If you're like me, you don't share a lot of links on social media. I like sharing my own original thoughts and philosophical musings rather than post a bunch of epic fail videos or (even worse) political memes. But there are plenty of people out there who don't do anything on Facebook but share pictures and videos that other people have posted. And something that these share whores, as I like to call them, have been sharing a lot of lately is videos from Buzzfeed's new video series, TASTY. These are those videos that show a recipe being made in fast motion that seem to be sweeping the social media sites lately, mostly by millennials and stay-at-home moms sharing the videos and commenting something along the lines of "yes, we should make this (insert name of somebody tagged here)."

Now, I used to work in a kitchen during my high school years (I went to a vocational school), and I can tell you this: TASTY videos might look appetizing, and you'll probably get quite a lot of tasty dishes out of them, but it won't make you a star cook anytime soon.

I took a look at a handful of these videos and compared them to each other to see if I could understand why they were becoming so popular. As far as the food they prepare goes, there are four qualities that I noticed were common amongst the dishes:

Simplicity: TASTY is never going to show you how to make beef bourguignon because they're only interested in recipes that are simple to make. The intended audience is for those who either can't cook well or who don't want to learn how to cook more complex dishes. So many of the recipes they showcase aren't too hard to follow along or make. In their video for a teriyaki salmon dinner, for example, they don't show you how to debone and cut up a fish because you can get salmon fillets pre-cut at the grocery store.

Convenience: There are two different facets of convenience that TASTY covers. One, what can you make with common ingredients? TASTY doesn't use exotic ingredients that not everybody can get at the local supermarket. They use more traditional ingredients like salt and pepper, which they use as simple seasonings in a lot of dishes, and the cuts of meat they use are ones you can get at the nearest deli. Two, what doesn't take much time or effort to prepare and make? The recipes that TASTY showcases aren't gonna take long to prepare, and you won't be doing incredibly precise and difficult things either (like trussing a chicken, for example). It's just like fast food -- maybe not the most elegant of meals, but it's quick and it has substance.

Crowd-Pleasing: Here's the big one -- a lot of the recipes are designed for party settings; appetizers, desserts, drinks, and brunch items, for example. Since the recipes are simple to make and are convenient enough for even the most untrained cooks, people will definitely bust out these recipes at big events and family gatherings. One recipe for deep-fried potato shrimp balls, for example, is essentially fried shrimp with mashed potatoes around it -- that'll definitely fly off the table. Or what about spinach dip mozzarella sticks? Chocolate cheesecake bites? Fried deviled eggs? Perfect snacks and desserts for holiday dinners.

Adjustable: There's plenty of places in many of the videos where you can alter the recipe to suit your tastes. Real cooks transform recipes and make it their own - every chef who makes their own tomato sauce, for example, has their own unique list of ingredients that makes the sauce special. As I mentioned above, a lot of recipes are only seasoned with salt and pepper; that's a prime opportunity for the viewer to get creative and insert their own blend of spices to transform the dish into something that's truly theirs.

As for the videos themselves, they often clock around a minute. They're bite-sized videos that are easy for the view to digest (okay, I'll stop with the food puns). The biggest advantage is that it allows for Buzzfeed to publish multiple videos a day without overwhelming the viewer since they only need to share basic information about the recipe and how to cook it. But here's where the major problem of these videos comes in - you don't get a practical understanding of the cooking process by watching the videos. Buzzfeed puts the written recipe in the description of the YouTube videos as well as on their website, but this is out of the way. I guarantee that a majority of people will simply go by what they see in the video, and this could potentially be a big mistake.

I'm going to do what all cooks who know the littlest thing about cooking do and compare it to Julia Child, of course. Julia's recipes were usually designed for small dinner parties for about five to eight people, and she was highly against the idea of cooking being reduced to simple meals you can bang together in five minutes (something that TASTY seems to be bringing back, though I think we've moved quite a long way from chicken and mayonnaise Jell-o). She went incredibly in-depth into the processing of cooking meals, which gave you a better idea of how you can apply what she taught you to other dishes. The trade-off, of course, like any cooking show, is that you'd have to stay with Julia for a whole half-hour. Which, if you enjoy Julia's slightly awkward persona and deep voice like I do, is not necessarily a bad thing.

