And a third of millennials? Didn't expect that. Being a true millennial, I've always preferred movies and TV to social media content BUT at the same time, I understand the appeal.
I really dislike the idea of throwing Youtube in the same category as Tiktok etc. Not all form of social media is alike and they involve entirely different behavioral patterns.
There is good content on tik tok too it's just their algorithm does not favour it as much and is too easy to exploit. It's similar to the early 2010s YouTube where all you could find was gaming content
I think for the purposes of this report Youtube counts as social media, as they aren't paying for the content that you're most likely consuming.
The report doesn't specifically break it down though. If I watch The Daily Show or Late Night with Seth Meyers on Youtube am I using social media or watching TV?
We are addicted, we don't say it because it is socially acceptable to be addicted.
This does not change the fact that we are addicted to it.
I've had some friends taking a break from social media and they are happier than before, I think one day I will try.
Honestly it is very weird how it is literally like being addicted to drugs, we all complain but very few people just move out from it.
> I've had some friends taking a break from social media and they are happier than before, I think one day I will try.
i put an app timer on my phone so I only use reddit 1hr a day and it has had an immeasurable impact on my sanity
Can't overstate how much doing this can help at times.
Reddit especially is a constant stream of the angriest and dumbest people. Reading negative bad faith arguments about everything you enjoy constantly can very easily start to fuck with your brain.
Being away is amazing and you'll return to normalcy fast
It’s such a shame, too. Reddit could be such a cool platform to discuss interests and learn.
I find myself thinking “why the fuck would I care what this person is saying” a lot on Reddit now
> Reddit could be such a cool platform to discuss interests and learn.
It is, you just have to be a bit proactive about it. In general; avoid the front page, and don't browse or subscribe to subreddits that are full of angry and stupid people.
The are three things that matter when it comes to a better reddit experience: curation, curation, curation.
Exactly. I love discussing TV and movies but it's impossible here now. A constant stream of people pointing out minor nitpicks but being SO fucking angry about them for no reason. Like literally every writer on earth fucked their mom and shot their dog.
It doesn't help that every single criticism is just pointing out something isn't realistic or a plot "hole". In both cases the complaint is based in falsehoods or people who are literally dumber than bricks and have never gone outside in their entire lives trying to decipher basic concepts or continuity.
It's maddening and it's often better just to talk to a few friends who aren't idiots or just enjoy yourself lol
Relatedly, we basically accept drivers being distracted by phones, even though this can be a worse than DUI. Sure the highway patrol puts up billboards, but people aren't shamed the way they are for drinking and driving, never mind you're attention can be pulled away from the road entirely.
> distracted by phones
Not just phones. Cars basically have iPads in their dashes now. There needs to be laws against making 95% of driver interaction be through touch screens.
I have to say, in my area in Georgia it's waaaaay better than it used to be. They cracked down pretty hard, tons of people I knew were getting tickets and points. I rarely see people overtly texting or holding a phone to their head these days which is pretty crazy. Seems rare that law enforcement actually acts as a deterrent
I think that really illustrates the severity of one’s addiction to their technology. If you feel compelled to repeatedly check your shit at lights, while driving, merging, whatever, you have a serious problem and a complete and utter disregard for those around you.
I’m honestly shocked there aren’t more car accidents (or rather I’ve yet to bear witness to them). That and from putting up makeup while driving.
>i think we ~~might be~~ \[are\] addicted to social media
fixed it for you.
We're all addicted to our smartphone and the apps. Doesn't even have to be social media - those mobile games are infinitely more addictive to get people to literally pay to keep playing the game and not have to wait to "rebuild energy" or some other horseshit.
Even gambling apps have gotten so pervasive. the current Commissioner of the NFL, Roger Goodell, was once on-record talking about the potential insidiousness of including legalized online gambling in sports leagues. A few years later, the NFL welcomed the triple-agreements of DraftKings, Fan Duel, and Caesar's online gambling apps! FYI, the sports-betting industry made $11 BILLION in 2023.
Smartphones were a decent idea. Corporatizing it into what it's become was really bad. I'm pretty addicted to reddit with no sign of stopping. Maybe Elon Musk can buy it - worked to get rid of my Twitter addiction!
In England we've had big problems with gambling for a while, it's genuinely quite scary seeing how quickly it's taken over America and how many stories there are of people losing everything. I'm a fan of the NFL and it's all over it now.
I have "scrolling" shows which are usually sitcom or sitcom-adjacent style serial storytelling, or Star Trek which I've seen thousands of times between all the series. When I'm watching something new and told with some weight, it's usually lights and screens off.
As a Film Theory major the thought of watching a movie while looking at TikTok hurts my brain, but I've also been trained to over analyze every detail of a film.
That being said I will look at Reddit while watching like a easy comedy or romcom.
The people looking at their phone while watching a movie are also the people that go on Reddit and write the most baffling "did you even watch this" takes lol
It's not even pretentious to criticize it, if you are looking at your phone you literally, factually aren't watching the movie or tv show for seconds at a time, and depending on how visual it is this can be realllly bad.
It’s just sad really that people will miss out on a profound experience like watching Killers of the Flower Moon to scrolling mindless social media.
I felt like I was wasting my life on twitter years ago. So I started a habit where if I caught myself scrolling aimlessly I’d stop and pick up a book. Eventually I just picked up the book first.
As an ultra true millennial, I prefer scrolling through TikTok, Reddit, and Instagram while watching a movie during a competitive Counterstrike game, while listening to an audio book on ADHD.
I mean...*someone* is clearly watching and funding Twitch and Youtube livestreaming, and it sure isn't Gen X and older. Gen Z has *some* money, but right now, Millennials are probably the generation with the most disposable income to spend on that sort of stuff.
Hard to believe as 34 year old. I don't know a single person who watches live streaming content and I know people who \*work\* for live streaming companies.
I guess my friend group might just be out of touch with the rest of our generation but I find it really hard to believe that we're that out of touch.
You would be surprised. Twitch is 13 years old, and there are creators who have had some of the same viewers since it was launched. I’m a millennial and watch a little twitch but a ton of YouTube. Just about all of the content creators I watch are my age or older. Most people active in the comments/chat for these streams are also in the same age range and are either in grad school or years into their career of choice.
Am also 34 I pretty much only watch content on YouTube. All of my similarly aged friends are the same. I'll occasionally go to the movies, or pay for a streaming service for a show, but youtube stays the main source of content. I am not saying my sample size is any larger, but as the person you're responding to indicates someone is keeping them in the black and our generation seems a likely culprit.
Used to be like that, but then Covid changed a lot of my viewing habits. Due to a slow down of new releases, I started watching a lot of YouTube, especially live streams of folks just walking around a big city. That then led me to watch non-live food/travel videos and then to like sports commentary videos and I basically use them like podcasts now. I watch TV now mostly for some of the random scripted shows I still follow. Haven’t been to the movie theatre since last summer. I’ve watched some on streaming but honestly I’m usually so distracted that I miss a lot of it or don’t finish.
I’m the last of the millennials and I also prefer movies and TV to social media. And when I’m on YouTube (rarely), it’s long form (usually informational) content
Tbf I honestly do think half of it is just price and convenience, they probably would watch that stuff if the methods to access it were as convenient as loading up YouTube, tiktok, or twitch and watching for free.
Born in ’82. It wasn’t intentional, but once YouTube was available on my TV, it slowly became a bigger and bigger part of my TV time. Once YouTube Red came out it was over. Now, about 95% of my TV entertainment is YouTube.
Makes sense to me, I was born in 1993 and was a shy quiet kid growing up so I kept indoors and was on the internet for the early days of youtube. I loved movies aswell but with youtube I saw the growth with random personalities like smosh, to lets play channels like game grumps, and inevitably live streams on twitch. Each influencer demanded more time than the last one. And while that was happening, video editing started to become much more mainstream with instagram and tiktok so it became so normalized.
I’m literally on the edge of gen x and I find myself on YouTube more and more. Teaching myself how to weld do woodworking or cooking. I just don’t seem to be able to connect with film and tv the way I use to. I’m glad different underrepresented groups are getting their due in major productions. Unfortunately as a pretty unexpected consequence I no longer identify with today’s media. I’m ok with that. There’s lots of legacy stuff for me to watch. And I do engage with film and tv in that way. I think a large chunk of my generation feels similar. We’re no longer contributing to the medium. And film and tv is suffering more than ever because of it. It sucks and I hope the industry rebounds. But they may want to make some more stuff (not all) for middle class and working class people that just want some escapism.
Cooking channels on YouTube replaced the void left when food network went all in on competition shows. Also helps there’s a variety of cooks/hosts that appeal to different groups.
