How To Make It On YouTube Shorts: Or Really Just My Observations on YT Shorts

[RisingThumb]

I've said this elsewhere, but despite being an Old with a relatively intact attention span, I like shorts because they respect my time. They have the same amount of actual content as a long form video (2 - 3 sentences tops) without it being sandwiched between 10 - 60 minutes of filler, purple prose, and cinematic masturbation.

A short doesn't have to be a predatory dopamine surge for scrambled egg brained Zoomers. It could just be "Here is the thing you want to know in 10 seconds."

The same is easily said of books too. As Nietzsche says: "The aphorism, the apothegm, in which I am the first among the Germans to be a master, are the forms of "eternity"; it is my ambition to say in ten sentences what everyone else says in a book — what everyone else does not say in a book.". As for what an aphorism is, it's a saying that contains a general truth like "No man ever steps in the same river twice. For it's not the same river and he's not the same man.". When you speak in Aphorisms, you condense a lot into very little, make it easy to be engaging with sensory language that speaks to emotions. The vast majority of books could be condensed down to 20 pages or less. Some down to only a single page(a lot of those that can be condensed are self-help books).

In my opinion, the reason for this, is that people are afraid to say what they mean, instead they must say the how and why and examples at great length... before saying at the very end what they mean as a moral. A lot of books I'll start, feel a terrible odour of time wastage about it, and put it on my shelf with a bookmark and never return to it. This is why I preach parallel reading, so that you can enjoy what you feel like reading, and discard what wastes your time. A lot of people do this with games and TV series, even religious people with normal books and holy books... but for some reason with normal books people treat it a sacred line not to read multiple books at once...

 

[Polonius]

i've wanted to write a short story on something similar.

let's take the pornographic argument on this: there's an argument that pornography already leads to misunderstanding intimacy, sexual relationships, and provides a lot of people with unreasonable expectations of what to expect from partners, both in terms of physical appearances and skill in bed. how much would an idealized perfect simulacrum "dream boy/girl" ruin this even more?

(Speculation inbound - I've never been in a 'real' relationship.) I could absolutely see that being the case. Think about when you're young, like early teens young, and you develop a crush on someone, and you start to idealize that person in your head, with increasingly little correlation to who they are as a person. If you provide a digital partner who meets all the desired criteria that exist within a young mind, real people, who are, by nature, imperfect, will seem less and less desireable, for they cannot live up to the expectations of their fellows. Not unlike eating candy all your life, only to be less appreciatve of the sweetness in fruit.

The same is easily said of books too. As Nietzsche says: "The aphorism, the apothegm, in which I am the first among the Germans to be a master, are the forms of "eternity"; it is my ambition to say in ten sentences what everyone else says in a book — what everyone else does not say in a book.". As for what an aphorism is, it's a saying that contains a general truth like "No man ever steps in the same river twice. For it's not the same river and he's not the same man.". When you speak in Aphorisms, you condense a lot into very little, make it easy to be engaging with sensory language that speaks to emotions. The vast majority of books could be condensed down to 20 pages or less. Some down to only a single page(a lot of those that can be condensed are self-help books).

Reminds me of Indian (American Indians) names translated into English. When you meet a guy named 'Crazy Horse' or 'Rain-in-the-Face,' those names give you a very strong image of who they claim or are claimed to be. It's a fun practice to look up the meanings of Western names and see if peoples' names' meanings have any correlation to who they are. Also goes in line with early uses of symbolism in mythology, whether done consciously or not by the authors. Kind of like a universal language based on common human experiences, but maybe that's the whole idea of psychological/spiritual symbolism.

In my opinion, the reason for this, is that people are afraid to say what they mean, instead they must say the how and why and examples at great length... before saying at the very end what they mean as a moral. A lot of books I'll start, feel a terrible odour of time wastage about it, and put it on my shelf with a bookmark and never return to it. This is why I preach parallel reading, so that you can enjoy what you feel like reading, and discard what wastes your time. A lot of people do this with games and TV series, even religious people with normal books and holy books... but for some reason with normal books people treat it a sacred line not to read multiple books at once...

