Not long ago I saw a cooking video that put my patience to the test. Usually I don't watch these, because although many are offering very good dishes, at the end of the day, most are not for my diet or healthy and I end up being hungry, which is the direct opposite of what I want. However, I gave in and watched this one as it looked really good.
Going through it gave me the confirmation that although I'd love it, will probably never make it as it had almost 1kg of cheese added, among other ingredients that would blow anyone's calorie intake for the whole day, but this is not the point today.
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
What made me lose my patience was the way the video was made and edited. When I saw the length of it, was not happy as 20 minutes is too long for such a recipe, but I gave it a try anyway, just to be convinced that it was a huge waste of time. Literally wasted half of the time as that content could be wrapped up in 10 minutes.
The lady had 5 boiled potatoes and she thought she has to show how to slice them, thus you have to watch how she slices three of them as the idiots we are, we probably wouldn't get the idea after watching one sliced and the pile of sliced potatoes after that. Then she spent half a minute mixing cheese with sour cream but the cherry on the cake was when she had 8 slices of tomatoes and spent 1 minute to show how you add the cheese - sour cream mix on top of each and every slice and how you arrange it with a spoon so it doesn't run off. Damn!
Now you can say I'm fussy and want to pick on her, to look important, which is far from the truth, but just stop for a minute and think. Imagine yourself looking for a recipe and going through five or six videos, spending most of your free time to sponsor the content owner and wasting your own time. This time I thought I'd leave a comment, maybe they consider cutting the next video shorter and also went through the comments and surprise, surprise. Every comment was a complaint about the length, on every possible language. This shows I'm not the only one in this pot. I understand spending as much time watching the video as you can benefits the content owner, financially and helps the algo, but this is the fastest road to failure as well.
With AI gaining ground every single second, we not only got rid of cooking books, but pretty soon these videos will have less and less consumers as well. Visual experience is important, as the image and most of the times the package sells the product, but when it comes to choose between spending 20 minutes on a video and getting angry, vs reading a recipe in 1m, it's a no brainer.
Photo by Jan Huber on Unsplash
On Hive, we have all kinds of content, video included and I'm guilty of avoiding them for this very reason. Going through a post is easy, you read it if it's interesting, or skim through it quickly, but when it comes to a video, skimming though it can make you lose the meaning, especially when it's not a travel video, but someone is speaking, as you don't know what part to skip.
This brings me to the future of content creation. On Hive we write for fun, at least I do, I don't consider my blog as content that is going to bring me fame in the future. I write about what it interests me, what's happening in my life to some extent and what topics cross my mind, for fun. But if you're planning to make a career as a content creator, there are some things to consider.
Photo by Brooke Campbell on Unsplash
Gone are the times when you could upload any kind of crap and get rewarded, which is why so many from the third world, with limited funds have seen their dreams crashed, although, it looks like there's a demand for garbage and stupidity on TikTok. I've never used it though, only see what I can't avoid and know from others. However, if you're serious, the above named platform is not the future.
If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides:
