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You've never went down the rabbit hole of watching related vids and an hour later wondering how you got to where you are? I don't know if you're missing out or fortunate for not experiencing that.
You mean like the time I started out watching the latest SpaceX launch, only to be taken to the Apollo 1 disaster, then the Hindenburg, and somehow ended up watching the construction of the French Embassy in Uganda?



Mike
 
I don't get it. What are people watching for hours at a time? I watch maybe a few minutes of YouTube a month -news highlights, a press conference, a sports highlight, something like that. It's nothing I'd just browse for entertainment. Maybe I'm the weird one...
I have maybe 5-10 youtube shows that i watch weekly. And whenever i'm bored i just watch whatever video seems entertaining. I don't own a TV because it's stupid to have to watch all those ads
 
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I don't get it. What are people watching for hours at a time? I watch maybe a few minutes of YouTube a month -news highlights, a press conference, a sports highlight, something like that. It's nothing I'd just browse for entertainment. Maybe I'm the weird one...

All I do is watch YouTube and stream from my Apple TV. Ditched cable tv over 4 years ago.
 
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I don't watch regular tv anymore but I like You Tube for product reviews and how-to instructional videos. My husband and I have saved probably thousands of dollars in money on repairs and contractors over the past three years we've been fixing up our house and learning our way around its unfamiliar plumbing and hvac system.

The kids use it (under supervision) for learning how to knit, do various crafts, conduct science experiments and partake in other educational or productive activities.

And yes, we watch lots and lots of funny animal videos. That's so much better than the depressing soul-killing trash the entertainment industry puts out. Cats rule! So do dogs and foxes on trampolines.

Some people are great at editing and mixing scenes from different movies to make funny mash-up movies. I like a couple that mix up Star Trek and Star Wars movies, for example.

There are also many great lectures and presentations from various scholars.

I like that I can watch all of this on my iPad or smart phones. I like my big screen hi def tv for some movie rentals, but it can get overwhelming and bombard my senses after two hours and set off migraines or just leave me feeling tired. I can take modern tv watching in only small doses.
 
Guilty. TV is mostly a wasteland. I have 999 TV channels of which I watch maybe a dozen. Besides TV is part of the power elite control mechanism and almost nothing of real value is on TV. Whereas on UTube the mavericks and revolutionaries speak directly to us all without filters. And it is way more helpful. There are videos on how to replace car parts, do plumbing/electrical, farming, cooking, consumer reviews (HUGE FOR ME), and if you want comedy or excitement, there is tons of that too. UTube is inherently better than TV because is now, raw, and the topic universe is almost infinite relative to the amount of hours in a lifetime. I even use UTube to see how to play stuff on the guitar. My playing has REALLY improved because of UTube tutorials.
 
I watch probably watch 2+ hours of Youtube everyday. I do still watch broadcast tv but more often than not I'm watching it through the channels catch up tv service simply because I don't always have time to watch a program when it's broadcast.
What is great about Youtube is that it's on demand. You have a massive range of content available and you can watch whenever you want. Your not tied to a schedule like with broadcast tv.

Over time Youtube videos have saved me a lot of money by showing me how to fix issues with products that would have needed to be sent off for repair/service had videos showing me how to fix the item myself not been available.

I enjoy watching videos about retro technology and seeing old tv programs that would otherwise be quite awkward to find if they weren't online.
Product reviews and how-to videos are another great thing about Youtube. I do as much research as I can before buying anything these days and online videos help with that research. I have a modified iPod Mini that I wouldn't have been able to do had the how-to video not been available.
 
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Am I the only one here surprised that YouTube viewing hasn't already surpassed TV viewing?

Also I'm saddened by all anti-YT sentiment across a bunch of these comments. Thanks to YouTube, I've learned how to repair my car by myself, train my dog with positive reinforcement training, watch sports highlights on demand, look up my favorite clips from old tv shows and movies that I loved, cook cool recipes from independent home chefs.... the list goes on.

Seriously, half of y'all are practically yelling at me to get off your lawn.
 
I don't get it. What are people watching for hours at a time? I watch maybe a few minutes of YouTube a month -news highlights, a press conference, a sports highlight, something like that. It's nothing I'd just browse for entertainment. Maybe I'm the weird one...

Also, don't forget that YouTube doesn't have to be watched, but can be merely listened to. I create a lot of playlists and use YT for musical discovery. In that sense, though the sound quality isn't as good, it is usually superior for my preferences than either Pandora or Spotify or my own very substantial iTunes collection. Search a song or artist you like, click the associated playlist and away you go. I have always worked with music on and now use YT, so in this reckoning I could easily be a user who accounts for 50 hours a week, though only 10% of that is "watched".
 