Plus, reading multiple at once, since you will not always be in the right mood for a certain book, but may be for another, can encourage you to read more, if you make time for it. Tolkien may be a bit heavy for a lunch break, but Crichton probably isn't.

 

[alix]

idealizing/romantizing illnesses

At least that has never happened, right? Right...?

 

[Some_porcupine]

At least that has never happened, right? Right...?

you guess... wrong
whole "aesthetics/gender(s) [X-ism is my gender]" being THE point of this

 

[alix]

you guess... wrong
whole "aesthetics/gender(s) [X-ism is my gender]" being THE point of this

MFW when my whole community is seen even worse and ridiculized because of some guy in TikTok calling himself "pupgender", "dreamgender" or:"cannibalgender":

 

[manpaint]

I have never watched any shorts, reels or TikTok video. I like to believe that my attention span is intact, but this thread reminded me about something.

Even since I was 14, when I watch media (i.e an anime), I constantly advance the video to see the plot points and consume the content as fast as possible. Am I the only one that does this?

 

[remember_summer_days]

There's so many shitty/simple (simple doesn't always mean shitty) animation shorts that get millions of views. From what I've seen, you just need a cute anime/cartoon character doing memes. Is this the new Minecraft animations make you rich scheme?

 

[SolidStateSurvivor]

Question regarding using copyrighted music on YouTube Shorts, would using that deprioritize/shadow ban you in the algorithm?

 

[imnotdeadyet]

Question regarding using copyrighted music on YouTube Shorts, would using that deprioritize/shadow ban you in the algorithm?

YouTube launched a program that lets you use up 30-60 seconds of "most" licensed music and even gives you a cut, while those outside the program only let you use up to 15 seconds, I don't think there's yet a list for which music actually falls under this program tho. As for does it effect the algorithm, some say it does others say it doesn't, from my limited testing it didn't have an effect including shorts that got claimed but not blocked.

 

[8310]

YouTube will only get worse. Maybe check out BitView (https://www.bitview.net) or perhaps even other sites.

 

[Orlando Smooth]

Even since I was 14, when I watch media (i.e an anime), I constantly advance the video to see the plot points and consume the content as fast as possible. Am I the only one that does this?

On average, anime is unacceptably bloated with filler. Both in terms of filler episodes and filler scenes and repeated frames within non-filler episodes, which is one of the major reasons that I drifted away from the medium as I got older. But for other forms of media? I'd say that's pretty strange. Movies that are made for the sake of the art (i.e., not Marvel), dramatic tv shows that center on character development, fiction novels, etc., are all written with the pacing in mind. That's not to say the pacing is always perfect, but if you're skipping through that just to "see the plot points," then why wouldn't you just skip the media all together and read the Wikipedia entry? As it relates to shorts and attention spans, this sounds less like a dopamine addiction thing and more like a media-hoarder mentality.

 

[manpaint]

On average, anime is unacceptably bloated with filler. Both in terms of filler episodes and filler scenes and repeated frames within non-filler episodes, which is one of the major reasons that I drifted away from the medium as I got older. But for other forms of media? I'd say that's pretty strange. Movies that are made for the sake of the art (i.e., not Marvel), dramatic tv shows that center on character development, fiction novels, etc., are all written with the pacing in mind. That's not to say the pacing is always perfect, but if you're skipping through that just to "see the plot points," then why wouldn't you just skip the media all together and read the Wikipedia entry? As it relates to shorts and attention spans, this sounds less like a dopamine addiction thing and more like a media-hoarder mentality.

I don't watch movies a lot, I think the last movies I saw in the last decade fully in my control (i.e not in a school setting) was Lord of the Rings. I was watching the extended version. Although I did skipped some part, I did not did that has much as anime. So yeah maybe those anime shows are just bloated lol.

