Men are ditching TV for YouTube as AI usage and social media fatigue grow

gradus_ad

YouTube Premium is the best $10 I spend per month. Nowhere else can I consistently find the sort of niche content that interests me.

ssl232

Next in Ofcom’s authoritarian sights: YouTube.

INTPenis

Long long time ago buddy, I ditched TV 15+ years ago, can't even remember exactly when. 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.

0dayman

youtube is good when there's adblockers

MrBuddyCasino

Ofcom emitting anti-social media statements shouldn't surprise anyone at this point. There is an ongoing EU-wide war against uncensored communication channels in the form of chat control, age verification, and anti anonymity. All to Protect The Children, of course.

raincole

Ofcom is a disgrace to humanity. I guess this is an early signal that they plan to control how people use YouTube.

beejiu

Because you can't get doomlooped into right-wing podcasts and "citizen journalism" on the TV. 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.

TheRoque

Youtube is also pretty boring though. I mean, there are ton of interesting content and quality content too, but the stuff that gets recommended, the "hype stuff" is full of false information, clickbait, tweaked reality to conform some narrative...

Lucasoato

The thing is very simple: when watching TV I need to adjust my schedule to the shows I'd like to watch. With youtube (or any streaming platform), I can see them whenever I want, the platform adapts to my schedule. 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).

seydor

Youtube charges $10 per month and doesn't produce a single video. It's an amazing money maker for them and the only media subscription i pay for (to avoid ads on TVs). They should quit it with the Shorts though, nobody likes those

jackdoe

I will pay anything to watch styropyro!

falcor84

These seem to be the main relevant insights from the "Adults' Media Lives" report [0] (and they are backed with some good quotes from the participants): > 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...

chrsw

There's a lot of AI slop on YouTube unfortunately. But with YT Premium (or adblockers) I can't think of a better platform currently for finding distraction free content focused on your interests.

prplxd_nihilist

> Men are ditching TV for YouTube 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.

TYPE_FASTER

I have access to more content at the touch of a button than ever before. 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.

SirFatty

"UK adults’ media and online lives revealed" Adults are the focus here, not men.

dzhiurgis

I kinda start to feel a but opposite. I’m 20 years off TV this year. But youtube is full of misinformation and garbage while TV is somewhat vetted form of information.

ModernMech

I noticed this about my Dad, he's 66. Growing up he was always in front of the TV watching whatever show was on. Today he's never there, now he's always in front of his iPad watching YouTube, watching videos of tractors excavating things.

chaoticmass

I consume a probably unhealthy amount of YouTube and have for years now. I’ve had Premium since the beginning (still only paying $7.99 a month). At least there’s studies that show directed consumption that I do when I manually search and find stuff to watch is less harmful than the idle scrolling for shorts that you get on TikTok and YouTube shorts.

err4nt

Seen everything on Youtube, I've ditched Youtube for Spotify/listening to music now (and I don't use AI for much besides food recipe questions)