See no evil
Image © Fredgoldstein | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos
I have a confession to make. I refuse to watch videos online.
There is no logical reason for this aversion. I will happily watch something downloaded from YouTube or whatever, but only if it’s saved to a USB stick and then put in my television to watch there. For some reason, I just won’t watch on my computer.
It’s possible that this foible of mine stems from the early days of the internet, when dial-up connections meant that images and videos took forever to download, and then (in the case of videos) were constantly interrupted for buffering when you did watch them. However, this was ten years ago. You’d think that I would have got over it by now. It’s also possible that I’ve become so regimented in allocating my time that I have different mindsets for computer work (primarily writing, in its various forms) and watching things, and never the twain shall meet. It’s just my bad luck that the two have converged in recent years.
I used to think that, while eccentric to say the least, my aversion was harmless. After all, what would I really be missing out on? Sure, there were some things that people in various online communities talked about all the time, but I found that if I did a download and watched it later it worked out fine. More recently, however, I’ve realised that my stubbornness comes at a cost.
I was at a conference a couple of months back when one of the speakers talked about research for her book, and how she had utilised YouTube to find out how the place and era she was writing about looked. I was so taken aback that I actually made a note of this. After all, to someone who never watches videos online, the idea of YouTube as research was absolutely alien. Thinking about it, though, it made sense. There are large swathes of my novel set in places that I’ve been to a grand total of once in my life. Surely watching footage of these locations would only add to the atmosphere I’m trying to create?
There are other things, too. I’ve noticed recently that I make the decision not to learn about something rather than watch a three minute video explaining it. I skip all introductory videos, even when they are part of an online learning process I’m part of and apparently essential. I avoid webinars, even when the subject matter is something I find fascinating. In short, if it’s in video format, I don’t watch it. No matter what.
Of course, these recent epiphanies of mine have made me realise that I do need to get over this aversion and start making the most of what the internet has to offer. Not everyone is like me and responds to words on a page rather than images. (This is true for everything, by the way. I’m much better at following step by step instructions than flow charts, even if they contain the exact same information.) The internet is as much a visual experience as it is a verbal one.
The trouble is, I’m not sure how to re-train myself, save force- feeding myself a dose of YouTube every day … and even the thought of that is making me cringe. However, it is necessary, I think. I would be a fool to forever avoid a resource that could help me with my writing. So re-training it is, something which potentially could take a lot of time.
If anyone else has been in this situation and has successfully re-trained themselves, please let me know how you did it. I’m open to any ideas or processes you can name. After all, if I’ve made it to 2012 without watching internet videos, then clearly I have an awful lot of catching up to do.
But. But – HOW DO YOU PROCRASTINATE?
(Seriously, I am very impressed.)
How do I procrastinate? By reading, or checking Facebook or Twitter. Or my stats for this blog, hahaha. I’m also a Sudoku fiend, so that’s another one. But yeah, watching videos online when I’m supposed to be doing something else? Never even occurs to me. Yes, I admit it. I’m a mutant.
The problem with youtube (and the like) is sifting the wheat from the chaff. And downloading videos can consume a fair bit of bandwidth, so make sure you’ve got some spare capacity in your quota.
Re learning, I made a conscious decision yonks ago to never stop learning, even if that means putting increasing effort into it. Once you’ve made that decision, the rest is easy. The internet is replete with information on pretty much anything. Learning how to do advanced google searches is a good place to start! Good luck with it.
Any videos I might choose to download would be nothing in comparison with my husband’s bandwidth consumption, so that’s not an issue. (He in no way shares my aversion to video online, hahaha.) And I have no intention of going to YouTube and browsing looking for things to watch. Instead, what I need to do is stop pressing the stop button every time a link someone sends me leads to a site like YouTube, and actually press the start button for things that might benefit me.
I’m with you, though, in that you should always make an effort to learn. And I love learning. I just don’t love it when it comes in the form of web videos.
You need to get one of those Live Play device thingos (sorry I don’t know the technical terminology).
If you have a decent wireless internet set up, then, I understand, you can network these box things to your television and download YouTube content direct to your Tv screen. Problem solved.
Because, honestly, this is a problem. You really should be wasting more of your time watching “My Drunk Kitchen” or “Drunk History”… oh yes, I do see an overarching theme to my procrastination viewing habits.
(And, as you say, there are also MANY useful and practical reasons to have easy access to online video content)
Lol, definitely! Though I’m not sure that I’ll be watching either of the shows you named, hahaha. But just making myself turn the speakers on on my laptop and then click “play” on a video file is still proving difficult, even when I’m making an effort. Sigh. *braces self*. Thou shalt watch webinars! Maybe it will sink in one of these days.