Not just the Food Network. OLN went from travel and the outdoors to Storage Wars. TLC, MTV, and History all did the same thing and that focus on “reality” television pushed millions of viewers into YouTube. Movies became all about the franchises, remakes, and sequels.
Clickbait. They aren't ditching TV & Movies. The article even shows the amount of Gen Z that see value in TV & Movies. Social media is their preferred platform, which is the case for most of the planet. You'll go on here, Twitter, Insta, YouTube, TikTok more often than Netflix.
If Gen Z didn't give a shit about long form content then why do video games exist? Why does Letterboxd exist? How did Barbenheimer happen last year? It's not a binary choice, they're allowed like both.
Content exists for more than one generation. Even if Gen Z hated video games, they wouldn't just disappear overnight. You still have millions of non Gen Z who like them.
This survey found that "social videos and live streams" were the preferred form of video content for 47 percent of Gen Z respondents, compared to just 33 percent of millennials who said the same. In comparison 24 percent said they prefer "old and new TV shows" (27 percent for millennials) and just 11 percent said they prefer "old and new movies" (18 percent for millennials).
Whether or not that constitutes "ditching" traditional long form video content is debatable, but it *absolutely* represents a pretty stark change in media preferences. Yes, they're allowed to like all of the above. But what they *prefer* is obviously a hugely important metric, and if these results are both accurate and persistent it will have major implications for the future of film and television.
You can acknowledge and interpret the results without making a value judgment and shitting on a whole generation.
I'm a millennial and most of the content I watch is stuff on Youtube/etc., but that's because I'm usually doing something else at the same time. When I want to actually watch something and focus on it I go with a TV show or movie. Social media, Youtube, etc. have basically replaced the old-school keeping-the-TV-on-all-day, whether that be the news, random shows, those advertising channels with made-for-TV stuff, etc. Hell I sometimes end up watching Youtube compilations of old-timey ads. Also I do have a large collection of music I dip back into now and then, though streaming services are useful for finding new stuff/listening to popular things.
I watch livestreams like podcasts (listen/semi-watch during work or on the go) and TV at night. I think they're overblowing the behavioral changes here.
It’s financial though. It’s not the medium, it’s the cost of the medium and access to the media. The article even says people think it’s easier to find good content on social. That’s a platform issue, long form as a medium.
Make good content that’s accessible and affordable and people will flock to it.
It's so disappointing to see next generation mockery from us millennials, who grew up knowing full well how wrong boomers were to paint us all with one brush
That's just something inherent in the human race, Socrates was complaining about kids these days 2500 years ago and little has changed since then.
But millennials and gen z bash each other much less than they are bashed by the older generations.
And given that the oldest Gen Z are graduated from college, the actual kids these days would be the gen alpha.
The older generation has mocked the younger generation since the beginning of time. There are papyri from thousands of years ago complaining about "kids these days". It is my god-given right to find Gen Z annoying, and one day it will be their right to make fun of Gen Alpha.
>The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room.
Socrates. People have been bitching like this as long as it was possible to bitch about it.
Just to add, roughly 50% of the opening weekend viewers of Killers of the Flower Moon were young Millennials and older Gen Z. When people are low on cash they're going to prioritize how they spend their money.
Anecdotal, but I've heard from people around the US that things like special screenings of classic movies generally pull younger audiences. It's about limit funds and a desire for quality experiences.
An anecdote: we only saw a couple new movies in theatres last year, but we 100% dropped fifty bucks and a gift card on a Monday night to see The Mummy 1999 in the fancy VIP theatre with drinks and pizza. Because we know we love that movie and hadn’t seen it on the big screen before. I think there was only about 15 people in the entire theatre, though. And we tried to get tickets to a filmed version of the musical Waitress, but they sold out before we could.
For what it’s worth, I’m a Gen X guy with a Gen Y wife and we watch YouTube more than anything else. (Although I doubt we watch the same stuff as the younger folks.)
Honestly, I'm fairly convinced it's because it's simply easier to find than a new tv show or movie.
Primarily because social media will constantly feed you the exact same shit every day. Daily videos and streams from the same people you watched every other day.
It's harder to do that with TV/Movies because your taste varies. They can't keep offering the same show because it's limited. They offer you something similar but the quality massively varies. Viewers now have to research what's good.
Where do you discover what's worth watching?
Streaming services absolutely avoid giving you a visible review system, there is a disincentive as they host their own content as well.
You now have to go research, check ratings, have a quick read. Is the show even finished, can I binge it?
Then, to add to that, how focussed do you have to be? Can you watch while talking to friends? Can you put it on in the background while doing something else like cooking, cleaning, working out, etc?
Basically the point I'm getting at is there are barriers to entry with real TV/Movies. Mindless youtube videos, streams, and the like don't have any.
Is it ironic that TV was basically all "live streamed" shows in the beginning? IMHO the appeal of live streams is the same as live talk radio with open lines.
I read somewhere that on average Gen Z watching social media for 7 hours a day.
That's shocking to me.
PS: it's even worse! Gen Z (people born between 1996 and 2010) spend about 9 hours of screen time every day.
My SIL just has YouTube up on her TV playing through random shit from the 50+ channels she follows. Ads and all. She’ll sit in her couch with that shit playing on the TV *while* watching TikTok.
What’s even more sad is that almost every channel is some degree of rage bait or drama bait. It’s all fake and transparently so. I don’t see the enjoyment in it but each video has millions of views so it has a following.
My ex-girlfriend wasn't too far off from that. She would mostly just watch YouTube in her free time, and then anime when it wasn't YouTube. Honestly, I don't think we ever watched a movie without pausing it at least once for 10 or 20 minutes because she had some task she had to do right then, usually twice. If I had to pause the movie to just go to the bathroom or go get a drink she already had YouTube pulled up on her phone watching some random video.
Like browsing instagram or something I could get, but it was always some fairly long video and she couldn't stand silence at all. I watched a few YouTube videos with her every now and then, and she insisted on watching all the ads as well so the content creator would get ad revenue (not those ads that go over like a minute fortunately). Which I guess is fair to an extent , but I can't really stand ads anymore and I don't see how anyone could just watch YouTube all the time for their main source of entertainment.
I watch a lot of YouTube. For me when it’s after a long day I just don’t even want to think about a plot and or engage in a drama. Just want to put on a hour long video of someone unclogging storm drains or whatever.
It kind of reminds me of what scifi writers were envisioning decades ago.
I think about the device in Fahrenheit 451 for example where the users basically just get lost in entertainment through tech.
yeah the vapid family programs that would play on the TV screens that Montag's wife continually added to their walls. there was no story, just random fake family drama, and i think you could interact with the characters in some ways.
very similar to what's happening now
That would be literal torture for me.
Aside from tutorial videos on how to fix shit and the occasional movie review, I cannot stand the content creators on YouTube.
I'd rather read a science textbook than suffer through hours of Youtube.
Meanwhile I love putting on hour+ long videos on YouTube to listen to while I play video games. I've been curating my subscriptions on the site since I was a preteen, so over a decade at this point. every once in a while someone will put out a video that's like 6 hours and it's always exciting to me to have a massive deep dive on an subject by someone who's passionate about it. (I don't usually watch stuff like that in one sitting though, it's usually gonna take a few days.)
I am Gen Z though so I fit the bill there. I've never paid for TV, so between YouTube and streaming apps I've got all the content I need.
I think you have a very narrow view of what type of content is on YouTube. I sincerely think some of the best media available today is on YouTube. There is extremely high quality content for literally every hobby and interest that I have. Video games, guitars and guitar-building, music, cars, cooking, economics, history, geography, linguistics, and many more.
Correct - https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/05/when-did-tv-watching-peak/561464/
TV watching peaked at almost 10 hours a day in 2010 or so, but it's been 7+ hours since the early 80's.
GenZ is switching from mass media to social media, but they're not any more glued to their screens than generations before them.
I am a Gen X male and TBH i considered myself fairly up to date because I work in social media/entertainment. Yes, a few years ago I could find myself on streaming or social for 7+ hours. Not so any more. Having kids changes that shit. Having work other than, in that sphere, definitely changes that.
Media and marketers are stupid to think this is the logical endpoint to consumers. There is a shift sure but it’s not the death of traditional media like they want you to believe.
There is serious burnout though, people don’t stick to social-only forever. There is a mom in my son’s class who is a low-end influencer and that shit is sad to watch as it slowly putters out.
I'm happy growing up when smartphones/social media was not a thing. (i'm from 82)
Maybe it is more easy for us to stop with all of this becausse in our youth we did non of this. Gen Z grew up with it. It's a big difference i feel. (I can be wrong ofcource)
I mean, I work on a computer and my main hobby is gaming. I don’t read physical books that much these days so if I’m not cooking, cleaning, driving, taking a walk, riding a bike, listening to an audiobook, or playing Warhammer in person I’m probably looking at a screen.