So, this article starts out "Viewers around the world are watching more than 1 billion hours of YouTube videos every day", but their comparison is "According to Nielsen data, Americans watch around 1.25 billion hours of live and recorded TV every day"

So across the WORLD people are watching almost as much YouTube as AMERICANS watch TV. I think that is an odd comparison.
 
I don't watch regular tv anymore but I like You Tube for product reviews and how-to instructional videos. My husband and I have saved probably thousands of dollars in money on repairs and contractors over the past three years we've been fixing up our house and learning our way around its unfamiliar plumbing and hvac system.

This, in spades. Instructional videos have saved me many times.

Just the other day I needed to change the fuel filter under my RV. I'd never changed a fuel injection pressurized fuel filter before, so off I went to YouTube first, and watched the half dozen videos uploaded by people sharing their methods on that exact same unit.

From them I learned that I needed a special line clip release tool (thank you Amazon next day delivery for the tool and filter), advice to hold a rag around the clip in case fuel sprayed out, how to deal with stubborn clips, how to put it back in its holder correctly, etc.

By the time I crawled underneath to do it myself, I had all their experiences good and bad to draw from, which made it much easier and quicker to do. Even a little decoupling glitch was no problem since I'd seen similar on some of the videos.

Mind you, I grew up working on cars, so I'm very familiar with everything from replacing a clutch to rebuilding an engine. Still, it never hurts to see a new procedure ahead of time.
 
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Wow, a lot of YouTube fans here!

As far as entertainment, I actually never watch cable tv, but my video entertainment comes from netflix/amazon prime/Hbo/showtime, and the like. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'd be shocked if the quality of some random youtuber's channel could remotely compare. It would just never occur to me to look to YouTube for entertainment.

As far as the "YouTube taught me how to do stuff" crowd goes, I find reading to be both faster and easier than video for learning. There are instances where a visual can be helpful, but by and large, video demonstrations are overly long and boring. Ditto getting news from video - I can consume an awful lot more information in the same amount of time with written articles.

Anyway, I don't really care to argue about it - I'm just surprised that people find it to be so indispensable. It's barely an afterthought to me.
 
I don't get it. What are people watching for hours at a time? I watch maybe a few minutes of YouTube a month -news highlights, a press conference, a sports highlight, something like that. It's nothing I'd just browse for entertainment. Maybe I'm the weird one...

I personally watch lot's of tutorials etc, especially for strategy games which i have not much idea about. This, of course, is in addition to some funny videos and other stuff which comes my way.
 
You mean like the time I started out watching the latest SpaceX launch, only to be taken to the Apollo 1 disaster, then the Hindenburg, and somehow ended up watching the construction of the French Embassy in Uganda?



Mike

This is what's so great about it. There just isn't that fluid experience watching a set TV show at a set time.
 
I personally watch lot's of tutorials etc, especially for strategy games which i have not much idea about. This, of course, is in addition to some funny videos and other stuff which comes my way.

For me, YouTube has been beneficial for helping justifying expensive purchases. Reviews and hands-on tutorials have made my purchase is much easier, if I want to spend my money on a higher end item. Sometimes it's nice to watch video reviews versus just reading an article after article.
 
Am I the only one here surprised that YouTube viewing hasn't already surpassed TV viewing?

Also I'm saddened by all anti-YT sentiment across a bunch of these comments. Thanks to YouTube, I've learned how to repair my car by myself, train my dog with positive reinforcement training, watch sports highlights on demand, look up my favorite clips from old tv shows and movies that I loved, cook cool recipes from independent home chefs.... the list goes on.

Seriously, half of y'all are practically yelling at me to get off your lawn.
I didn't see the point of YouTube as an entertainment channel until recently. I've got into the habit of watching an hour long video during my dinner break, I found that after my auto-downloaded torrents were exhausted I turned to iPlayer or Netflix, but when those ran out I went to YouTube. I don't follow many and I still cannot stand "streamers" but I can always find something to watch.

I find it's a good service to queue up videos. Because if you're in a rush it's not the nicest to navigate, and lots of videos are very poorly made.
 
I find YouTube to be very useful. I pay for YouTube Red so I don't get a billion advertisements shoved down my throat.

I like watching documentaries on current and historic topics, how to videos, product reviews and unboxing, etc.

There really are countless possibilities when you go on there and start watching.
 
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