Text. I've barely clicked video due to similar reason as OP
this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2026
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Same. Text. I love visual content but its so overcooked and false these days, that videos have become a chore.
Videos are a plague. YouTube is the mother of all brainrot.
Learn to read kids, nobody is gonna put the things you need to know in a video.
Definitely text. But even with those, I can usually recognize when a tweet would better capture the whole content
I kind of feel bad for people that write nonfiction books then go on podcasts to talk about their book. Like, thanks, bro, you just saved me $18.99.
Posters might be able to entice me to click an external video link if they included a short description of the video in the post's text box, but no one ever does so...
Text. I dont need a simple query dragged into a 20 minute video
Always text. It’s much more pleasant to read information without a lot of visual and auditory noise infiltrating your senses. What is the point of having info inflected to you through some person in a video. Already have Reddit muted. Learned that a while ago haha
I never click on videos.
Text.
I block image and video posts in my feed.
more likely to click text
+1 text. Very rarely on video links and almost never on Youtube links.
I feel this. I want to support PeerTube/similar — can you recommend one where I can re-upload the YouTube videos I want to preserve? Is that okay to do? Or are those tube sites more for original content?
Again (echoing my top-level comment), I run a music comm on my instance. Not linking because I don't want to shill for it, but it can't be too hard to find. I'm wondering if I could (or should‽) use PeerTube/similar to copy/reupload the YouTube videos (because we're on Lemmy and we're not supposed to like YouTube, and I really don't) and then update the links. I actually have a handful of videos YouTube has taken down and I would love to be able to link them. Is that appropriate to ask?
Text 100%. I'm a pretty quick reader. I have no desire to sit and watch (listen to) a 10 minute video of material that could have been an article I could read in under a minute.
Alas, publishing a web page with easy-to-read, quickly-accessible information will:
a) make your page rated lower in search because people are not spending enough time on your page (that's why all those pages have long pre-ambles even though EVERYONE is there for an answer that is no longer than a few sentences) and
b) get scraped by AI (thousands of times--which you pay for) which will provide your answer to the world without attribution.
Whereas on YouTube, you even get advertising revenue.
I know, I'm like you, preferring text, but even I've started going to those 5 minute YouTube videos and checked the traffic graph to see where the actual fucking answer is.
Content creators don't have to create...they are not owed a living in this way. Secondly if so many hadn't bastardized every ounce of media or topic it may still a enjoyable format.
You mentioned 'easy-to-read, quickly-accessible information' key thing, quick information. YT has become the opposite.
I'm specifically on Lemmy because it's text based. If I wanted videos I could use Reddit or TikTok on YouTube.
Only text. I completely skip commentary videos because it usually means the speaker can't form complete sentences.
I will, however, watch things like news where it is important to hear and see the public official giving an announcement or the like, and certain informational videos that show a process where seeing it adds information -- but I still need a text description to convincing enough to get me past hesitation.
Text, and preferably with some info on why I'd want to read it. But I would consider clicking on a video link if again, you actually tell me what it's about and why I should want to watch it.
IOW, if I am given the same info about the video as I would get by quickly skimming part of an article to see if I want to spend time reading the whole thing. Seems like most links I see here have no context at all, meaning no chance I'd click it.
Even if I'm on YT and see a title and thumbnail that looks interesting, I'll right-click to open it in a new tab so the page loads in the background without starting to play. Then I can switch to that tab and see if the description and/or comments make me want to actually hit play, otherwise I close the tab.
I don't even really like links that take me away from Lemmy. Just a body of text in a post. Or embedded photos. I don't want to go anywhere. Also, no for videos.
Text because I have a limited amount of time in my life and I can scan text quickly for the interesting bits, not so with videos. Watching videos is mostly a waste of my time.
Lemmy, specifically, is meant to be a mainly text based platform that people can scroll through during short downtimes, including in public. Videos are inconvenient for that.
I kinda of have to be doing something while I'm listening (almost never watching) a video. So I'd have to find something to do before I started listening.
Text. 90% of the time I watch youtube etc is when I'm eating or trying to pass out etc
If I wanted to watch a video, I'd be on a video site. I treat this site like a forum.
On Lemmy, text for sure. I watch an inordinate amount of YouTube, but I go to YouTube to do that.
Yup, I spend a lot of time on YouTube, but I've curated my feed. Watching a random video of dubious provenance is not happening.
I'm more likely to click on a text link.
My laptop isn't paired with my headphones so I seldom watch videos on this device. The speakers are pretty terrible.
My android tablet is what I use for videos. If the video has a clear title I can search, maybe I'll do so but I need to know it will be worth my time.
Yes, text for me too, for the same reason.
I will almost never click a video unless it's a natively visual thing. Like, a music video, a clip of a movie, whatever.
If it's like "you should learn more about the My Lai massacre - here's a great video" I'm just going to roll my eyes. Use your words. Embedded media is probably fine. Like an article with illustrations or video supplements. I'd much rather just read like a wikipedia article like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_massacre
text
Text. A video link is fine, just sum it up. If I see someone post a video and nothing behind it, I assume they're just looking to drive engagement to their channel and won't engage here on Lemmy. I assume they want to engage on the platform they're posting on.
Disclaimer of bias: I run a comm on Lemmy where I've posted over 100 video links with one or more (often a lot more) paragraphs of text behind them. It's the music comm on the instance I reside on.
Text by far but I'm also someone who prefers reading then watching from TV/Reading all the way to porn so unsure how that effects this.
Neither unless the post or comment includes a summary of the links content.
Yeh hit and runs tell me the poster is just posting for the sake of it. I know this place needs engagement but giving some context of why its interesting or relevant makes me actually likely to look/respond. In-fact I often assume its a bot.
Text.
I never click on videos. I want to read at my own pace but watch your 76 minute video.
Text. Youtube is already running in the background.
Text because I'm usually around others and don't want to pollute their peace. Also because I can skim.
Text. I think the answers on this kind of social media are going to skew that way.
That's true, but it seems like there are more people promoting here their YouTubes than their substacks, but that might be the selection of bias of being annoyed.
I prefer text. Videos are too distracting, especially if I am listening to music while browsing.
I'm most likely to click on text for the same reason !
If there's a description what the video is about, then the video.
Otherwise an article, but that I open any link and not just read the comments is pretty rare. Articles also very frequently have a summary directly in the post, as is more technical to copy it from an article compared to a video.
I usually prefer text. It’s much easier to skim and decide quickly whether the topic is worth my time. I’ll watch a video if the topic really catches my attention.
Thinking about it, I do watch videos if they mentioned specifically in a conversation that interests me--that is to say that I'm more likely to watch a video if its linked in the comments.
That makes sense. I think context makes a big difference too. If someone recommends a specific video during a discussion I’m already interested in, I’m much more likely to watch it
100% text
I like text. I recognize there is a generational divide in the preference.
Text.
I might open the post to see if there is a transcript in the description or comments.