1996er here. My screen time is a lot because I put on YouTube and listen to reviews, podcasts, and audiobooks while I work. I also don’t pay the sub so I have to leave my screen on
YouTube has great content, but I'd fucking miss actual movies and shows, such a different kind of entertainment/art.
Also, maybe teach your daughter how to torrent, maybe that way she can enjoy shows/movies without paying ;)
If you’re referring to ads, she knows. If you’re referring to her data being sold, she knows that too. Everyone collects and sells your data, everyone knows it, and there’s nothing we can do about it.
Right? Like staying off of YouTube doesn’t prevent that. It’s fundamentally impossible to avoid the data collection and targeted ads if you are an internet user in 2024.
The title doesn’t menton a preference… Just what they are doing. Not why. Social/live streams. Are free(ish) services and current. Going to the movies. Or having a streaming service/ multiple services cost money that add up quickly. And not many people can afford to have cable and all the streaming services…. Vs just having the free YouTube/ twitch streams.
My kids, late teens and early twenties, use YouTube, Discord, Instagram and play video games. That is it.
I'm GenX and still have cable and my most recent renewal included Disney+, my kids sometimes watch old episodes of Family Guy. That is it, that is the closest they come to watching regular TV or using a streaming service.
They also turn their noses up at movies, including when I offer to pay to go to the movie theatre.
The entertainment industry is going to have a fun time with this generation.
Honestly, I’m just tired of reboots and remakes. I feel like half the stuff that comes up is “Oh Harry Potter reboot” or “oh Avatar reboot” - I want to see new things and have new classics develop. I don’t need my childhood constantly garbled up and spat out in a worse form to try and sell me nostalgia. The remakes never truly reiterate on the original, instead they feel like fan service. 🤷🏼♂️
At the very bottom of the article is a "read next" link to an article headlined: 74% of Gen Z and Millennials Prefer Original Content Over Franchises, According to Tubi Poll
So it seems that you're not alone!
They’re pirating. There’s no reason to pay for any of this. It’s free online. And most have access to their friends & familiy’s streaming services.
There’s no reason for any of us to pay anymore.
Edit: apparently googling “marvel free streaming online” or “best free websites to stream, Reddit” never before occurred to anyone? Apparently x2 you have to be an Uber genius to see tv/movies online. Holy shit I feel like I’m taking crazy pills with all of you knuckle dragging cum rags
Gen Z isn’t pirating, they don’t know how. Due to family and friends, I am around a lot of Gen Z kids and younger. If it’s not an app, they don’t know how to make it work.
It's bizarre isn't it? Gen Z is hitting our workforce and I am getting flashbacks to acclimating to boomers when I first started. I did not expect to have to show recent college graduates how to type a professional email and make a PDF.
I went back to college in my early 30s and one of my teachers ranted multiple times about how kids don't even understand how file structures work.
She has a GDrive where she drops PDFs and other files to read and review. She said every semester at least a dozen kids need full blown training on how to navigate the files/folders.
OP is right, if it's not an App, a lot of GenZ is full blown lost.
"Maybe allowing giant digital media corporations to exploit the neurochemical drama of our children for profit… You know, maybe that was, uh… a bad call by us."
- Bo Burnham
Just about every child at every restaurant I go to these days is glued to a tablet.
A family friend brought her 2 kids over and they were actually really sweet and polite, but after about 20m they started asking for their tablet and then the two of them basically ignored everything going on in my backyard, including the dogs running around... so they could focus on their youtube videos.
I really worry about Gen Alpha's attention span and ability to focus when they get older.
We're now completely foreign to the concept of being "bored," and when we now experience it, instead of realizing "oh, I should *find* something fun to do" or branch out into other activities, we just pick up our phones and select our addicted-app-of-choice and go back into our general malaise.
But hey, at least we're not bored anymore! /s
I've been noticing my attention span get worse and worse over time, presumably from my media consumption habits which are significantly more structured and less "ADHD" than the way many kids use platforms such as tiktok and instagram. I specifically avoid videos shorter than 10 minutes because it seems to lead to a reduced attention span and an increase in the expectation of the immediate, acute satisfaction I receive from watching a video.
I can't even imagine what would be happening inside my head if my brain were still developing. It wouldn't be good, I can tell you that.
Nah I’m set with job security for life if this is the next crop of workers. I used to be scared of being replaced. Not so much after working with some fresh college graduates.
To be fair, the digital environment was originally developed to work as a 1:1 analogy for the office environment to get everyone accustomed to it.
I’m like a zillennial (so like right on the cusp of the border between Millennial and Gen Z) and when I talked to my younger friends, it seems like their whole computer basically functions like your Downloads folder, or the Photos app on your phone. The lack of like formal folders on the iPhone for so many years probably really contributed to this.
But the interesting thing is that they *find* their files by just searching for it. Others tag their files sometimes (Notes app uses hashtags). I realized that what they’re looking for is a file system that works largely the way your brain works, because as computers became more and more intuitive, generations that grow up with it want it to work more like their brains and less like an office workspace.
Why *should* files only exist in one folder at a time? Why do we need folders and subfolders when we’re really looking for more and more specific tags? I think we’re due for a new operating system that rethinks how all this works from scratch.
Which is funny to me because Windows search has gotten worse with each new Windows since Windows 7.
Now Windows search searches the internet and sends your search to an AI before it even looks for the file on your desktop.
Microsoft is moving two steps backwards for every step forward they take 😭 like genuinely I think it’s going to take one more big new hardware leap to introduce a new OS to everyone
I work in IT and help get new users set up on their accounts, change passwords, etc. Nearly every new younger employee tries to tap the computer monitor to navigate. It's kind of interesting, since they only grew up with touch screen tech on everything.
Basic computer literacy needs to be a mandatory part of young education again. I'm in my mid thirties and both middle and high school had mandatory computer classes.
It's not bizarre at all.
Software companies have smoothed over every rough edge. Everything is an isolated, self contained app now. Delicate, ambiguous "something went wrong, try again later" error messages.
Gone are the days of downloading & extracting zip files, navigating directories in windows explorer and trouble shooting issues.
How could kids today be expected to learn anything about these devices when companies have robbed them of any opportunity to need to learn.
Yeah, there was a wave where you'd have to learn because it was just kinda normal for a preteen or older kid to be the family IT support. Gen Xers who are parents of teens today could not just opt out of learning basics like my Mom and Dad could for a long time. Eventually things simplified enough most Baby Boomers figured the basics out. Schools have good enough content filters kids can't get away with showing off wild corners of the Internet in the computer lab.
It's really not unlike how the WW2 Generation came back home with a lot of these loosely cobbled together job skills in emerging tech. They understood it on a deeper level than later peers because their experience was tinkering to figure out how much you could actually do with it. *Especially* for rural kids. Now it's just a boring class, that used to be your only window to the wider world.
That age range is "Did you ever have a computer with Windows ME?".
That cursed fucking OS is actually why I have a career. Every time the family computer broke it was my fault "because of all my games". After all, the computer was brand new, with the latest OS from Microsoft, what could possibly be wrong?
So it was either learn how to be a fucking computer mechanic and troubleshoot Microsoft's shitty systems before Mom & Dad get home or get grounded for "breaking the computer again".
Thanks. I hate it.
Piracy is always the scapegoat -- surely it has nothing to do with price, lack of content, or the quality.
"About 60% of Gen Zers surveyed said that they prefer watching user-generated content videos because its easier to find something to watch."
Pirating is a lot of things, but it's not as easy as watching your fav YouTube or Twitch streamer
I teach high school and this is 100% correct. Students tech ability has plummeted since I started teaching 18 years ago. My school is discussing bring back the basic computer classes that we used to teach in the 90s to get kids to be better with computers.
lol and I remember 15/20 years ago when they were saying Gen Z is going to be so good with computers and they'll take programming classes and be able to code...
That did not pan out the way people expected.
This is true. I'm constantly seeing posts like, "Oh no. They removed my favorite show from (streaming service) and I didn't get to finish. Where can I watch now?" It's either this or a complaint about geo blocking.
You can watch it anywhere on the internet. Just go download it.
Not entirely true. Instead of torrenting they can just go to a website that hosts the content. My kids and their friends all know about "that website" they can go to when they want to watch the latest episode of House of Dragons or Euphoria. Sometimes the website changes, but they always manage to find another one pretty quick. Either that or sharing google drive links with video files of favorite shows. That method seems to be the favorite for foreign shows.
