I can't speak to everyone's motivation, but for me YouTube, and only YouTube has the kind of fascinating niche content that I want to watch. Often that content is created by random people who have a passion and zero profit motive, which makes it more authentic and charming. Sometimes it's an elderly Mexican grandmother explaining how she makes Chilaquiles[0], or maybe it's someone explaining why the Great Reform Act…
This I can understand and if you look at the body of my post I talk about understanding if youtube was a selector of quality content, but people will watch hours of slop on youtube that is neither authentic or niche and that's what I want to get to the heart of. I fall victim to this too, I watch hours of youtube (long form) which in retrospect I accept as garbage, but will refuse to watch the the new hot netflix sho…
Re: Ask HN: Why Do People Prefer YouTube Videos over Big-Budget Movies and TV Shows?
#11I'm not as sure as you are that people are watching hours and hours of slop every day -- I feel like there are still plenty of humans out there trying to make a buck and getting their egos stroked by creating rage-bait for the normies. The algorithm is also pretty good at surfacing this dreck and keeping people watching. You know the sharpest minds at Google are hard at work making this happen.