You all know what I'm talking about. You get on YouTube for one quick video maybe out of curiousity or maybe because you needed to show somebody something you thought was funny, but it's never as simple as that is it? YouTube in it's vastness of creativity and personalities finds a way to suck you in and it's easy to spend hours watching videos. Here are the stages of watching videos on YouTube.
1. The video you initially wanted to find
It's fairly easy to stay on task at first because you're usually on a mission. You want to look at the videos of your favorite YouTubers, look up a makeup tutorial, look up a song, etc. You may think this first step is the end, that you find what you need and go, but that's not usually the case.
2. Suggested videos and click bait
After the video you scroll down to look at the comments. However, on the way down you see a list of suggested videos and click bait. The temptation to watch more is overwhelming. Who doesn't want to watch a funny YouTube challenge or a BuzzFeed video? So then you click one...and another...and another...
3. The weird side of YouTube
After clicking through video after video you start to notice something. Now the videos that you're on are weird... really weird (like who would even upload this to YouTube kind of weird). After thinking about it, you notice that you've been watching these strange videos for a while now and you don't even know how you got there. You're not sure how to feel about that.
4. When you decide you need to be done
You look at the clock and notice that you've been at it for hours. You think of all the things you could have accomplished during that time and all of the weird videos that you watched instead and decide enough is enough. You finally shut your computer screen and decide to move on. Besides, you can always start again tomorrow.