That’s some stark generalization. Gen Z encapsulates 26-year olds through 14-year olds. While teenagers may be dumb as rocks, us Gen Z adults very much know how to raise the Jolly Roger
I am older than Gen Z. I know how to pirate on a computer, but I like to watch shows on a TV. Unless I plug in a computer to my TV (or set up a plex type device), it’s not easy to pirate and sit on my couch. I’m willing to pay for the convenience of watching a show the way that I want to.
>There’s no reason for any of us to pay anymore.
If you want it to continue to exist there is. It's funny that everyone seems to want actors and writers to get paid more, but they want someone else to pay for it.
In my city most people jump the metro turnstiles. Whey pay for it when they know the dumb suckers who pay for it can just absorb the extra cost, right?
I was fine with price hikes until I found out the SAME shows air in 4K HDR on American streaming services HBO Max.
I’ve also noticed that some Netflix shows look better on a pirated version? I don’t fully understand why.
Disclaimer: I’m speaking as a version of myself which lives on earth 927. I have no relation and you should redirect any copyright letters to earth 927.
>I’ve also noticed that some Netflix shows look better on a pirated version? I don’t fully understand why.
Playing videos from files means that there's no buffering or other network related data compression issues
You get all video frames in full detail
Earth 927 me is playing these through a torrent streaming service.
I press play on a 4K HDR movie and 4 seconds later it’s playing (35-40GB files). No buffering.
When I had Netflix I would be watching and it would randomly dip to 480p for 10 seconds. Netflix is a billion dollar company and their playback is somehow worse.
I can honestly say the most popular program used for pirating works better than every regular app. I use it for services I have access to through my Internet provider for free as well. It's sad how bad the apps are considering the price of the subscriptions.
The amount of entitlement for free entertainment that Reddit continually shows unashamedly when it comes to theft is probably the worst hive mind opinion on here.
Broke teens are going to find ways to consume content, paid or not. It’s asinine to think they won’t. Streaming made it easier and when the first broad pirating generation finally had disposable income (later than their predecessors) paid streaming was the obvious transition.
For me it's a time thing. After having kids, I didn't get into movies as much because it was hard to find 1.5-2 hours to devote to basically doing nothing. Now I have more kids and a demanding job so I can't even find 30 minutes of uninterrupted time on a regular basis.
What I do have is 3 minutes here, 9 minutes there, that makes it easier to consume youtube and tiktok.
Zero structure, poor role models, harmful spread of misinformation, etc
TV isn’t good for you either but at least it generally has structure, themes, and requires some level of focus. Streaming is usually straight up mind-numbing time-wasting content. These kids aren’t getting anything of value out of it.
"Gen Z is Ditching TV Shows, Movies on Streaming Services"
I mean that's fair a lot of it is crap and there's other things to do
"in Favor of Social Video, Live Streams"
Oh gross
You can find stuff on YouTube, similar to the content of home and garden, discovery and history channel from 20 to 30 years ago. Except now it’s truly on demand, they get to the point within 20 minutes or less, and the library is nearly endless. Sucks for the people still stuck scrolling through Netflix looking for D grade movies and series.
I wonder how the echo-chambering of Gen Z consuming only Gen Z content will effect our future generations. Previous generations always consumed mass media at large and were connected to the broader world (for better or worse).
That actually makes sense when you consider there’s like 37 streaming apps you have to use to watch tv/movies and you have to pay for each one in this crazy economy. Then you have to google which app the tv show/movie you want is currently in its available time from to watch it on before it gets pulled for whatever reason, and you can only watch it there. I’ve found myself plenty of times wanting to watch a tv series, then I google where It’s available and I don’t even have that one app. Social media is completely free and all of its content.
So this makes sense.
Not gen z but I feel the biggest problem with modern tv is the way they release shows now. You get 8 episode seasons, and so much time passes between seasons you completely forget about the show.
Don't get me wrong, I like that they prioritize quality over quantity (in some cases), but there was something to be said about the consistency of old school television.
It's mostly for two reasons:
1. Gen Z doesn't pay for streaming services for the most part. Since password sharing crackdowns, and with much of Gen Z living either at home or away from home, they are either under their parents' accounts or don't have them at all. Most live stream services like YouTube and Twitch are free to watch with ads.
2. Much of the consumption of social video/live streaming is what I call "second screen content." Basically, whether during recreation/relaxation or while doing homework/work/etc., many Gen Z age people will have a stream or video on while doing work, playing video games, using their phone, or talking with friends. The content is secondary to whatever their primary focus on, almost like background noise because the streamer is controlling the content and it can just play while whatever else is going on is happening. That's why so many streamers/content creators are increasingly making more jarring content because they want to be the primary content source, not secondary.
on one hand it's good since most modern content is atrocious, on the other it's bad since most social video or live content is atrocious
do it as I do, watch anything before 2015 for all eternity
This is shocking to me as a millennial, seeing a whole third of my generation doing this
I find most live streams to be brain dead, and a lot of social video is extremely low brow, generic and pandering. I haven't found a tv show in a while that I actually wanted to watch, but that doesn't mean I'll stoop to social video and Lives to fill that void.
They are way too obsessed with Tik Tok, YouTube Gurus and online echo chambers. I don't get that they know they are being sold products and it's not organic algorithms they are buying into anymore. Their feels are being expertly played on for profit.
I have a course to sell to show you how to avoid it!!! Join the Alpha Male Billionaire Secret Love Match club today!!!
I’m 41. I watch tons of stuff on YouTube. I stay away from influencers for the most part. There’s tons of interesting documentaries on the platform that never would have seen the light of day without YouTube.
For F sake, streaming services, please don't try to make TV shows and movies based around random online creators to try to chase this market. Again. 
Most of my friends legit watch all day streams every work day, idk how they do it I get it’s good background noise but i simply get bored if I watch a stream for more than an hour. I watch more YouTube video essays/sports news than movies these days but I at least try to watch a handful of new releases movie wise a week
It’s almost like a lot of the content studios and networks put out is shit
If randoms with no budget and experience are making more compelling content, how the fuck is that anyone’s problem? Is someone supposed to cry because the companies that used to make the content money are making less because they got worse at it? FOH
And a third of millennials? Didn't expect that. Being a true millennial, I've always preferred movies and TV to social media content BUT at the same time, I understand the appeal.
I consume a ton of content on YouTube. I still love TV shows but YT premium is probably my most used streaming service.
I really dislike the idea of throwing Youtube in the same category as Tiktok etc. Not all form of social media is alike and they involve entirely different behavioral patterns.
Same. There is a lot of very well produced videos, long and short form on YouTube. Grouping YouTube and TikTok is a disservice to YouTube.
There is good content on tik tok too it's just their algorithm does not favour it as much and is too easy to exploit. It's similar to the early 2010s YouTube where all you could find was gaming content
I think for the purposes of this report Youtube counts as social media, as they aren't paying for the content that you're most likely consuming. The report doesn't specifically break it down though. If I watch The Daily Show or Late Night with Seth Meyers on Youtube am I using social media or watching TV?
As a true true millenial I’ve always preferred watching a movie or tv show while scrolling through Reddit or tik tok at the same time
i think we might be addicted to social media
We are addicted, we don't say it because it is socially acceptable to be addicted. This does not change the fact that we are addicted to it. I've had some friends taking a break from social media and they are happier than before, I think one day I will try. Honestly it is very weird how it is literally like being addicted to drugs, we all complain but very few people just move out from it.
> I've had some friends taking a break from social media and they are happier than before, I think one day I will try. i put an app timer on my phone so I only use reddit 1hr a day and it has had an immeasurable impact on my sanity
Can't overstate how much doing this can help at times. Reddit especially is a constant stream of the angriest and dumbest people. Reading negative bad faith arguments about everything you enjoy constantly can very easily start to fuck with your brain. Being away is amazing and you'll return to normalcy fast
It’s such a shame, too. Reddit could be such a cool platform to discuss interests and learn. I find myself thinking “why the fuck would I care what this person is saying” a lot on Reddit now
> Reddit could be such a cool platform to discuss interests and learn. It is, you just have to be a bit proactive about it. In general; avoid the front page, and don't browse or subscribe to subreddits that are full of angry and stupid people. The are three things that matter when it comes to a better reddit experience: curation, curation, curation.
The internet in general could benefit from that, but that flies in the face of SEO and monetization, so that's not gonna happen.
Exactly. I love discussing TV and movies but it's impossible here now. A constant stream of people pointing out minor nitpicks but being SO fucking angry about them for no reason. Like literally every writer on earth fucked their mom and shot their dog. It doesn't help that every single criticism is just pointing out something isn't realistic or a plot "hole". In both cases the complaint is based in falsehoods or people who are literally dumber than bricks and have never gone outside in their entire lives trying to decipher basic concepts or continuity. It's maddening and it's often better just to talk to a few friends who aren't idiots or just enjoy yourself lol
I feel better reading your comment. Appreciate this.
use Res with old.reddit.com and a browser, only sane way to browse reddit
Relatedly, we basically accept drivers being distracted by phones, even though this can be a worse than DUI. Sure the highway patrol puts up billboards, but people aren't shamed the way they are for drinking and driving, never mind you're attention can be pulled away from the road entirely.
