Ask HN: Why Do People Prefer YouTube Videos over Big-Budget Movies and TV Shows?

6•Gtex555•4h ago

I understand the basic arguments—YouTube’s rise in short-form content, faster dopamine hits, and lower expectations placed on creators. But even if we set short-form content aside, the contradiction still stands. You’ll find people calling the new Avatar movie boring, even if they pirated it and watched it for free, while those same people will happily spend hours watching livestreams where someone reacts to content or talks about nothing in particular, day after day, for an entire year. How can Avatar be dismissed as boring, yet that kind of content is considered engaging? I would understand if it was a Wikipedia like scenario were all those hours of User generated content just lead to better quality content being produced by process of selection but that isn't really the case with youtube.

Comments

baubino•3h ago

On youtube, people are watching other people’s lives, often in place of living their own fully. I don’t think it’s a matter of big-budget movie vs youtube, but of fiction vs reality content. The general public isn’t interested in fictional stories anymore; they’re interested in something that seems like real life (even if that “reality” is as fictionalized as a big budget movie).

spudlyo•3h ago

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 of 1832 was necessary[1], or perhaps it's a professor doing a deep-dive the history of the Vulgate and the life of Jerome[2], or maybe it's a YouTube series[3] that dives into a huge rabbit-hole (pun intended) on restoring a weird 1980s minicomputer -- whatever interests you that moment, someone is likely passionate and knowledgeable about it, and has made a video on it.

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mQx1zzBpuU

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_9PGNHd5Zs

[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF98_HnYHjQ

[3]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ1HwuYBuss&list=PLnw98JPyOb...

mmcdermott•3h ago

This is the big one for me. I have no inherent problem with bigger budget stuff, but it is seldom about the things that interest me.

zalah•3h ago

>day after day, for an entire year.

That’s the answer. The creator, other creators they have interacted with and their friends, they become your (para) friends too. Almost like comparing big-budget vacation with a random person vs hanging with people you dear.

Bad_Initialism•1h ago

Because big-budget films and TV are increasingly fascist. They focus on the nuclear family as being qualitatively and quantitatively more important than anything else. Within that context, the plot inevitably seeks to establish the absolute uniqueness and superiority of the individual. Superhero stories are an extremely good fit for this narrative.

Deep down, we all know that having a family is exactly as great a biological accomplishment as taking a nice shit in the morning. Dad came; mom squeezed one out. Lampreys and slugs do basically the same thing just as successfully. It's not special. We are not special. Movies and TV push the lie that we are, and we recognize the lie and we have begun to resent it and to be unable to suspend our disbelief.

Youtube is enormously better because it discards the lie. It's just some dude earnestly trying to figure out why a plane crashed or how to run Doom on a smart toilet. It's refreshing because it's real. It's interesting because it's real and it doesn't alienate us by spending all its time trying to shove the big lie down our throats.

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