back to article Humanity is doomed: We watch 45 BILLION hours of YouTube a month

Google's revealed just how perilous humanity's future existence has become, by shedding a light on our YouTube viewing habits. “1.5 billion logged in viewers visit YouTube every single month,” YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, blogged last week. “That’s the equivalent of one in every five people around the world! And how much do …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Keep the masses entertained on vapid nonsense for free

    It fills their spare time, and doesn't allow them time to think about lack of job security, poverty wages and the debt they are in, whilst the billionaire 1% own and run their lives.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Keep the masses entertained on vapid nonsense for free

      Let me see...

      Lack of Job security? Nope, I'm retired

      Poverty Wages? Not really. I get by quite well on my pension

      Debt? Nope. Don't owe anyone any money. If I can't buy it outright then it don't get bought even on 0%.

      Watch YouTube? I think I may have watched around 20 YT videos in the last 10 years.

      I'm part of the masses and TBH, I'd rather watch paint dry than some of the shite that appears on YouTube and those other so called social media sites.

      Yours

      Grumpy of Tunbridge Wells. (Formerly Disgusted of T-W)

      1. ritey

        Re: Keep the masses entertained on vapid nonsense for free

        Ah a brexit voter

      2. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

        Re: The shite that appears on youtube

        Youtube is a medium , not the content .

        You can listen , legally , to a Pink Floyd album - or you can listen ti Lil' Wayne & justin beiber.

        You can watch a documentary on climate change - or you can watch a teenage attention seeker with an IQ in negative figures blathering about whatever his mind can manage to percive for the benefit of other mentally underweight teenagers .

        You can find a useful how-to video on how to reset the sevice light on your merc - or you can watch rednecks in monster trucks

        Given that its "on demand" rather than scheduled and you can choose what to watch , i dont see the problem.

        Its similar to saying - "I'm not going on that internet , its only got porn , scams and kittens."

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Keep the masses entertained on vapid nonsense for free

        You're a twat, and an ignorant one at that.

        I've found lots of useful things on YouTube. Useful talks about aspects of SQL Server and Oracle by leading experts. Videos on how to replace the rear brake pads on CRV ( saving me £200 in labour charges ). To name just two types I've used to save me money and learn something new.

        Just because it's has a reputation for being full of moronic videos, of which there are lots, doesn't mean that's all it's full of. Put away the sanctimonious attitude and open your mind a little, you might just find something to fill that void of nothingness that obviously gives you way too much time to sit around moaning about stuff you've never bothered to check out properly.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Keep the masses entertained on vapid nonsense for free

          "You're a twat, and an ignorant one at that."

          pot? kettle?

      4. Mark 85

        Re: Keep the masses entertained on vapid nonsense for free

        Ok.. I'm with you. So we don't fit the "profile" of the average user. But yes, there's better things to do than watch videos on Youtube. I don't "stream" music, I play CD's. "How to Videos"? Meh.. most are crap. Ah... time to go sit in the garden with a cup of coffee and enjoy silence.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Keep the masses entertained on vapid nonsense for free

      This is the final paragraph of a speech given by Aneurin Bevan to the British Labour Party in 1959, following their general election defeat:

      I have enough faith in my fellow creatures in Great Britain to believe that when they have got over the delirium of the television, when they realize that their new homes that they have been put into are mortgaged to the hilt, when they realize that the moneylender has been elevated to the highest position in the land, when they realize that the refinements for which they should look are not there, that it is a vulgar society of which no decent person could be proud, when they realize all those things, when the years go by and they see the challenge of modern society not being met by the Tories who can consolidate their political powers only on the basis of national mediocrity, who are unable to exploit the resources of their scientists because they are prevented by the greed of their capitalism from doing so, when they realize that the flower of our youth goes abroad today because they are not being given opportunities of using their skill and their knowledge properly at home, when they realize that all the tides of history are flowing in our direction, that we are not beaten, that we represent the future: then, when we say it and mean it, then we shall lead our people to where they deserve to be led!

  2. Winkypop Silver badge
    Megaphone

    ShhhHHHhHhhhhhh!

    I'm watching the latest Techmoan review....

  3. Ken Hagan Gold badge

    An hour a day sounds like fairly light usage compared to what their parents' generation used to spend watching the goggle box, and with YouTube you are picking your own viewing rather than just swallowing whatever cack the channel controllers have decided you ought to watch.

    And whilst YouTube doesn't do news, the internet does. In fact, for most of the world's population, the internet does news rather better than the local TV stations. So much better, in fact, that the local governments get upset.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cats.

    Porn.

    Bell-ends.

    At least we have one of the numbers. Now all we need is the daily mail and redtube to release their numbers.

    1. VinceH
      Joke

      "Now all we need is the daily mail and redtube to release their numbers."

      I understand one of those two peddles porn - but what does Redtube do?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The trillion hours of reality TV per year...

    ...mocks this article

  6. eJ2095

    In all Fairness

    TV in the uk is crap.

    You get the odd decent program and thats about it.

