But I guess I'm an outlier like most people on this site that promotes learning new things though text-heavy presentation.
Bold to assume this is what most people on this site are like!
I'd hypothesize you're still an outlier in that group in these regards. And that's great! But lots of the data points to people like HN's general demographic still being pulled away from long form text content and towards synthesized/aggregated content served via mixed media. There's still just such strong cultural elitism in the notion of reading a book to learn something, it's not super sexy to claim on a messageboard.
Really, look at the front page of this site. If you're not interested in dense textual content you would have closed the tab within 1 second. I really love this site but most people won't even see the story titles, their brain just registers "a confusing jumble of text" and doesn't even try to engage.
> But lots of the data points to people like HN's general demographic still being pulled away from long form text content and towards synthesized/aggregated content served via mixed media.
And what data is that?
> There's still just such strong cultural elitism in the notion of reading a book to learn something, it's not super sexy to claim on a messageboard.
I don't think I'm elitist or sexy. Just different. I hate video content because I can't consume it at my own pace (usually much faster than the content offers because video is tailored for the slowest possible denominator). And it's difficult to build context ("where am I within the story") when skipping forward or backwards. In text this is pretty seamless.
I don't tend to consume textual content in a start to end sequential manner. But I jump around. Because some stuff I already know, some i really want to deeper dive on, some I need to refer back to later. This is much harder with video.
And your theory is that all commenters have read those posts in their entirety? I'd suspect far far more readers jump to discussion rather than fixating on the post, as is evidenced by the amount of people that comment on and respond to topics irrelevant to the posts in question.
> And what data is that?
The slow death of academic and long form text medium in general? And the boom in mixed media aggregation happening? Or just the last 20 years of long form text as a whole?
But also, the work that's gone into building my company and its product.
> I don't think I'm elitist or sexy.
That's good. But I again think that your perception of this topic does not match society. Which isn't bad! But I think it's important to note our own biases and perceptions.
> I don't tend to consume textual content in a start to end sequential manner. But I jump around. Because some stuff I already know, some i really want to deeper dive on, some I need to refer back to later. This is much harder with video.
Yes, one might suggest that mixed media suffers from a lack of tooling for these types of challenges (aforementioned company)
It's like the people who have worked in IT for 20 years but 'never used Windows'.
I simply have no use for twitter. if the information is important, it'll turn up on bbc.co.uk, otherwise it's not really worth the effort.
I never said you did. In fact, I never said anything about you using Windows at all, yet twice now you seem to have taken what I wrote as though I did.
yes, I've clicked on Twitter links the same way I've clicked on ads, by accident.
So you're definitely not in the amp of people who never claimed to use Windows, which is the group I was comparing you to.
> Yes, I've clicked on Twitter links the same way I've clicked on ads, by accident.
That's what I'm skeptical of. Twitter sucks, but sometimes it's literally the only place the source of a story is, like if Elon makes a newesworthy post or something. I'm not saying you had an account or anything, but literally never clicking on a link, hundreds of which have been submitted as HN stories alone, beggars belief.
hahahaha! thank you! starting my day with a belly laugh is a great privilege!
but seriously, just because most of the tech bros admire him, doesn't mean I need to hear every idiocy that comes out of his deranged mind.
even when it's something truly interesting - I watched the space x double landing on YouTube a few hours after it happened several years ago - I don't need to be informed of every single thing the instant it happens.
That's a really weird reaction. Like, yeah, he's a clown, but he has still made tweets that get discussed in thew news and here on HN.
> doesn't mean I need to hear every idiocy that comes out of his deranged mind.
Elon was just one example. Plenty of other tech people, hackers, politicians etc post important stuff on twitter. I mean, juts search HN for submissions with twitter or x.com as the domain. There is no shortage of submissions, and it beggars belief you have never clicked on one.
$x has achieved $y. well good for them.
I really don't understand the obsession with the idea that I must somehow be interested in something just because somebody else said it. I've been offered free newspapers before - I told them thanks, but I don't have a cat.
That's not the point I'm making. The point I'm making is Twitter has been too ubiquitous and important for you to have never clicked a submission at this site or a link to it somewhere, and not just accidentally.
I use instagram as a tool to follow certain parties and tattoo shops (for announcements of visiting artists). Since about a year they've spammed their 'reels' on me and make it much harder to avoid them. But every time I look at them it's the same brainless crap as the tiktok-branded videos that people send on to me via whatsapp or telegram.
I don't really understand how people are being captivated by this. It's all so hollow, shallow and brainless.
Youtube is no better. Only full of corporate marketing drones like marcus brownlee and linus tech tips. All very hollow, sponsor-ridden and glossy. The only one I appreciate is dave from eevblog but he posts pretty rarely these days so I never really watch youtube anymore.
And in 'my day' I spent a lot of time at the library which was full of thrillers and comics. And spent most of my time learning about computers and electronics.
It's not an unprecedented problem and offers new offers new opportunities too.