How To and Why?

Posted on March 26, 2007
Filed Under What's New |

Review:

I’m writing a short feature on how-to videos and asking the question why in our sophisticated society do people need explanatory videos on subjects like how to unhook a girl’s bra, how to kiss properly or how to replace the battery in your iPod, is there a familiar theme that links the apparent lack of competence sugested by successful how-to sites?

videojug

I thought I’d also write the blog post in a format that Conor can use on LouderVoice My apologies for not getting round to it sooner.

There are two main how-to sites as far as I can make out. The first was viewdo.com and the one that looks better financed is videojug.com.

At first glance the two sites are marked by one distinct difference. Videojug goes for the funnybone whereas viewdo is quite serious. Videojug focuses, at least on its home page, on some of the jokier type videos like how to kiss properly. Viewdo is good for woodworkers.

But what do I think of these sites? They make me extremelycurious about the nature of informal education. They are not alone in tapping into the idea that people need more information and greater transparency. ivillage, which is by now a venerable old community site, has its own version: Street Talk, which is a series of videos that uses voxpops to get at the truth of issues like: Do men alter their opinions of girls who have sex on the first date? (yes by and large).

I suspect these sites play to a more pronounced sense of anxiety than the zeitgeist suggests should exist. We are a generation of do-ers, i can-ners, and ballsy types rushing home to click on how to seduce, unhook that bra or indeed to find out whether we are truly loved.

Comments

5 Responses to “How To and Why?”

  1. Donncha O Caoimh on March 26th, 2007 7:12 am

    I briefly visited videojug after it was mentioned on the radio but I haven’t been back since. These sites play on the fact that people want to know know how to do something, usually something they didn’t know they wanted to know.

    The cool thing about these short video tutorials is their short length. They’re perfect for those of us with short attention spans!

    The bad thing about these sites is that they use video. There’s no way to scan ahead to the bullet pointed instructions on how to build that fridge out an old car. You have to watch the whole damn thing! You could fast forward but then you might iss something. I have a similar pet peeve about podcasts..

  2. haydn on March 26th, 2007 2:32 pm

    Hi Donncha - thanks for dropping by. Did you ever use one? Imean did you ever have to use one and find it useuful?

  3. Orfhlaith on March 28th, 2007 2:22 pm

    Hadyn,

    I tried the LouderVoice link and it seemed to be looking for “LouderVoices.com”, should that be LouderVoice??

    Thanks

  4. haydn on March 28th, 2007 2:30 pm

    Orfhlaith sorry about that - fixed”!

  5. Donncha O Caoimh on March 29th, 2007 9:32 am

    I didn’t use any of the videos for advice, I just blogged about the “How to be a perfect boyfriend/girlfriend” videos and the “how to get out of a car without showing your knickers” video… All fun and lighthearted stuff, so no, I didn’t find it useful.

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