Video reviews

I generally skip the unboxing video's.

I am also not a big fan of video's in general, I prefer to just read a good explanation of what is being done with maybe a short video snipit showing the operation.

But then I am considered a troglodyte with all of this new fangled technology. ;) 

DAB  While I want to be a curmudgeon, all of my young technicians seem to only respond to video.  Some days, it's a struggle to embrace the "new norm", but if I want them to learn my trade... I have to do what works.  I do get a bit of a chuckle when I can show them the inner secrets - the sequence of operations - right there in the manual.  WOW!  Then I go for the jugular vein... "Let me show you the schematic."    BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!

This discussion seems to have broadened out a bit - so I feel happy to express my general dislike of videos.

Making good ones is a significant skill which is not generally present in good engineers  -some have it - most don't.

I don't generally make videos but have on occasion when its necessary.

The downside of videos is that you can't index or search them, its hard to skip the bits you don't need and the pace is usually wrong. Too slow for stuff you know and too fast for stuff that's baffling you.

There are times when they are great, like showing you how to prise the back off a laptop.

I think I'm in a minority.

MK

I agree that some engineers don't have the skils to make good videos. But not most.

It is easy to index a video for YouTube uisng several different methods, none of which take very long, or much effort.

Once properly indexed it's easy to skip to the parts of interest, and to avoid the bits you're not interested in.

The world is video-oriented now, there's no escaping that. Lets move forward together.

If the pace of the video is wrong - leave feedback for the engineer, all feedback both positive and negative promotes the page in the rankings, and the engineer can learn.

I think the sponsors would give far more credit to a video showing their product, than a blog.

I'm in the same minority. Short videos just showing what's happening after you pressed the button, applied the solder, etc. are fine, but Videos of unboxing, or explaining stuf I don't like and I'm not good at. I had to do an unboxing for my WXsmart roadtest (             Weller WXsmart review         ), but people rate it at TikTok level (https://youtu.be/XYVheNCsD0E).

Yes - there is skill in making good videos for sure, but I do think that it's a learnable skill.

I quickly turn off from vdieoes which follow this style:

1. Here's what I am going to show you.

2. But first a word from some unrelated sponsor.

4. Here's what I'm going to tell you.,

5. Here;s why what I am going to tell you is so great.

6. Tiny bit showing the product.

7. more pointless talking.

And I much prefer this type:

1. Showing the product, using the product while AT THE SAME TIME talking about it and getting on with it.

2. The end.

I used to watch the "Vintage Machinery Channel" on YouTube - until more engineers came online with better formats. Now I really don;t like the Vintage Channel's head-up talking-then-doing-then-talking approach. Just do it, and explain as you go along.

And I utterly detest this type

1. Flashy introduction to channel that lasts far too long.

2. Here;s what I'm going to show you

3. Remeber this is what I'm going to show you.

4. Highly fragmented - over dramatised - highly repetitive segment

5. Recap on what I showed you.

6. Highly dramatised teaser for next video.

Believe it or not, and it's not something I say lightly, or say often, but this is particularly a generational age thing in regards to videos.

There is an increasingly huge amount of people now that, because they have grown up with YouTube, simply go there first for a demonstration video. They don't want to read a blog post, or a document, or a user manual (we already knew that historically "no-one read the user manual").

They go to youtube first.

There're still a large number of us who want to read a blog post though, but search engines do 'scrape' videos, especially if they have appropriate markup like subtitles/closed captions and chapters marked out, and make them visible in search.

I have a couple of nephews, they're under 16 years of age, whenever they look up something, be it a product or a problem, they go for videos first, load it up on their phone and sit by it or skip through it to what they want to see, and then move on.

It's the new television, literally.

So while a lot of us aren't comfortable with videos necessarily, or brilliant at editing, the newer generations are totally all over it. Youtube shorts, instagram reels, tiktok have all made people more comfortable and familiar with video creation, and have video edit and creation tools inside the software and it's all accessible from their smart phone.

There are some people that create youtube videos that now also have a 'blog backup' for the content, when it's technical that needs reinforcement, especially with code or scripts, alongside their youtube videos, and maybe they have that behind a patreon paywall - but their primary content type?

Video.

But as baldengineer also says, video is optional.