YouTubers, Please …

Music Under Speech - Please Nope!

I'll start by telling you that I'm an avid content consumer. I spend a lot of time watching videos on YouTube. There are some things which bother me though. Things I wish people would do differently. I am not trying to tell anyone how to run their own channels, simply giving my point of view in the hope that it helps to 1. Make things easier for people like me to enjoy what is created and 2. Help current and future YouTubers to gain more subscribers.

My first issue is people who add music under speech. I can’t hear what you’re saying if there’s music. I am autistic. Like many other autistic people, I have sensory issues. This means that if there are other noises in your video while you’re speaking, my brain can’t process the words you’re saying and your video becomes unwatchable for me. I will stop watching immediately and probably never check out anything else you do.

This saddens me a lot. There are many very talented YouTubers out there whose content I have enjoyed in the past; people who are either entertaining or who provide useful information. They suddenly start following the trend of adding music in the background and I can no longer consume their content.

There are also many new YouTubers whose channels look very promising to me. People who are uploading content which matches my interests. I start watching a video and within less than a minute give up because I cannot focus because their words are drowned out by music.

I have spoken to some people about this and they state that their music is very quiet. This is not relevant in my case and that of many like me. Any noise is a distraction, however quiet. A neurotypical brain may tolerate it well but my neurodivergent brain does not.

My suggestion to you would be to post the video twice - with music added and without.


Speeding Up Sections, Except Timelapse Videos

The second thing I hate is the speeding up of videos where you are doing something which I am trying to learn. I cannot focus when everything is moving so quickly. Again, I find such videos unwatchable. I understand that there are people who would prefer that long, monotonous tasks be sped up and I respect that but it is not for me.

I have seen so many tech videos, particularly featuring old computers where people speed up the boot process and it drives me mad. I actually enjoy watching such things, it is part of the fun. There are many DIY videos where the host is showing you how to do something practical but they speed it up making it impossible to know what they’re doing.

As with videos containing music, it would be great if you could post a sped up version for those who prefer that and a long-form video for people like me.


Subtitles - Yes Please!

I know that YouTube provides the option to generate CCs. This is a start and if you cannot generate and upload your own subtitles, please turn it on. It is a massive help to those of us who have sensory issues.

Honestly, they are far from ideal though. They are generally full of mistakes. Some of those mistakes make your content seem like it makes no sense but they are still better than nothing.

If you can, please add subtitles, preferably ones which have been checked by a human being. There are apps out there which will generate them from the video file. One I've used on mac is called Mac Whisper. I always found it did a great job; it was very quick and the subtitles it generated were very accurate (and no, I'm not being sponsored by the creators of Mac Whisper).

Ultimately, the decision on what to post on your channel is yours but you could be losing out of a lot of views and consequently subscribers by not trying to please your current subscriber base.


As always, thank you for reading and be kind.


Cheerio!

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