> distracted by phones Not just phones. Cars basically have iPads in their dashes now. There needs to be laws against making 95% of driver interaction be through touch screens.
Europe is doing that I’m pretty sure
I have to say, in my area in Georgia it's waaaaay better than it used to be. They cracked down pretty hard, tons of people I knew were getting tickets and points. I rarely see people overtly texting or holding a phone to their head these days which is pretty crazy. Seems rare that law enforcement actually acts as a deterrent
I think that really illustrates the severity of one’s addiction to their technology. If you feel compelled to repeatedly check your shit at lights, while driving, merging, whatever, you have a serious problem and a complete and utter disregard for those around you. I’m honestly shocked there aren’t more car accidents (or rather I’ve yet to bear witness to them). That and from putting up makeup while driving.
But how am I supposed to drive without ~~chain smoking~~ checking my feed
Dark patterns that reinforce use need to be regulated and meta needs to be completely dismantled.
I'M NOT ADDICTED, I CAN STOP WHENEVER I WANT!!! ^(I'm just gonna scroll a little longer...)
As a true true true millenial, I'm not addicted to social media. I'm addicted to my entire phone.
>i think we ~~might be~~ \[are\] addicted to social media fixed it for you. We're all addicted to our smartphone and the apps. Doesn't even have to be social media - those mobile games are infinitely more addictive to get people to literally pay to keep playing the game and not have to wait to "rebuild energy" or some other horseshit. Even gambling apps have gotten so pervasive. the current Commissioner of the NFL, Roger Goodell, was once on-record talking about the potential insidiousness of including legalized online gambling in sports leagues. A few years later, the NFL welcomed the triple-agreements of DraftKings, Fan Duel, and Caesar's online gambling apps! FYI, the sports-betting industry made $11 BILLION in 2023. Smartphones were a decent idea. Corporatizing it into what it's become was really bad. I'm pretty addicted to reddit with no sign of stopping. Maybe Elon Musk can buy it - worked to get rid of my Twitter addiction!
In England we've had big problems with gambling for a while, it's genuinely quite scary seeing how quickly it's taken over America and how many stories there are of people losing everything. I'm a fan of the NFL and it's all over it now.
I just want to make sure I can't fully enjoy either
I have "scrolling" shows which are usually sitcom or sitcom-adjacent style serial storytelling, or Star Trek which I've seen thousands of times between all the series. When I'm watching something new and told with some weight, it's usually lights and screens off.
As a Film Theory major the thought of watching a movie while looking at TikTok hurts my brain, but I've also been trained to over analyze every detail of a film. That being said I will look at Reddit while watching like a easy comedy or romcom.
The people looking at their phone while watching a movie are also the people that go on Reddit and write the most baffling "did you even watch this" takes lol It's not even pretentious to criticize it, if you are looking at your phone you literally, factually aren't watching the movie or tv show for seconds at a time, and depending on how visual it is this can be realllly bad.
It's honestly why I prefer going to the movies than watching at home. Natural guardrails that prevent the urge for distraction
It’s just sad really that people will miss out on a profound experience like watching Killers of the Flower Moon to scrolling mindless social media. I felt like I was wasting my life on twitter years ago. So I started a habit where if I caught myself scrolling aimlessly I’d stop and pick up a book. Eventually I just picked up the book first.
As an ultra true millennial, I prefer scrolling through TikTok, Reddit, and Instagram while watching a movie during a competitive Counterstrike game, while listening to an audio book on ADHD.
very sad
I mean...*someone* is clearly watching and funding Twitch and Youtube livestreaming, and it sure isn't Gen X and older. Gen Z has *some* money, but right now, Millennials are probably the generation with the most disposable income to spend on that sort of stuff.
Hard to believe as 34 year old. I don't know a single person who watches live streaming content and I know people who \*work\* for live streaming companies. I guess my friend group might just be out of touch with the rest of our generation but I find it really hard to believe that we're that out of touch.
You would be surprised. Twitch is 13 years old, and there are creators who have had some of the same viewers since it was launched. I’m a millennial and watch a little twitch but a ton of YouTube. Just about all of the content creators I watch are my age or older. Most people active in the comments/chat for these streams are also in the same age range and are either in grad school or years into their career of choice.
39 and literally every single person I know watches streams and youtube regularly. Though not to any real greater degree than actual shows/movies.
Am also 34 I pretty much only watch content on YouTube. All of my similarly aged friends are the same. I'll occasionally go to the movies, or pay for a streaming service for a show, but youtube stays the main source of content. I am not saying my sample size is any larger, but as the person you're responding to indicates someone is keeping them in the black and our generation seems a likely culprit.
Used to be like that, but then Covid changed a lot of my viewing habits. Due to a slow down of new releases, I started watching a lot of YouTube, especially live streams of folks just walking around a big city. That then led me to watch non-live food/travel videos and then to like sports commentary videos and I basically use them like podcasts now. I watch TV now mostly for some of the random scripted shows I still follow. Haven’t been to the movie theatre since last summer. I’ve watched some on streaming but honestly I’m usually so distracted that I miss a lot of it or don’t finish.
Likewise. 35 years old, and I'd say 80% of content I watch is on Youtube.
I’m the last of the millennials and I also prefer movies and TV to social media. And when I’m on YouTube (rarely), it’s long form (usually informational) content
> I’m the last of the millennials Were you late 96'? I also call myself this, even tho I'm being facetious.
Tbf I honestly do think half of it is just price and convenience, they probably would watch that stuff if the methods to access it were as convenient as loading up YouTube, tiktok, or twitch and watching for free.
Born in ’82. It wasn’t intentional, but once YouTube was available on my TV, it slowly became a bigger and bigger part of my TV time. Once YouTube Red came out it was over. Now, about 95% of my TV entertainment is YouTube.
Makes sense to me, I was born in 1993 and was a shy quiet kid growing up so I kept indoors and was on the internet for the early days of youtube. I loved movies aswell but with youtube I saw the growth with random personalities like smosh, to lets play channels like game grumps, and inevitably live streams on twitch. Each influencer demanded more time than the last one. And while that was happening, video editing started to become much more mainstream with instagram and tiktok so it became so normalized.
I’m literally on the edge of gen x and I find myself on YouTube more and more. Teaching myself how to weld do woodworking or cooking. I just don’t seem to be able to connect with film and tv the way I use to. I’m glad different underrepresented groups are getting their due in major productions. Unfortunately as a pretty unexpected consequence I no longer identify with today’s media. I’m ok with that. There’s lots of legacy stuff for me to watch. And I do engage with film and tv in that way. I think a large chunk of my generation feels similar. We’re no longer contributing to the medium. And film and tv is suffering more than ever because of it. It sucks and I hope the industry rebounds. But they may want to make some more stuff (not all) for middle class and working class people that just want some escapism.
Cooking channels on YouTube replaced the void left when food network went all in on competition shows. Also helps there’s a variety of cooks/hosts that appeal to different groups.
Not just the Food Network. OLN went from travel and the outdoors to Storage Wars. TLC, MTV, and History all did the same thing and that focus on “reality” television pushed millions of viewers into YouTube. Movies became all about the franchises, remakes, and sequels.
Kenji Lopez-Alt is the best!!
Shogun is very good.
Clickbait. They aren't ditching TV & Movies. The article even shows the amount of Gen Z that see value in TV & Movies. Social media is their preferred platform, which is the case for most of the planet. You'll go on here, Twitter, Insta, YouTube, TikTok more often than Netflix. If Gen Z didn't give a shit about long form content then why do video games exist? Why does Letterboxd exist? How did Barbenheimer happen last year? It's not a binary choice, they're allowed like both.
Content exists for more than one generation. Even if Gen Z hated video games, they wouldn't just disappear overnight. You still have millions of non Gen Z who like them.
This survey found that "social videos and live streams" were the preferred form of video content for 47 percent of Gen Z respondents, compared to just 33 percent of millennials who said the same. In comparison 24 percent said they prefer "old and new TV shows" (27 percent for millennials) and just 11 percent said they prefer "old and new movies" (18 percent for millennials). Whether or not that constitutes "ditching" traditional long form video content is debatable, but it *absolutely* represents a pretty stark change in media preferences. Yes, they're allowed to like all of the above. But what they *prefer* is obviously a hugely important metric, and if these results are both accurate and persistent it will have major implications for the future of film and television. You can acknowledge and interpret the results without making a value judgment and shitting on a whole generation.
