I only buy large monitors and mount them on my wall.

At first I only watched selfhosted media, but last 8 years it's been more and more Youtube. I'm not too happy about it, would like to wean myself off it.

I'm speaking from my own perspective here but scripted media is something I only watch socially, if my partner wants to watch with me. And I end up on my computer trying to type softly next to them.

All scripted media just seems so predictable now, I'm like Stan in that one South Park episode lol.

It also seems manipulative. I can see how a lot of shows just milk the story for more episodes until they can't milk it anymore. It doesn't seem genuine anymore, maybe it never was? Ratings have always existed, in my lifetime.

But the point is that the only newly produced content I watch is just regular people. One example is Antiques Roadshow, it's boring, maybe even "slow" TV, but it's real people. I much prefer watching real people than characters.

Something that really bugs me now is live action characters, I'd actually prefer cartoon characters. Because everything is so unreal and over the top, it might as well be a cartoon.

Sample quotes from men in the study:

"Who tells me what's right and what's wrong... is it true or is it not true? Some of the things on YouTube are independent. I find I would listen to them more, because they're on the ground. They're telling you the story. "

"If you see something on social media, whether you believe it or not, you can go to the comments and see everyone's points… If most people agree with it, you know you should be at least somewhat agreeing with it. "

"It seems to everyone that it's an agenda, like the government's behind an agenda… it's like a brainwashing tool for the government. An illegal immigrant killed someone in the street the other day, stabbed them to death… And it's all over Facebook, all over YouTube. And the news hasn’t even said anything about it"

Only one man mentioned using YouTube for entertainment.

Of course there are some exceptions, for example when I want to watch my national football team, I'd like to watch it live. Luckily, that won't be a problem anymore this year (Italy).

> Participants claimed to be streaming more and viewing less linear TV. This is part of a medium-term trend we have seen over recent years. Participants also reported more of their viewing as being on their own, with less shared/communal viewing overall.Many participants claimed to be viewing more YouTube, in particular, in the past year. For some men, YouTube is now their main (or only) form of viewing.

- p 20.

> Whilst in previous years YouTube was predominantly being used to access specialist content around users' personal interests, it now also seems to serve a broader range of viewing needs. These include “background” viewing (sometimes as a replacement for daytime TV) and videos about random, eclectic, interesting topics – serendipitous content discoveries traditionally associated with linear TV channels.

- p 21.

[0] https://www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/resources/documents/rese...

this, and

> as AI usage and social media fatigue grow

this are not congruent, you are shown way more AI slop in YT than TV, where it is growing - but still no match. If anything, AI fatigue must be making people spend less time on the web. The write-up in the article itself is contradicting this title. Bad title.

I struggle to find content I actually want to watch. It's really weird.

I can't tell if it's me, or the content, or a combination.

I think part of it is our attention span, or lack thereof.

Adults are the focus here, not men.