But here's something that Julia Child did in her show that TASTY would never, ever do: Julia made mistakes when cooking like every chef does. But they didn't stop the take, get some fresh ingredients, and try it again -- they kept on going. Julia kept these mistakes in because it was useful to show the audience what might happen if you do something wrong while cooking. This is something that happens to everybody when they cook, and Julia knew that. I'd like to see Buzzfeed demonstrate what would happen if they let their meat simmer for too long, and what you can do with this overcooked meat.

For my last points, I'd like to take a look at some specific videos and go more in-depth as to what they do right and wrong. These were selected at random, and I'd like to say upfront that I didn't make any of these recipes, so I'm not judging these based on how they taste. I'm only commenting on what I see from the videos since that's what I believe those share whores I mentioned earlier do more often than not, anyway.

Stuffed Hash Brown Omelette: Right off the bat -- it's not an omelet. It's prepared like an omelet, it's stuffed like a stuffed omelet, but there are no eggs anywhere in this dish, so it ain't an omelet. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, it's just false advertising. Essentially, this is a big hash brown patty (held together by sprinkling shredded cheese on top and letting it melt a little bit) with onion, red pepper, and spinach on top, which is then folded over into an omelette-like shape. Of course, you can substitute those vegetables with essentially anything you want, which makes this meal pretty adjustable -- always a plus. And there's no reason why you couldn't make a real omelet using eggs and have hash browns cooked into them. So for the adjustability alone, I say this is worth it -- but for God's sake, don't call this an omelet.

Banana S'more Bites: This video is advertised as a perfect recipe for getting kids involved in cooking. It's perfect for little ones -- chocolate covered banana slices that are frozen and paired with marshmallow fluff. And it's really simple to make, too - kids can have fun crushing graham crackers into crumbs while adults can cut the bananas and melt the chocolate. But be forewarned -- the video doesn't tell you how to melt chocolate. Just looking at the video, you'd figure all you have to do is stick chocolate in the microwave and nuke it for a few minutes, which is a huge mistake. Chocolate needs to be microwaved in intervals of about 30 seconds or it'll burn. Interestingly enough, the full recipe mentions this, but the video doesn't. Doesn't seem like it would make too much of a difference until you consider how many people will probably neglect to read the recipe and set a bowl of chocolate chips on fire.

Ice Cream Bread: I'm fairly certain this is just meant to get views, as I couldn't take this recipe seriously as a chef. It's essentially bread with the only ingredients being ice cream and self-rising flour. Any self-respecting baker would look at this concept and laugh. There's a reason that bakers don't use milk as a substitute for water in breadmaking -- milk is mostly water, but it also contains specific proteins that act against yeast, which prevents the bread from rising. Ice cream has an even lower concentration of water in it, so the problem is heightened (which is why they specify self-rising flour so that you don't need yeast at all). Anyway, according to the comments on the YouTube video, you apparently just get a bread made out of softer dough. I say just make a cake.

Steak Dinner for Two: I don't have much to say on this one, just that there's an interesting dynamic in which there are two people doing the cooking at the same time. It's kinda reminiscent of the cooking shows you see on Food Network and comes the closest from what I've seen to demonstrating the actual process behind cooking a meal. Though, personally, I would have preferred a steak done medium - the end result of their meat is pretty pink.

Garlic Parmesan-Stuffed Mushrooms: Just in case you were thinking I'm just a cranky bastard who likes complaining about food videos, let me give you a bit of practical advice that would improve this recipe. The way that Buzzfeed makes this recipe really isn't stuffed mushrooms; it's more like topped mushrooms. They chop off the part of the mushroom stem that extrudes out from the cap, but I find that it's better for remove the entire stem so you have a whole in the middle of the mushroom cap to put your stuffing in. This means that you can put more flavorful stuffing into each mushroom, which means more flavor for you! It also makes this dish much more tolerable for me, because I hate mushrooms. (Hmm. Maybe I am just a cranky bastard.)

So where does that leave us? Well, TASTY is never going to teach you how to be a master cook, but that's not really their purpose anyway. These videos are good at showing you simple recipes that quite a number of people can enjoy, which is definitely a good thing, but I really think that Buzzfeed should put more effort into communicating the cooking process to the viewer. They don't necessarily have to turn it into a seminar (I'm sure a lot of you reading this wouldn't want that, anyway), but I'm sure people wouldn't mind learning about cooking. And learning about cooking in general, as opposed to just learning how to make one specific dish, would allow you to experiment with your own ideas and create your own unique recipe. Now that would impress me much more than any video Buzzfeed releases, no matter how good a fried shredded chicken and cream cheese ball sounds.