Game Theory: Why Everyone HATES YouTube Shorts… And You Should Too!

It really saddens me how YouTube is moving away from longer videos. That's what I go to YouTube for. For the creators for listening to what they say

As someone with adhd I have been avoiding YouTube shorts and tik tok like the plague because I already have a bad attention span and I DO NOT want it to get worse

I like how he foreshadowed his announcement of stepping down and straight up told us he had a "dramatic couch episode penciled in for January"

"Now normally, this would be a dramatic MattChat on the couch, but I've already got that one penciled in for January." Hearing that after the whiplash of "Goodbye Internet" two days ago is WILD 😭

“Normally this would be a dramatic chat on the couch but I’ve already got that pencilled in for January” oh boy did he 😭

Realizing that shorts and TikTok’s are passive as opposed to active explain why I feel so disgusted when I watch them for like half an hour cause I’m not doing anything, I hate being passive and stagnant, so this definitely explains it

You totally hit the nail on the head of why I prefer YouTube to TikTok, even though they're so similar now with shorts. I HATE how passive TikTok is. I like to actively determine what I'm consuming. And I love interacting in the comments with others and really connecting with the creatots. It's been bugging me for awhile why i can't stand TikTok and this is exactly why

2:21 now I know what this means

Co-signed. One additional thought: YouTube is not discussing the overall impacts of shorts on society in general.

YouTube really needs to make a “Restricted Shorts Mode” setting where you can block shorts from showing up on your Home Screen, remove the shorts tab from the app, and block scrolling if you find a short through search.

I just realized Matt forshadowed his talk about leaving Game Theory around the beginning, at 0:29 the YouTube title says “Say goodbye to your favorite YouTubers” and he says his couch chat will be later in January.

MatPat told us he was quitting secretly 2:16 😢

I definitely realized the addictive powers of YouTube shorts. I wish they would make it a separate app at least to remove the temptation.

Another thing I really don’t like about shorts is when I try to search for unspecific videos it shows SO MANY shorts rather than videos

Who would have guessed his matpat Couch Talk was going to be goodbye internet

"creators always go out of style, burn out, quit..."

One thing that has really bothered me about shorts especially when I follow a creator that does exclusive shorts content is finding the shorts you WANT to watch. Unlike long form videos if you go to someone's channel and look through their shorts none of them have the title listed so you just have to pick one based on the one frame of the short you see and hope it's what you want. Makes refinding a short to share with someone a nightmare.

That last point you made is right on the money - and adding to your point, many shorts creators feel themselves inferior to long-form youtubers. We feel like we're less worthy of being called a "YouTuber" because we can't manage to make the switch to long form content, or because we feel like our viewers don't care about us nearly as much. It adds to the burn-out and emotional toll of an isolated job a wholeeee lot. Personally, even though my entire internet presence was built off shorts, I'm really really disheartened by the effect they've have had on youtube as a whole.

2:17 I just realized he hinted at his quitting days before.

2:20 the january couch chat destroyed us all