Today's Videos Are A History Of The Modern World

Like many people, I have given up watching scheduled television programs.  The thought of having to sit in front of a TV at a particular time of day to watch a program now seems ridiculous to me.

Instead, all my viewing time is now spent on YouTube.  I pick what I want to watch, when I want to watch it.  And I often get on with other computer work whilst listening to a YouTube video.

The YouTube channels I watch include financial, travel, technical, review and news channels.  The choice is endless and the quality of amateur videos is improving every year with better quality technology.

You Tube channel creators are encouraged make videos to grab todays viewers.  The more eyeballs the better.  The bigger the audience, the more money they make from monetisation of advertising on their channel.  Over time they will make a back catalog of videos that people binge watch.

My point is that these videos are created with today's audience in mind. 

What is not so apparent, is that the majority of a video's viewers haven't even been born yet. 

These videos will be watched by generations many years into the future.  Certainly decades into the future, probably centuries.  The size of this future audience will far exceed the size of today's audience.

To those future generations, today's videos will show them what living in the world was like back in the early 21st century.  They will be a valuable historical archive of life in the past.  Imagine someone in the 23rd century watching one of today's video reviewing an iPhone.  They will find it fascinating and hilarious at the same time.  Perhaps even shocking.  Today's technology will appear so antiquated to what they use.

Or imagine someone in the year 2150 watching a walkabout video of London in 2024.  It's like us watching grainy black and white early movie footage of 1900 and seeing all the horse and carts on the streets.  The difference is that the quantity of video they can watch of the past will far exceed the amount we can watch.

What will someone in the 23rd century make of us in the early 21st century.  Will we sound odd to them in the way we speak?  Will they even understand a lot of the slang and technical words we use.  Computer keyboards maybe antiquated and obsolete in their world.  They might have to visit a museum to see a real one.  Just like we now view typewriters. 

The videos on YouTube and other platforms like TikTok will provide a vast historical archive.  Much of it will seem confusing or plain silly to future generations.  But it will make it easier for them to see how the world got from here to there.  Every significant event between now and then will have a video about it.

And it makes me wonder if You Tube creators should make videos for these future generations.  They make plenty of videos about the historical past.  Why not make a video explaining to future generations how life is today?  Probably because they won't make any ad revenue from future unborn generations.