Why I Am Trying My Hand at YouTube

People Read Less Today Than They Used to. So Learning How to Communicate with Audio and Video Media Matters.

Studies show that young people read much less than in prior generations, and even that many cannot read at all. In my own experience as a professor, I see this pattern developing slowly year after year. I'm not without hope, however. There are segments of people who continue to read, such as homeschooling groups, religious groups, and others. Even so, the arc of history currently points towards a new and non-literary society in the future.

Added to this, the media people use for learning, listening, and growing is audio and video, whether that means a podcast or a YouTube video or some other means. If I have a problem that I can't solve in my house—some technical plumbing problem, a car problem—I go to YouTube. Maybe I Google it too; sometimes, a short article can be just as good as a long YouTube video.

If I want to hear from someone who's an expert on a topic, sometimes I can simply go to their podcast with a long-form interview and hear it from them. It may mean that I go back and read their book, but again, I am a reader, and so it would make sense that I would want to do a deep dive this way. At other times, it may be that I want to listen to their audiobook.

I remember once being interested in a book called The Secret Life of Trees. It seemed to me that that's better as an audiobook than a physical book, given the kind of story it is. Recently, I listened to Dominion by Tom Holland, and I found it to be a great audiobook. I prefer it that way over reading the physical book. It also strikes me that most fiction and modern fiction, at least, and sci-fi would work very well as an audiobook rather than a reading book.

So I find myself, for these two reasons: (1) I realize that people are reading less today and, (2) I also know that people use audio and video as the media for learning. For these reasons, I need to invest in learning the genres and patterns of video and audio recording.

YouTube

That's why I've been trying my hand at YouTube. I'm trying to figure out the genres of communication. For example, I attempted the genre of a reaction video. I'm not sure I did a great job of it (it was my first try!), but you can see it here just to kind of illustrate what I'm talking about.

I've also tried to do #BookTok genres for videos in which I discuss books I'm reading, sharing what I like and don't like about them. This format comes naturally to me as an avid reader. Here is one such video:

[If you want to give my YouTube channel a subscribe, I’d appreciate it.]

Audiences

Why do these? To reach new audiences. YouTube videos of the genres named above are not going to hit the high-level reader or the professor or the intellectual, and that is okay. Our communication needs to reach different audiences:

1. The first audience is those who don't read but are curious. I think that's where YouTube and TikTok and Instagram come in. And when I say “don't read,” I don't mean they'll never read; I just mean on average they're not reading books.
   

2. The second audience is those who are curious and read books but live busy lives. They're in a trade where they work 50-60 hours a week, and they only have a short amount of time to learn, so they use a YouTube video or podcast whether at work or driving to work.
   

3. The third audience is those who will do deeper dives in reading and conversation. They may even take an online course or enroll in a program. They'll likely listen to a YouTube video or podcast, but it may not be their main media of learning.
   

4. And then a fourth group (and there are probably more subsets in this group) are those who are just thinkers, curious people. They may watch a YouTube video, or they may listen to a podcast, but they're going to read books primarily; they are also going to have conversations with peers.

For me, it's unlikely that this last category should be really the main audience for YouTube or anything of online media, but I'm exploring these new formats to reach people with what I hope to be life-giving ideas.

Maybe I am idealistic. Probably I am.

But I want to find new audiences and help them to see the wisdom (and foolishness) found in our shared past for the sake of human flourishing today.