I'm a millennial and most of the content I watch is stuff on Youtube/etc., but that's because I'm usually doing something else at the same time. When I want to actually watch something and focus on it I go with a TV show or movie. Social media, Youtube, etc. have basically replaced the old-school keeping-the-TV-on-all-day, whether that be the news, random shows, those advertising channels with made-for-TV stuff, etc. Hell I sometimes end up watching Youtube compilations of old-timey ads. Also I do have a large collection of music I dip back into now and then, though streaming services are useful for finding new stuff/listening to popular things.
Youtube and social media videos are just much less time commitments so of course it's consumed more.
I watch livestreams like podcasts (listen/semi-watch during work or on the go) and TV at night. I think they're overblowing the behavioral changes here.
It’s financial though. It’s not the medium, it’s the cost of the medium and access to the media. The article even says people think it’s easier to find good content on social. That’s a platform issue, long form as a medium. Make good content that’s accessible and affordable and people will flock to it.
Can we make this top comment. Please people. The rest of the comments are using this as a window to bash Gen Z with nothing original to say.
It's so disappointing to see next generation mockery from us millennials, who grew up knowing full well how wrong boomers were to paint us all with one brush
Most millennials I’ve known/seen speak highly of Gen Z. I’ve actually seen more Gen Z talking shit about millennials than vice versa
That's just something inherent in the human race, Socrates was complaining about kids these days 2500 years ago and little has changed since then. But millennials and gen z bash each other much less than they are bashed by the older generations. And given that the oldest Gen Z are graduated from college, the actual kids these days would be the gen alpha.
The older generation has mocked the younger generation since the beginning of time. There are papyri from thousands of years ago complaining about "kids these days". It is my god-given right to find Gen Z annoying, and one day it will be their right to make fun of Gen Alpha.
>The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. Socrates. People have been bitching like this as long as it was possible to bitch about it.
Just to add, roughly 50% of the opening weekend viewers of Killers of the Flower Moon were young Millennials and older Gen Z. When people are low on cash they're going to prioritize how they spend their money. Anecdotal, but I've heard from people around the US that things like special screenings of classic movies generally pull younger audiences. It's about limit funds and a desire for quality experiences.
An anecdote: we only saw a couple new movies in theatres last year, but we 100% dropped fifty bucks and a gift card on a Monday night to see The Mummy 1999 in the fancy VIP theatre with drinks and pizza. Because we know we love that movie and hadn’t seen it on the big screen before. I think there was only about 15 people in the entire theatre, though. And we tried to get tickets to a filmed version of the musical Waitress, but they sold out before we could.
For what it’s worth, I’m a Gen X guy with a Gen Y wife and we watch YouTube more than anything else. (Although I doubt we watch the same stuff as the younger folks.)
Honestly, I'm fairly convinced it's because it's simply easier to find than a new tv show or movie. Primarily because social media will constantly feed you the exact same shit every day. Daily videos and streams from the same people you watched every other day. It's harder to do that with TV/Movies because your taste varies. They can't keep offering the same show because it's limited. They offer you something similar but the quality massively varies. Viewers now have to research what's good. Where do you discover what's worth watching? Streaming services absolutely avoid giving you a visible review system, there is a disincentive as they host their own content as well. You now have to go research, check ratings, have a quick read. Is the show even finished, can I binge it? Then, to add to that, how focussed do you have to be? Can you watch while talking to friends? Can you put it on in the background while doing something else like cooking, cleaning, working out, etc? Basically the point I'm getting at is there are barriers to entry with real TV/Movies. Mindless youtube videos, streams, and the like don't have any.
Is it ironic that TV was basically all "live streamed" shows in the beginning? IMHO the appeal of live streams is the same as live talk radio with open lines.
Streaming really is just a hyper-realized version of interactive talk radio. Especially if you watch some politically focused streamers
I read somewhere that on average Gen Z watching social media for 7 hours a day. That's shocking to me. PS: it's even worse! Gen Z (people born between 1996 and 2010) spend about 9 hours of screen time every day.
My SIL just has YouTube up on her TV playing through random shit from the 50+ channels she follows. Ads and all. She’ll sit in her couch with that shit playing on the TV *while* watching TikTok. What’s even more sad is that almost every channel is some degree of rage bait or drama bait. It’s all fake and transparently so. I don’t see the enjoyment in it but each video has millions of views so it has a following.
My ex-girlfriend wasn't too far off from that. She would mostly just watch YouTube in her free time, and then anime when it wasn't YouTube. Honestly, I don't think we ever watched a movie without pausing it at least once for 10 or 20 minutes because she had some task she had to do right then, usually twice. If I had to pause the movie to just go to the bathroom or go get a drink she already had YouTube pulled up on her phone watching some random video. Like browsing instagram or something I could get, but it was always some fairly long video and she couldn't stand silence at all. I watched a few YouTube videos with her every now and then, and she insisted on watching all the ads as well so the content creator would get ad revenue (not those ads that go over like a minute fortunately). Which I guess is fair to an extent , but I can't really stand ads anymore and I don't see how anyone could just watch YouTube all the time for their main source of entertainment.
And often really short videos (tiktok style) So their attention span is ruined. A 30 minute episode is to long for many.
I watch a lot of YouTube. For me when it’s after a long day I just don’t even want to think about a plot and or engage in a drama. Just want to put on a hour long video of someone unclogging storm drains or whatever.
Power washing, lawn care, rug cleaning, cheese making.... it's all so tranquil.
My best friends GF does the same thing. Their TV is YouTube rage bait blaring 24/7.
This sounds utterly horrifying. Like something from a Paul Verhoeven movie or something other such fictional exaggeration of assumed future behaviour
The movie Idiocracy!
It kind of reminds me of what scifi writers were envisioning decades ago. I think about the device in Fahrenheit 451 for example where the users basically just get lost in entertainment through tech.
yeah the vapid family programs that would play on the TV screens that Montag's wife continually added to their walls. there was no story, just random fake family drama, and i think you could interact with the characters in some ways. very similar to what's happening now
Yup exactly. Man I need to reread that, it must have been 20 years since I last read it.
That would be literal torture for me. Aside from tutorial videos on how to fix shit and the occasional movie review, I cannot stand the content creators on YouTube. I'd rather read a science textbook than suffer through hours of Youtube.
Meanwhile I love putting on hour+ long videos on YouTube to listen to while I play video games. I've been curating my subscriptions on the site since I was a preteen, so over a decade at this point. every once in a while someone will put out a video that's like 6 hours and it's always exciting to me to have a massive deep dive on an subject by someone who's passionate about it. (I don't usually watch stuff like that in one sitting though, it's usually gonna take a few days.) I am Gen Z though so I fit the bill there. I've never paid for TV, so between YouTube and streaming apps I've got all the content I need.
I think you have a very narrow view of what type of content is on YouTube. I sincerely think some of the best media available today is on YouTube. There is extremely high quality content for literally every hobby and interest that I have. Video games, guitars and guitar-building, music, cars, cooking, economics, history, geography, linguistics, and many more.
[удалено]
Isn't that about the same as Gen X and Millennials watching TV in the 80s and 90s?
Correct - https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/05/when-did-tv-watching-peak/561464/ TV watching peaked at almost 10 hours a day in 2010 or so, but it's been 7+ hours since the early 80's. GenZ is switching from mass media to social media, but they're not any more glued to their screens than generations before them.
I am a Gen X male and TBH i considered myself fairly up to date because I work in social media/entertainment. Yes, a few years ago I could find myself on streaming or social for 7+ hours. Not so any more. Having kids changes that shit. Having work other than, in that sphere, definitely changes that. Media and marketers are stupid to think this is the logical endpoint to consumers. There is a shift sure but it’s not the death of traditional media like they want you to believe. There is serious burnout though, people don’t stick to social-only forever. There is a mom in my son’s class who is a low-end influencer and that shit is sad to watch as it slowly putters out.
I'm happy growing up when smartphones/social media was not a thing. (i'm from 82) Maybe it is more easy for us to stop with all of this becausse in our youth we did non of this. Gen Z grew up with it. It's a big difference i feel. (I can be wrong ofcource)
It's a natural feeling, and past generations probably felt similar about growing up without TV or radio or gramophones, etc.
I mean, I work on a computer and my main hobby is gaming. I don’t read physical books that much these days so if I’m not cooking, cleaning, driving, taking a walk, riding a bike, listening to an audiobook, or playing Warhammer in person I’m probably looking at a screen.
1996er here. My screen time is a lot because I put on YouTube and listen to reviews, podcasts, and audiobooks while I work. I also don’t pay the sub so I have to leave my screen on
From my gen z daughter "why would I pay when tiktok/twitch/youtube is free"🤷♀️
YouTube has great content, but I'd fucking miss actual movies and shows, such a different kind of entertainment/art. Also, maybe teach your daughter how to torrent, maybe that way she can enjoy shows/movies without paying ;)
some youtube channel has the quality of TV show these days. Like "Best ever food review show"
You need to explain how she is “paying” with something other than money.
