacle clickbait stuff more than ever) of "following the audience" (while its actually showing more of the same with the biggest clickbaity titles until someone searches for something else and resets this trend) makes the creator of the videos matter less and less. And the cherry on top: the search page now only shows 5 or 6 videos related to what someone is searching, and then a flood mix of unrelated shorts, ads and unrelated things, also messing up the search part of the site (and those search views). In short, its a mess. I hate this shortform trend, i hate what TH-cam is becoming, i hate what this did to instagram as well, and sometimes i do shortform videos because we need to now, but man, this year it feels my channel resetted to 2015 in terms of reach and revenue, but now with a 2.5 million subs instead of 100k.
Also loved the video, and i think you tackled the thing briefly, but its weird how platforms benefit of audience attention while throwing creators into a meat grinder where content is made only for the promise of "getting famous" or getting a lot of views. And another stuff: what is a view? Because they are clearly different depending on platform or type of content. Is it a person watching for more than 1 second? Is this appearing into that horrible "infinite timeline"? Because clearly, like you showed when you mentioned the 10 million short views threshold, a longform video view is different from a short view, but youtube doesn't publically show views separatedly (and i think it should). A channel should have "total views / longform views / short views" so it's clear to the audience and advertisers what kind of view it is. Throwing everything under "views" is another problem that throws stuff below the hug. Anyways, this is something that has been disturbing me to the point it caused me anxiety attacks and several health issues in the past months and i have several things to criticize and am using your comment section for it, so sorry for the huge comment haha.
Hopefully those executives that are concerned get a say in this and TH-cam starts doing the right thing before my channel and other people's channels die out.
I remember seeing somewhere that half of the 100k youtube plaques now are short channels. There's also the problem where "subscribing" is easy on a short and people keep subscribing to lots of stuff wich in the end makes subscribing even more a waste than it was already.
15:24 to his intro answer
After my team got acquired by an agency and became a company, what started out as a leisurely weekly upload of long form video turn into a massive twice-a-day short content upload with twice-a-week long form video, and once short contents became hideously popular the long feature videos dropped in popularity. Something I massively hate with every single fibre of my body.
I grew tired so I deleted Instagram and avoid dealing with TH-cam stuffs. It is emotionally draining.
yes zack i love your videos so far! i'm one of the few to have never installed tiktok even during the lockdown stuff (ok maybe once, but immediately deleted it) because that sort of stuff just messes with my mental health so much. can't overstate how frustrating it is that i've gone out of my way to avoid that platform and try to support longer form creators only for youtube - pretty much the only platform i still use - to tiktokify itself severely. it's also incredibly easier for people to spread misinformation or hateful/bigoted beliefs through short form content like that because people (and a lot of kids) can consume this so quickly without even getting the chance to have a critical thought.
it adds another issue that i've seen another comment about on your other video, about ads - some of this short form content recommended to people could easily have the potential to be triggering. like what if you're trying to battle an addiction but because the algorithm somehow knows this, it won't stop referencing things to you about said substance. there's really no way to avoid this because (in my experience) even if you delete the shorts bar it'll pop up again after a while, and it's still all over your recommendations taking up 90% of site real estate.
Everything i wanted to say was said by you or people in the comment section already, but I would like to add I've been straying away from long form content for a while, tiktok definitely dominated the content I was consuming daily. The YT algorithm sucks, it never actually recommends anything I am genuinely interested in BUT recently I discovered you and Sam Reid, and honestly I am looking forward to your videos on any topic. So thank you, I'm glad to have some long form content I'm looking forward to and watch with full attention, no distractions.
*Great topic/info* and awesome edit
🤙🏽🤟🏽🤙🏽
I came to your channel for the Sheetz vid but it's vids like these that keep me coming back. I really appreciate your analysis and effort on these vids. Spot on really.
There is something that I think Damilee did with shorts, where the short is an exiting snippet of a longer video that is linked to the short. I don't know how well this works but it seems interesting.
I use shorts for bits of comedy, summary of situations, food when im hungry, and minor stuff like that. I actually dont like getting stuck in a scroll and actually keep a video queue i work through as a means of avoiding shorts. Then when my adhd brain goes "need new thing" i watch a few shorts. Maybe im who this is for, shit
I know shorts caused me a brief, annoying search for blocking scripts. And it was also why I switched back to browser watching rather than the "App". I expect YT has a unspoken plan to discontinue/disable ALL browser access and force closed-code app viewing only. I call that day "the END". Long-form YT is my only social media. I don't use any others at all.
Forget about shorts man TH-cam needs to push your channel to the top asap
Amazing outro lol. Tbh, shorts seem like more work to me than long form content. I wish YT would just scale it back a lot more or give us an option to customize our feeds
I loath all these short vertical videos flooding TH-cam. It's horrible since I'm 99% of the time watching youtube from my computer browser or my tv, I NEVER want vertical video in those platforms.