Ask HN: Why Do People Prefer YouTube Videos over Big-Budget Movies and TV Shows?

spudlyo · 2025-12-21T02:00:18 1766282418

I can't speak to everyone's motivation, but for me YouTube, and only YouTube has the kind of fascinating niche content that I want to watch. Often that content is created by random people who have a passion and zero profit motive, which makes it more authentic and charming. Sometimes it's an elderly Mexican grandmother explaining how she makes Chilaquiles[0], or maybe it's someone explaining why the Great Reform Act of 1832 was necessary[1], or perhaps it's a professor doing a deep-dive the history of the Vulgate and the life of Jerome[2], or maybe it's a YouTube series[3] that dives into a huge rabbit-hole (pun intended) on restoring a weird 1980s minicomputer -- whatever interests you that moment, someone is likely passionate and knowledgeable about it, and has made a video on it.

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mQx1zzBpuU

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_9PGNHd5Zs

[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF98_HnYHjQ

[3]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ1HwuYBuss&list=PLnw98JPyOb...

mmcdermott · 2025-12-21T02:37:28 1766284648

This is the big one for me. I have no inherent problem with bigger budget stuff, but it is seldom about the things that interest me.

Gtex555 · 2025-12-21T05:52:49 1766296369

This I can understand and if you look at the body of my post I talk about understanding if youtube was a selector of quality content, but people will watch hours of slop on youtube that is neither authentic or niche and that's what I want to get to the heart of. I fall victim to this too, I watch hours of youtube (long form) which in retrospect I accept as garbage, but will refuse to watch the the new hot netflix show that cost 100 million with some of the top writers and actors in the world, that's what I'm trying to understand.

spudlyo · 2025-12-21T14:36:28 1766327788

I'm not as sure as you are that people are watching hours and hours of slop every day -- I feel like there are still plenty of humans out there trying to make a buck and getting their egos stroked by creating rage-bait for the normies. The algorithm is also pretty good at surfacing this dreck and keeping people watching. You know the sharpest minds at Google are hard at work making this happen.

zalah · 2025-12-21T02:01:07 1766282467

>day after day, for an entire year.

That’s the answer. The creator, other creators they have interacted with and their friends, they become your (para) friends too. Almost like comparing big-budget vacation with a random person vs hanging with people you dear.

Gtex555 · 2025-12-21T05:48:12 1766296092

Fair, but people will watch a random youtuber doing a video essay for the first time on an old topic like sbmm or AI in games and enjoy it yet find a 500 million dollar movie boring. I feel that your answer it correct, but there is something deeper than just para friendships to explain these other cases and I'm guilty of it too (watching a random youtubers video essay).

zalah · 2025-12-23T02:44:11 1766457851

I see where you're coming from. Interested in verifying indeed it's something deeper. Leaning towards that it isn't, like there's nothing deep in debating sweet food vs salty food; sometimes you crave one and despise the other but not 7 days a week.

ffuxlpff · 2025-12-21T11:17:53 1766315873

Never seen any of Avatars but I see nothing that would interest me. I've understood they're stories about some imaginary creatures. Why should I care?

The best in YouTube are probably classical music master classes that give you an incredible insight on music. No hope seeing anything like that on television. Instructional videos are good too. Like installing stuff on computer and fixing bicycles.

Personally I never watch anyone speaking. Seeing a talking face somehow creeps me. Maybe its a bit sensitive but I see watching anyone eye to eye as a game of social dominance.

baubino · 2025-12-21T01:56:14 1766282174

On youtube, people are watching other people’s lives, often in place of living their own fully. I don’t think it’s a matter of big-budget movie vs youtube, but of fiction vs reality content. The general public isn’t interested in fictional stories anymore; they’re interested in something that seems like real life (even if that “reality” is as fictionalized as a big budget movie).

Gtex555 · 2025-12-21T05:53:33 1766296413

Interesting, your point kind of reminds me of the reality TV boom.

Bad_Initialism · 2025-12-21T03:55:54 1766289354

Because big-budget films and TV are increasingly fascist. They focus on the nuclear family as being qualitatively and quantitatively more important than anything else. Within that context, the plot inevitably seeks to establish the absolute uniqueness and superiority of the individual. Superhero stories are an extremely good fit for this narrative.

Deep down, we all know that having a family is exactly as great a biological accomplishment as taking a nice shit in the morning. Dad came; mom squeezed one out. Lampreys and slugs do basically the same thing just as successfully. It's not special. We are not special. Movies and TV push the lie that we are, and we recognize the lie and we have begun to resent it and to be unable to suspend our disbelief.

Youtube is enormously better because it discards the lie. It's just some dude earnestly trying to figure out why a plane crashed or how to run Doom on a smart toilet. It's refreshing because it's real. It's interesting because it's real and it doesn't alienate us by spending all its time trying to shove the big lie down our throats.