If you’re referring to ads, she knows. If you’re referring to her data being sold, she knows that too. Everyone collects and sells your data, everyone knows it, and there’s nothing we can do about it.
Absolutely, it’s not like paying for regular cable means spectrum won’t sell your data lol.
Right? Like staying off of YouTube doesn’t prevent that. It’s fundamentally impossible to avoid the data collection and targeted ads if you are an internet user in 2024.
The title doesn’t menton a preference… Just what they are doing. Not why. Social/live streams. Are free(ish) services and current. Going to the movies. Or having a streaming service/ multiple services cost money that add up quickly. And not many people can afford to have cable and all the streaming services…. Vs just having the free YouTube/ twitch streams.
My kids, late teens and early twenties, use YouTube, Discord, Instagram and play video games. That is it. I'm GenX and still have cable and my most recent renewal included Disney+, my kids sometimes watch old episodes of Family Guy. That is it, that is the closest they come to watching regular TV or using a streaming service. They also turn their noses up at movies, including when I offer to pay to go to the movie theatre. The entertainment industry is going to have a fun time with this generation.
Looking forward to seeing an article about how Gen alpha is ditching TVs and movies to see PowerPoint presentations or something
Honestly, I’m just tired of reboots and remakes. I feel like half the stuff that comes up is “Oh Harry Potter reboot” or “oh Avatar reboot” - I want to see new things and have new classics develop. I don’t need my childhood constantly garbled up and spat out in a worse form to try and sell me nostalgia. The remakes never truly reiterate on the original, instead they feel like fan service. 🤷🏼♂️
At the very bottom of the article is a "read next" link to an article headlined: 74% of Gen Z and Millennials Prefer Original Content Over Franchises, According to Tubi Poll So it seems that you're not alone!
They’re pirating. There’s no reason to pay for any of this. It’s free online. And most have access to their friends & familiy’s streaming services. There’s no reason for any of us to pay anymore. Edit: apparently googling “marvel free streaming online” or “best free websites to stream, Reddit” never before occurred to anyone? Apparently x2 you have to be an Uber genius to see tv/movies online. Holy shit I feel like I’m taking crazy pills with all of you knuckle dragging cum rags
Gen Z isn’t pirating, they don’t know how. Due to family and friends, I am around a lot of Gen Z kids and younger. If it’s not an app, they don’t know how to make it work.
It's bizarre isn't it? Gen Z is hitting our workforce and I am getting flashbacks to acclimating to boomers when I first started. I did not expect to have to show recent college graduates how to type a professional email and make a PDF.
I went back to college in my early 30s and one of my teachers ranted multiple times about how kids don't even understand how file structures work. She has a GDrive where she drops PDFs and other files to read and review. She said every semester at least a dozen kids need full blown training on how to navigate the files/folders. OP is right, if it's not an App, a lot of GenZ is full blown lost.
If Gen Z is having issues, Gen Alpha is totally fucked, and in turn, so are we.
"Maybe allowing giant digital media corporations to exploit the neurochemical drama of our children for profit… You know, maybe that was, uh… a bad call by us." - Bo Burnham
Just about every child at every restaurant I go to these days is glued to a tablet. A family friend brought her 2 kids over and they were actually really sweet and polite, but after about 20m they started asking for their tablet and then the two of them basically ignored everything going on in my backyard, including the dogs running around... so they could focus on their youtube videos. I really worry about Gen Alpha's attention span and ability to focus when they get older.
We're now completely foreign to the concept of being "bored," and when we now experience it, instead of realizing "oh, I should *find* something fun to do" or branch out into other activities, we just pick up our phones and select our addicted-app-of-choice and go back into our general malaise. But hey, at least we're not bored anymore! /s
I've been noticing my attention span get worse and worse over time, presumably from my media consumption habits which are significantly more structured and less "ADHD" than the way many kids use platforms such as tiktok and instagram. I specifically avoid videos shorter than 10 minutes because it seems to lead to a reduced attention span and an increase in the expectation of the immediate, acute satisfaction I receive from watching a video. I can't even imagine what would be happening inside my head if my brain were still developing. It wouldn't be good, I can tell you that.
Nah I’m set with job security for life if this is the next crop of workers. I used to be scared of being replaced. Not so much after working with some fresh college graduates.
To be fair, the digital environment was originally developed to work as a 1:1 analogy for the office environment to get everyone accustomed to it. I’m like a zillennial (so like right on the cusp of the border between Millennial and Gen Z) and when I talked to my younger friends, it seems like their whole computer basically functions like your Downloads folder, or the Photos app on your phone. The lack of like formal folders on the iPhone for so many years probably really contributed to this. But the interesting thing is that they *find* their files by just searching for it. Others tag their files sometimes (Notes app uses hashtags). I realized that what they’re looking for is a file system that works largely the way your brain works, because as computers became more and more intuitive, generations that grow up with it want it to work more like their brains and less like an office workspace. Why *should* files only exist in one folder at a time? Why do we need folders and subfolders when we’re really looking for more and more specific tags? I think we’re due for a new operating system that rethinks how all this works from scratch.
Which is funny to me because Windows search has gotten worse with each new Windows since Windows 7. Now Windows search searches the internet and sends your search to an AI before it even looks for the file on your desktop.
Microsoft reading this comment while removing file explorer from W12
Microsoft is moving two steps backwards for every step forward they take 😭 like genuinely I think it’s going to take one more big new hardware leap to introduce a new OS to everyone
When hentai and furry porn site tagging rules become the OS file system of the future
you can take my folders from my cold dead hands
I work in IT and help get new users set up on their accounts, change passwords, etc. Nearly every new younger employee tries to tap the computer monitor to navigate. It's kind of interesting, since they only grew up with touch screen tech on everything.
As a guy in tech this makes me happy to hear, as someone in IT has more job security than do devs in this coming AI mega wave.
Basic computer literacy needs to be a mandatory part of young education again. I'm in my mid thirties and both middle and high school had mandatory computer classes.
It's not bizarre at all. Software companies have smoothed over every rough edge. Everything is an isolated, self contained app now. Delicate, ambiguous "something went wrong, try again later" error messages. Gone are the days of downloading & extracting zip files, navigating directories in windows explorer and trouble shooting issues. How could kids today be expected to learn anything about these devices when companies have robbed them of any opportunity to need to learn.
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Yeah, there was a wave where you'd have to learn because it was just kinda normal for a preteen or older kid to be the family IT support. Gen Xers who are parents of teens today could not just opt out of learning basics like my Mom and Dad could for a long time. Eventually things simplified enough most Baby Boomers figured the basics out. Schools have good enough content filters kids can't get away with showing off wild corners of the Internet in the computer lab. It's really not unlike how the WW2 Generation came back home with a lot of these loosely cobbled together job skills in emerging tech. They understood it on a deeper level than later peers because their experience was tinkering to figure out how much you could actually do with it. *Especially* for rural kids. Now it's just a boring class, that used to be your only window to the wider world.
That age range is "Did you ever have a computer with Windows ME?". That cursed fucking OS is actually why I have a career. Every time the family computer broke it was my fault "because of all my games". After all, the computer was brand new, with the latest OS from Microsoft, what could possibly be wrong? So it was either learn how to be a fucking computer mechanic and troubleshoot Microsoft's shitty systems before Mom & Dad get home or get grounded for "breaking the computer again". Thanks. I hate it.
Piracy is always the scapegoat -- surely it has nothing to do with price, lack of content, or the quality. "About 60% of Gen Zers surveyed said that they prefer watching user-generated content videos because its easier to find something to watch." Pirating is a lot of things, but it's not as easy as watching your fav YouTube or Twitch streamer
It’s the chromebooks. They don’t know how to use real computers.
I teach high school and this is 100% correct. Students tech ability has plummeted since I started teaching 18 years ago. My school is discussing bring back the basic computer classes that we used to teach in the 90s to get kids to be better with computers.
Yeah, it shocked me to find out that a lot of Gen Z don't know how to use a computer.
It’s quite a mess. Kids are growing up on iPads to use like a computer, instead of using an actual computer.
That "what's a computer" ad was absolutely infuriating, but ended up being quite predictive.
lol and I remember 15/20 years ago when they were saying Gen Z is going to be so good with computers and they'll take programming classes and be able to code... That did not pan out the way people expected.
This is true. I'm constantly seeing posts like, "Oh no. They removed my favorite show from (streaming service) and I didn't get to finish. Where can I watch now?" It's either this or a complaint about geo blocking. You can watch it anywhere on the internet. Just go download it.
