I grew up in the 70s, when learning something usually meant finding a book, a manual, or someone who knew how to do it.
But I was never the person who read an entire textbook from beginning to end. Yes, I am lazy.
I skipped chapters, looked at the index, sometimes even started reading from the back, found what I needed, and figured out the rest myself.
Today, I do almost the same thing with YouTube. Except now, finding the answer sometimes takes longer.
A 10-Second Answer in a 15-Minute Video
YouTube has completely changed how we learn.
Knitting, fixing cars, computers, cooking, sports, dancing, home repairs. Almost anything you can think of, someone has made a video showing you how to do it.
And that’s fantastic. Some things are much easier to understand when you can actually see them.
But here’s what bothers me.
Sometimes I just want to change one setting in a configuration. A few written steps would be enough.
Instead, I end up watching a 15-minute video filled with introductions, background information, sponsorships, and explanations I don’t need. These days, it’s getting harder to find simple, written instructions on websites. Everything seems to be a video now.
So I start skipping through the video, trying to find the useful 10 seconds.
Didn’t we create these tools to save time?
Reading Is Still Fundamental
Reading remains one of the foundations of learning across many subjects.
With a book or manual, I can scan the page, skip what I already know, and focus on what matters.
Video makes that harder because the information is buried in a timeline.
There’s also a difference between following instructions and understanding something.
Watching someone click five buttons might help you finish a task. But do you understand why those buttons matter?
When something changes or goes wrong, can you figure it out yourself?
Sometimes figuring something out yourself takes longer the first time, but it can save you time every time after that.
I’m not suggesting younger generations learn less effectively. They have tools we never had, and many are incredibly useful.
But making something easier to follow doesn’t necessarily make someone better at understanding it.
Are We Creating Content or Sharing Knowledge?
There’s another issue.
I want an answer as quickly as possible.
YouTube wants people to keep watching. Creators often benefit from longer engagement.
Those aren’t always the same objectives.
And now AI is entering the picture.
We’re already seeing more and more AI-generated videos. Producing thousands of instructional videos is already incredibly cheap and easy.
But will that make learning better?
Or will we have even more content to search through just to find one useful answer?
The funny thing is that we’re already using AI to summarize long YouTube videos back into a few paragraphs.
We went from manuals to websites, then videos, and now AI is turning those videos back into text.
Quite a journey just to get five written steps.
Maybe Simpler Is Better
I’m not against video, YouTube, or AI. I use them all.
But I am noticing that simple written instructions and articles seem harder to find in some areas, replaced by videos that take much longer to consume.
We should be using technology to make learning more efficient, not just making information easier to produce and consume.
Sometimes a video is the best teacher.
Sometimes a detailed book is necessary.
And sometimes five sentences are all we need.
The goal of teaching shouldn’t be how long someone spends watching or reading. It should be how quickly they understand something well enough to use it independently.
As AI makes content cheaper and easier to produce, perhaps the most valuable skill won’t be finding more information.
It will be knowing what information is actually worth our time.
