Do you have a Facebook account? Of course you do; it’s 2016. And therefore you have undoubtedly seen one of these videos on your timeline:
The short videos, by Buzzfeed, are a scourge on my Facebook timeline.
To be fair the videos serve their purpose. They’re shot in an aesthetically pleasing way. They’re edited to be short and sweet. And, most importantly, they’re great for sharing. Buzzfeed has created visual clickbait.
The videos offer no substance! Yes, the dishes look easy to make but they don’t tell me how to make them. Let’s say there is a dish I like, I have to wait until the very end to click a link. And where the link take me? To Pinterest. Where’s the recipe!?
I need measurements. I need direction. If I’m adding butter to a dish, is it room temperature or chilled?
They’ve spawned dozens of imitators. What’s worse about the Tasty videos is that others have stolen their model and are creating the same visual content. And suddenly my Facebook timeline, once a bastion of nonsense, opinions, and embarrassing pictures, has become inundated with basic videos.