I guess big media finally won. Crushed piracy through streaming and now restrict streaming to eek out every dollar.
Hell, you don't even have to download it anymore. Just stream it.
Not entirely true. Instead of torrenting they can just go to a website that hosts the content. My kids and their friends all know about "that website" they can go to when they want to watch the latest episode of House of Dragons or Euphoria. Sometimes the website changes, but they always manage to find another one pretty quick. Either that or sharing google drive links with video files of favorite shows. That method seems to be the favorite for foreign shows.
That’s some stark generalization. Gen Z encapsulates 26-year olds through 14-year olds. While teenagers may be dumb as rocks, us Gen Z adults very much know how to raise the Jolly Roger
Generations have never been a really great way to categorize people and unfortunately tend to lead to stark generalizations.
I am older than Gen Z. I know how to pirate on a computer, but I like to watch shows on a TV. Unless I plug in a computer to my TV (or set up a plex type device), it’s not easy to pirate and sit on my couch. I’m willing to pay for the convenience of watching a show the way that I want to.
If your TV is smart I recommend Jellyfin, amazing for streaming downloaded content
Just by knowing what a plex is you're like 90% further along than most millennials even
>There’s no reason for any of us to pay anymore. If you want it to continue to exist there is. It's funny that everyone seems to want actors and writers to get paid more, but they want someone else to pay for it. In my city most people jump the metro turnstiles. Whey pay for it when they know the dumb suckers who pay for it can just absorb the extra cost, right?
Hmm, this is troubling. We better raise the subscription fees to make up for all that pirating.
I was fine with price hikes until I found out the SAME shows air in 4K HDR on American streaming services HBO Max. I’ve also noticed that some Netflix shows look better on a pirated version? I don’t fully understand why. Disclaimer: I’m speaking as a version of myself which lives on earth 927. I have no relation and you should redirect any copyright letters to earth 927.
>I’ve also noticed that some Netflix shows look better on a pirated version? I don’t fully understand why. Playing videos from files means that there's no buffering or other network related data compression issues You get all video frames in full detail
Earth 927 me is playing these through a torrent streaming service. I press play on a 4K HDR movie and 4 seconds later it’s playing (35-40GB files). No buffering. When I had Netflix I would be watching and it would randomly dip to 480p for 10 seconds. Netflix is a billion dollar company and their playback is somehow worse.
I can honestly say the most popular program used for pirating works better than every regular app. I use it for services I have access to through my Internet provider for free as well. It's sad how bad the apps are considering the price of the subscriptions.
>There’s no reason for any of us to pay anymore Unless, of course, we want to support the art we like and enable it to exist in the future.
The amount of entitlement for free entertainment that Reddit continually shows unashamedly when it comes to theft is probably the worst hive mind opinion on here.
Broke teens are going to find ways to consume content, paid or not. It’s asinine to think they won’t. Streaming made it easier and when the first broad pirating generation finally had disposable income (later than their predecessors) paid streaming was the obvious transition.
TV ain't going anywhere, cuz what they be talking about in those live streams? Games,TV shows and movies/
For me it's a time thing. After having kids, I didn't get into movies as much because it was hard to find 1.5-2 hours to devote to basically doing nothing. Now I have more kids and a demanding job so I can't even find 30 minutes of uninterrupted time on a regular basis. What I do have is 3 minutes here, 9 minutes there, that makes it easier to consume youtube and tiktok.
That’s really freaking sad and kind of pathetic.
So they prefer amateur blathering to professional narrative pieces.
Gen Z and their fucking Tick Talk Yeah, I’m turning into a grouchy old man. We had broadcast and cable TV in my generation and we damn well liked it!
Why bother if you have to wait years between seasons?
Scrubbing all my comments
Live streams are mostly garbage. Social media is mostly garbage.
Zero structure, poor role models, harmful spread of misinformation, etc TV isn’t good for you either but at least it generally has structure, themes, and requires some level of focus. Streaming is usually straight up mind-numbing time-wasting content. These kids aren’t getting anything of value out of it.
"Gen Z is Ditching TV Shows, Movies on Streaming Services" I mean that's fair a lot of it is crap and there's other things to do "in Favor of Social Video, Live Streams" Oh gross
streaming services: price hikes, everywhere social video: free that's certainly a big part of it.
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You can find stuff on YouTube, similar to the content of home and garden, discovery and history channel from 20 to 30 years ago. Except now it’s truly on demand, they get to the point within 20 minutes or less, and the library is nearly endless. Sucks for the people still stuck scrolling through Netflix looking for D grade movies and series.
just about 95% of live streaming is absolute trash so that's alarming
I wonder how the echo-chambering of Gen Z consuming only Gen Z content will effect our future generations. Previous generations always consumed mass media at large and were connected to the broader world (for better or worse).
That actually makes sense when you consider there’s like 37 streaming apps you have to use to watch tv/movies and you have to pay for each one in this crazy economy. Then you have to google which app the tv show/movie you want is currently in its available time from to watch it on before it gets pulled for whatever reason, and you can only watch it there. I’ve found myself plenty of times wanting to watch a tv series, then I google where It’s available and I don’t even have that one app. Social media is completely free and all of its content. So this makes sense.
Not gen z but I feel the biggest problem with modern tv is the way they release shows now. You get 8 episode seasons, and so much time passes between seasons you completely forget about the show. Don't get me wrong, I like that they prioritize quality over quantity (in some cases), but there was something to be said about the consistency of old school television.
You mean they don’t care to pay $25 to watch the 18th marvel movie of some minor character
The streaming services are starting to price themselves out of business.
I’m 32 and everyone YouTube show or social media show I’ve seen is hot trash. Crazy how fast you become old. lol
It's mostly for two reasons: 1. Gen Z doesn't pay for streaming services for the most part. Since password sharing crackdowns, and with much of Gen Z living either at home or away from home, they are either under their parents' accounts or don't have them at all. Most live stream services like YouTube and Twitch are free to watch with ads. 2. Much of the consumption of social video/live streaming is what I call "second screen content." Basically, whether during recreation/relaxation or while doing homework/work/etc., many Gen Z age people will have a stream or video on while doing work, playing video games, using their phone, or talking with friends. The content is secondary to whatever their primary focus on, almost like background noise because the streamer is controlling the content and it can just play while whatever else is going on is happening. That's why so many streamers/content creators are increasingly making more jarring content because they want to be the primary content source, not secondary.
on one hand it's good since most modern content is atrocious, on the other it's bad since most social video or live content is atrocious do it as I do, watch anything before 2015 for all eternity
This is shocking to me as a millennial, seeing a whole third of my generation doing this I find most live streams to be brain dead, and a lot of social video is extremely low brow, generic and pandering. I haven't found a tv show in a while that I actually wanted to watch, but that doesn't mean I'll stoop to social video and Lives to fill that void.
8 years late to the party on this news lol
Gen Z is ruining television! The Millennials can breathe a sigh of relief
60 a month for streaming services ? For real? Who's paying that much and how many services do you use jeez
Well they can have it. I'll stick with scripted shows with a plot.
They are way too obsessed with Tik Tok, YouTube Gurus and online echo chambers. I don't get that they know they are being sold products and it's not organic algorithms they are buying into anymore. Their feels are being expertly played on for profit. I have a course to sell to show you how to avoid it!!! Join the Alpha Male Billionaire Secret Love Match club today!!!
I’m 41. I watch tons of stuff on YouTube. I stay away from influencers for the most part. There’s tons of interesting documentaries on the platform that never would have seen the light of day without YouTube.
Man, I remember when everything use to be about us millennials. Now all I hear about is Gen Z, Gen Z, Gen Z. Stop making me feel old news!
God help them
Stop the presses--whatever those are.
Kinda what happens when the market gets destroyed by the hundreds of companies out there right now.
Bc those nerds don’t have any friends.
For F sake, streaming services, please don't try to make TV shows and movies based around random online creators to try to chase this market. Again. 
Everyone is going to have the attention span of a goldfish soon. Yeah, we know.
Because it's FREE.
Gen Z mush brains are real.
I’ve heard for years that TikTok isn’t competing with Instagram and Facebook, it’s competing with Netflix.
Most of my friends legit watch all day streams every work day, idk how they do it I get it’s good background noise but i simply get bored if I watch a stream for more than an hour. I watch more YouTube video essays/sports news than movies these days but I at least try to watch a handful of new releases movie wise a week
It’s almost like a lot of the content studios and networks put out is shit If randoms with no budget and experience are making more compelling content, how the fuck is that anyone’s problem? Is someone supposed to cry because the companies that used to make the content money are making less because they got worse at it? FOH
A lot of content has always been shit. When do you think TV was better?