this post was submitted on 20 May 2024
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They're not making YouTube videos because people prefer video instructions to text; they're making them because they can make more money from YouTube than from text. I'm sure loads of people would prefer text.
There are definitely cases where i vastly prefer video instructions to text though. Depends on what the instructions are about, the style of editing etc.
For example, seeing someone disassemble/assemble something is much more informative to me than a text that only vaguely describes where to find the next screw or clip, or that misses some important detail because the author thought it was obvious.
I can see the point in theory, but when this would've been really helpful, my experience is 80% of the time the video maker's hand is obscuring the important stuff, and the video is often out of focus or frame anyway, and a red circle on a photo as an alternative will usually do just fine. The nice thing about still photos is, the photographer REALLY has to think about each shot, and if it is showing the important thing they want to reveal in that shot. If it isn't, they're forced to either retake it or take extra photos to get the point across.
With a video, the videographer is distracted by talking and doing a thing at the same time, and they just think "Yeah, it's video. I got it." and they often don't even rewatch the footage.
Yeah no question, well written instructions (iFixit 💖) are better than even a well produced video, but I'd say the barrier to producing a useful video is much lower than to writing/photographing equally useful written instructions.