 

[mesaprotector]

On average, anime is unacceptably bloated with filler. Both in terms of filler episodes and filler scenes and repeated frames within non-filler episodes, which is one of the major reasons that I drifted away from the medium as I got older. But for other forms of media? I'd say that's pretty strange. Movies that are made for the sake of the art (i.e., not Marvel), dramatic tv shows that center on character development, fiction novels, etc., are all written with the pacing in mind. That's not to say the pacing is always perfect, but if you're skipping through that just to "see the plot points," then why wouldn't you just skip the media all together and read the Wikipedia entry? As it relates to shorts and attention spans, this sounds less like a dopamine addiction thing and more like a media-hoarder mentality.

I don't think slow pacing is an anime problem, it's a long-running battle shonen problem. Plenty of romance anime cram five manga volumes into 12 episodes and end in the middle of a scene.

But yeah manpaint's deeper problem here is they're bored and scared of missing out so they're watching more content faster thinking that'll fix it and it won't.

 

[manpaint]

But yeah manpaint's deeper problem here is they're bored and scared of missing out so they're watching more content faster thinking that'll fix it and it won't.

I mean, I am sometimes bored, but I don't think this is the reason for me skimming through. I think it may come from me over-valuing my time and having a billions of projects at once. I often watch specific anime for specific reasons - most of the time is it to gather visual and story telling data for some projects of mine. I think the only anime I have watched that did not fit in this category was Cyberpunk Edgerunner, but that anime felt like a drag, so I naturally skimmed through.

I also do the same thing with Genshin Imnpact quest playthroughs - granted you could argue that it is for all intent and purpose constructed similarly to an anime because its an anime-inspired game.

I sometimes do this with books, but that's very rare. The only example I can think of is the long poems/songs in Lord of the Ring and that exposition dump at the end of the Return of the King.

 

[nsequeira119]

Gosh, here it is less than a year after this thread was created and YouTube shorts are already basically irrelevant. I haven't heard anyone mention them in a long time. It's kind of impressive, how quickly people tend to forget these things. I feel like fads have become more fleeting in recent years.

I don't get shorts, or why anyone would make them- I mean, sure, they're heavily incentivized by the algorithm in terms of views, but they pay horribly and YouTube isn't as good at integrating ads into the content as TikTok is, so people generally don't enjoy scrolling through shorts. It seems like a desperate attempt by YouTube to stay relevant, especially after YouTube took away all the features that were genuinely useful (YouTube video editor, annotations, dislikes, etc.) many of which people don't even remember ever existed. This classic Neil Cicierega video used to have 500 annotations crammed on it, which added a whole separate layer of depth to the joke... but all that has been lost to time and future generations will never be able to experience it:



YouTube shorts are redundant because YouTube itself was created with the goal of enabling users to upload short-form content- and for the first couple years of YouTube's operation, until 2010, uploading videos longer than 10 minutes wasn't even possible. They're also anti-consumer because Internet users have shown that they actually prefer LONG-form content. People like a good, meaty hour-long video they can sink their teeth into and binge. The recent Hbomberguy video about plagiarism proves that, "Line Goes Up" by Folding Ideas proves that, Heck, even the Quinton Reviews iCarly videos- all these videos prove that so long as a video is reasonably edited, entertaining, and informative, people will watch it in the millions. The last thing people are looking for is more vapid 10-second fluff with no substance. I feel like YouTube should lean into that, establish their brand moreso as a reputable video library of informative pieces than as a TikTok clone.

And here we are, it's 2024 and nobody is making Shorts anymore because they don't even create that massive a spike in viewership, everyone who experienced that massive spike in viewership initially has completely saturated the market, preventing anyone else from getting in on the craze, and the annoying type of person who watches Shorts exclusively doesn't have the attention span necessary to watch a longer video, which is what most content creators want their viewers to do.

Y'know, I could've easily created a ton of Shorts when they first came out and I could be at, like, 50,000 Subs by now- but I didn't do it for the same reason I didn't create an NFT- not because I'm particularly moral, or because I'm all that averse to hopping on trends- but because it's just too easy. Success achieved that easy can't really be savored.

 

[LostintheCycle]

They're also anti-consumer because Internet users have shown that they actually prefer LONG-form content. People like a good, meaty hour-long video they can sink their teeth into and binge.

The last thing people are looking for is more vapid 10-second fluff with no substance.

