My 30-day YouTube Shorts experiment
Social media has been on my mind a lot lately. I’m planning to release my book this year, and I’m trying to figure out what forms of self-promotion are aligned with my inner compass. I’ve been thinking about whether it’s time to return to Instagram and Twitter, but I’m feeling a lot of resistance.
When I quit the news last year, I noticed a lot of changes, particularly with my attention span. In the first two years of the pandemic, I couldn’t seem to focus on anything. I was perpetually distracted by my compulsion to know what was happening in the world. My media of choice were Reddit, Twitter, and CNN—I was drawn to headlines and sound bites that offered very little nuance.
My no-news experiment extended to most forms of social media, including Instagram. But I’ve been hearing about the rise of short-form videos, and I started to wonder if I was missing out on the fun. I re-installed TikTok and spent an evening browsing the content. Many of the videos that caught my attention were cute, sweet, or downright hilarious, but the experience ultimately left me feeling unfulfilled.
I was still intrigued by the potential of short-form content, so I decided to conduct an experiment on the creator side—posting YouTube Shorts every day during my 30 days to spring deep cleaning challenge. YouTube Shorts have a maximum duration of 60 seconds, so I filmed time lapses of my cleaning sessions, and then I recorded voiceovers to explain what I was doing. This experiment provided me with two insights:
Short-form videos are quick and easy to consume, but they can be time-consuming to produce. My YouTube Shorts were basic, but in some ways, they took more planning, coordination, and scripting than my long-form videos. I didn’t have the time or energy to produce more creative shorts, so when I found a “template” that worked for me, I simply followed that process day after day. I realized I prefer creating and consuming content that’s more organic and less of a production.
There’s a lot more room for nuance in long-form content. This is pretty obvious, but it became crystal clear to me that nuance is the reason I prefer long-form content. It’s more satisfying for me to ramble on about what’s on my mind, versus typing out a script and reading it as fast as I can (while trying to make it sound like I’m not reading). I can provide more context and reveal my more of my personality in long-form videos, which makes it feel like a conversation, even though I’m just talking to the camera. I love watching long-form videos and listening to long-form podcasts for the same reason—I’m all about the depth and nuance.
There’s a time and a place for both types of content, so I’ll continue to experiment with YouTube Shorts. I’m still thinking about how often I want to be on Instagram and Twitter (if at all).
One last thing I noticed when I was gathering my thoughts is that consuming mostly long-form content has helped with my attention span. This made me think about how I worked on re-claiming my focus when I quit the news last year, but I’ll say more about that in a future blog post. For now, I’m back to recording my rambly long-form vlogs and loving every minute.