    I do watch youtube but its normally background noise on tv. such as the WatchMojo etc

    EVblog fun to watch, Tear down Vids usefull etc etc

    1. Chris Miller

      Re: In all Fairness

      TV in the uk is crap.

      I can't disagree (and getting worse), but it's still pure gold compared to anywhere else in the world (that I've visited, at least).

      I also agree that there's plenty of useful stuff on YouTube, it's not just cat videos. I have three webcams streamed via YouTube running more or less continually while my PC is on, so that's several thousand hours a year of 'watching', right there.

    2. handleoclast

      Re: In all Fairness

      Big Clive beats EVblog, in my opinion.

      Rodalco's high-tech wasp-killing exploits are also fun.

  7. msknight

    The only thing I watch...

    ...on mainstream TV is Dr Who and the News.... and both of them are fiction.

    On YouTube I've got SerpentZA (ADVChina) numerous Vbloggers giving me more unbiased reporting than the mainstream channels ... I mean, still biased, but just not as biased... numerous technical channels, reviews of games that are (as long as you view the trustworthy ones that have escaped the DMCA takesdowns of the software houses) better than some of the journalists (who are also getting locked out in favour of the software houses prefered "Oh, yes, I'm so honoured fro the publicity that I'll do it for free!" bloggers) ...

    ... let's face it, on-line is where all the action is these days. Mainstream media is... meh.

    (and don't bother trying to find my channel. It's full of crap. And if you comment here that I was right, my channel is full of crap, then I'll know you actually didn't listen to me in the first place, and went to find it anyway... so there !!!)

    1. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge
      Coat

      Re: The only thing I watch...

      Thats a long video for a small toolkit! :p

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

  8. wyatt

    My wife commented that I couldn't wait to get out of the house and do something on Friday night when I finished work. The alternative was sitting and watching TV. Fresh air and exercise seem to be a secondary thought to most now a days.

    Caveat: I did use my phone whilst out so maybe people are doing multiple things?

  9. tedleaf

    Minority

    No,a small minority of folk are watching an awful lot of cack on you tut.

    The only thing I have watched in the last ten years on you tit are THREE short vids on how to repair two phones and one laptop..

    Where as my daughter will watch you tit all day and night if she is in the mood..

    Mind you,I find all moving picture media to be dull,last time I went to cinema was for release of "taxi driver" !!

    Not watched tv in 15+ YEARS,can't even be bothered to watch my Mrs's DVD when she has them on,once you've seen one episode of most series,you know the story line for each episode.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bring back the good old days when we spent an hour a day whittling sticks with a pen knife.

  11. clocKwize

    Youtube has a lot of learning material. People don't just watch cat videos. Some people use it as a tool to better themselves.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    YouTube University

    The things I have installed/repaired/reconditioned after watching YouTube tutorials:

    - Pool pump

    - Dyson vac

    - Dash cam

    - Printer head

    - Wallpapering

    - Car repairs

    etc...

    1. Joe Drunk

      Re: YouTube University

      Have an upvote. While admittedly there is a lot of garbage on Youtube there's also plenty of useful tutorials/repair guides that have helped myself and several friends of mine fix things around the house.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Very strange, and slightly depressing, that a tech-focused site would try and push the myth that YouTube only consists of cat videos or similar content. I've just finished going through numerous tutorials as part of my work training schedule, while there were plenty of music videos and live concert footage from the site playing in the background over my weekend. I'll be going through more educational material when I get home tonight as part of my creative leisure activities.

    I wonder how much of the content is actually not only useful but actually educational, as compared to the vapid crap pushed through other sites & media. Certainly I could link to numerous videos on YouTube that are more accurate and informative than this article was.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Here it's maker/engineering session's, the video from UK news sources when the Beeb is being especially bitchy about viewing from afar. Lastly it's gymnastics and skating performances which have flat disappeared from any and all channels on cable. I'd wondered where they'd gone. I now get all the coverage I could ever want there.

      Not too shabby.

  14. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

    statistics eh

    There's nothing in that report to suggest its not just one guy watching youtube on a tiny tiny screen , and the rest of us watching it correctly - on a projector.

  15. RedCardinal

    As opposed to watching tv or streaming services?

    And the problem is what exactly....

  16. The_H

    Never seen a cat video in my life

    We've got a proper telly but cannot remember the last time it was switched on.

    YouTube (made bearable thanks to Adblock) gives me stuff like Photonicinduction; AcapellaScience; BigClivedotcom; Tom Gavioli; Techmoan; The 8-bit Guy. I've discovered Wintergatan and his amazing marble machine, Godowsky's studies after Chopin for left-hand only, and Kennedy Steve. When I want to laugh at idiots trying to skateboard down handrails, FailArmy it is. I could go on.

    I don't feel a shred of guilt about Adblock, Google get enough ££ off me as it is. I look on YouTube as their way of saying "thank you" for all the data they slurp off me.

  17. Mike Cresswell
    Joke

    Each?

    For some reason the thought which flashed through my mind on reading the headline

    "We watch 45 BILLION hours of YouTube a month"

    was

    "Each?"

    OK, I'm off to take my medication now.

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