Never in my life have I peeped at someones phone on the train and found them watching three hour long videos about Spongebob icebergs. It is always fifteen second recipes, minute long snippets of Breaking Bad, or storytime split with mobile gameplay.
Sure, there are people who adore hour long videos packed with more fluff than cotton candy, but that only represents a sliver of the market, not the majority you claim.
YouTube shorts are actually quite popular and I know plenty of people who watch them regularly, especially people who hate TikTok but want to watch it too.

I feel like YouTube should lean into that, establish their brand moreso as a reputable video library of informative pieces than as a TikTok clone.

Everybody laughed when Facebook and Instagram 'stole' Snapchat Stories, they said they'd never take off. Now I don't think many people use Snapchat, so far as I can tell everybody moved to Instagram, and the IG Stories are very popular as well.
So it's very viable to ripoff the gimmick of another company and succeed, and Youtube is trying it. While it hasn't overtaken Tiktok yet, it doesn't seem unsuccessful to me either. Also what about the event where Tiktok starts getting banned in Western countries for being Chinese spyware? Everyone will go to Youtube Shorts of course.
Are you sure that you aren't just trying to say that you don't like Youtube Shorts?

 

[nsequeira119]

Never in my life have I peeped at someones phone on the train and found them watching three hour long videos about Spongebob icebergs. It is always fifteen second recipes, minute long snippets of Breaking Bad, or storytime split with mobile gameplay.
Sure, there are people who adore hour long videos packed with more fluff than cotton candy, but that only represents a sliver of the market, not the majority you claim.
YouTube shorts are actually quite popular and I know plenty of people who watch them regularly, especially people who hate TikTok but want to watch it too.

Everybody laughed when Facebook and Instagram 'stole' Snapchat Stories, they said they'd never take off. Now I don't think many people use Snapchat, so far as I can tell everybody moved to Instagram, and the IG Stories are very popular as well.
So it's very viable to ripoff the gimmick of another company and succeed, and Youtube is trying it. While it hasn't overtaken Tiktok yet, it doesn't seem unsuccessful to me either. Also what about the event where Tiktok starts getting banned in Western countries for being Chinese spyware? Everyone will go to Youtube Shorts of course.
Are you sure that you aren't just trying to say that you don't like Youtube Shorts?

All I'm saying is, not every half-baked idea these companies come up with is good, and it takes active investment by a company to keep interest in something going. Look at Instagram Threads. Not as popular as YouTube Shorts, maybe, but clearly just an attempt by one company to copy the exact format of another company and piggyback off its success. If all these companies can do is copy each other's homework without bringing anything of substantive innovation to the table, I'm not impressed. Heck, this forum has way more innovative features than YouTube has introduced during its 18-year existence.

 

[eve]

Never in my life have I peeped at someones phone on the train and found them watching three hour long videos about Spongebob icebergs. It is always fifteen second recipes, minute long snippets of Breaking Bad, or storytime split with mobile gameplay.

to be fair, if somebody is watching short form content on a train, i doubt it is what they actually consume most of the time
most ppl just use tiktok/instagram reels/youtube shorts as a time waster as opposed to actual "content" they want to watch and comprehend
its a chance to shut ur brain off and just avoid being "bored"

 

[Ross_Я]

Bonus Step: ADHD editing is good. Zoomers love rapid cuts (really more like flashes) of irrelevant footage interrupting the primary footage.

Huh, really? They love it? That what it was all about? In my rare foray unto the mainstream of YouTube I've saw that kind of editing once, and, well... I do not usually share my videos, but I've summarized my feelings about that kind of montage here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3Iu4DVnCbQ&t=162s
Lasts for just three minutes. I do not feel like retyping it here, and that's why I'm sharing a vid for once, but in two words: I didn't understand it at all. It was unbearable to watch to me and I figured the dude who made the video is just so dumb he can't even read as much as two sentences from his plot consistently.
If anyone actually likes that kind of stuff... I find it straight away horrifying. That kind of montage makes it all arguably even worse than that famous Ass movie that won 8 Oscars. At least Ass had a topic and fucking sticked to it.