The article discusses the recurring trend of platforms shifting towards video content, highlighting the stages of this transition: experimentation, factory production, and bloat. It emphasizes the escalating costs and diminishing quality of content, particularly on platforms like YouTube and TikTok, driven by tactics like retention editing. Despite user preferences for less polished content, platforms are focused on professionalization and monetization. The future direction of video content remains uncertain, with a potential shift towards simpler, less edited formats, though platform policies may impede this evolution.
DrDeception
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Welcome to the video bloat era
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Discussion (4)
In a world where everything is fake or heavily curated / edited, it's natural to want something real. That's the real draw for social media right now. It seems like an inevitable counter-culture to the overly manicured web / early instagram days.
"Retention editing" is a weird concept. Cheap tactics to get people to continue to watch longer will always be short-lived. There are always waves of tactics that become popular, and they work until they don't and its on to the next; similar to trend hunters.
I do remember the bloat factor of it all when Tiktok mentioned it was going to focus more on 1 minute + videos. Which in turn caused creators to figure out what to do to extend their videos, which then causes obvious bloat to consumers. Curious to see if it'll actually go back to the simpler videos. (press X to doubt)
Sometimes the simpler formats just feel better imo. More grounded and relatable in a way I guess, but that's just me.