Most YouTube creators are mental, screwing up our reality and how we see ourselves

[WI-Tom]

I was saying there was a simple solution. I named it. And I stated that it seemed an easy solution, so didn't see the need for the drama. The world is moving the way it's moving. I may or may not like it, but - in this case - I don't have to participate in that trend. Neither do you or Ted. Agitation averted.

Or, to put it another way, haven't we got some issues to address that are both more consequential and more urgent?

I doubt it.

(OK, climate change--but that's a related issue, not a different one--the energy used to watch 1 hour of Internet TV each evening for a year is the same as it takes to run 2 full-size refrigerators for a year. Our image-hungry streaming culture is burning up resources on cat videos and celebrity Twitter feeds--about 2% of all CO2 emissions in the world come from running the Internet).

Here's how James Bridle puts it:

Technology is in fact a key driver of inequality across many sectors... And one of the keys to this augmented inequality is the opacity of technological systems themselves.
...
Technology extends power and understanding; but when applied unevenly it also concentrates power and understanding. The history of automation and computational knowledge, from cotton mills to microprocesors, is not merely one of unskilled machines slowly taking the place of human workers. It is also the story of the concentration of power in fewer hands, and the concentration of understanding in fewer heads. The price of this wider loss of power and understanding is, ultimately, death.

It's easy to put your head in the sand and ignore this stuff. It's big. It's complex. It's difficult--maybe impossible--to fully grasp the implications. But the implications are there, affecting our lives, whether we understand them or not--even if we're not even aware of it.

The idea that you "don't have to participate in the trend" is, well, delusional. We're all participants. That's the way the world is. We live in it.

Tom

[JayInOz]

If I wanted to learn about a topic in the past I went to the only local book store- which never had what I wanted- followed by the library. If I stumbled across mention of a book that might be of use I tried to track down where to get a copy and if that worked out then I posted a very expensive bank cheque made out to the correct foreign currency- which involved a long drive to town during work hours- and waited at least several weeks for the book to arrive. Now I type in the topic and add the word Youtube and I usually have the information I need, with video of somebody performing the task I'm inquiring about, within thirty seconds tops. Costs me nothing and I can put up with ads and promos for having all that unbelievable warehouse of knowledge at my fingertips. JayInOz

[Yeadon]

[epoxyboy]

... Now I type in the topic and add the word Youtube and I usually have the information I need, with video of somebody performing the task I'm inquiring about, within thirty seconds tops. Costs me nothing and I can put up with ads and promos for having all that unbelievable warehouse of knowledge at my fingertips. JayInOz

I have found, especially with car related stuff, that it usually pays to watch several videos - there are a lot of copycat incorrect efforts there, and sometimes you have to wade through a few to find the one that isnt outright wrong, or that doesn't gloss over the crucial detail that you need to get the job done without breaking something - especially those plastic clip features beloved of dashboard designers.
And North American car models (the bulk of the vids) are often put together differently from JDM/ROW models with the same name and external appearance.

Pete

[Jimmy W]

These screw up my reality and make me wish I was 30-40 years younger and there on the water. Also these modern kayaks are safer than the Perception Dancer of 30 years ago, although I would have likely been in my Blue Hole OCA.

Daddy's Creek