Note: I’m sharing some initial thoughts about supporting non-text media on the Forum to get feedback. This post is probably only of interest to a small number of people who are very heavily involved in online EA community building. My coworkers at CEA disagree with this to varying extents, and these ideas should not be taken as a CEA consensus position.
Summary
- CEA’s online properties (the EA Forum, EA.org, EA Concepts) are heavily text-based, with a few occasional images.
- I propose that we increase support for non-text media, particularly videos and podcasts.
- An example project could be something like allowing people to put "in-line" comments on specific timestamps of a podcast, allowing more in-depth discussion of the podcast.
- If we want to skate towards where the puck will be in a few years, as opposed to where it is now, it seems quite likely that we should prioritize these other forms of media. (Arguably videos are already a more dominant communication medium than text, and I expect that trend to continue.)
- This document gives some pieces of evidence supporting the claim that we should move towards supporting video and audio.
Reasoning
- There seems to be a general consensus among online content creators that text is not the best way to get engagement from users. See the appendix for screenshots illustrating how platforms that support both text and video still prioritize video.
- Education is switching to videos:
- Google searches that high-schoolers would typically make show videos above text results. E.g. how to find the integral of cosine, meaning of the whale in Moby Dick.
- The most popular Coursera course is about 50% video, 50% reading. My impression is that most MOOCs have a substantial video component.
- Professional development is video-based. E.g. skillshare, PluralSight
- Tech interviewing platform Exponent not only has company-produced videos, but also community videos where people record themselves answering interview questions.
- Note that in some ways this is not much of a switch, in that lectures are a well-established educational format, and people are somewhat just putting normal lectures online. I do think we are seeing video-first education though, e.g. through educators creating custom animations for their videos.
- Received wisdom is that reading is one of the least effective teaching methods (though my impression is that the original evidence here is dubious).
- The trend away from text is related to age:
- Snapchat and Instagram are used much more frequently by young people, whereas Twitter and Facebook are more evenly used by young and old people (though Twitter's usership still skews young).
- Half of Americans aged 12-34 listen to podcasts, versus 1/5 of those 55+
- EA creators have already had some success with non-text communication:
- Rob Miles gets tens to hundreds of thousands of views on his AI safety videos.
- 80k gets about as much engagement from their podcast as they do from their website.
- Video and podcasts are good at creating a sense of community/parasocial bonds.
- E.g. 40% of millennial YouTube subscribers say that their favorite creator understands them better than their friends.
- Seeming too impersonal or austere is one of the most common complaints about the Forum, and I suspect that e.g. people don't have the same complaint about the 80k podcast.
What would a Forum with better podcast and video support look like?
To the extent possible, I think we want to copy other platforms. Below are a few ideas, none of which I’m confident in.
In-line video previews
As seen on Reddit, for example:
Comments attached to timestamps in podcasts
As seen on SoundCloud:
Video sequences/playlists
As seen on Khan Academy:
Video posts as a first-class citizen
As seen on Reddit:
Requested Feedback
I'm interested to hear any feedback people have on these ideas. Some particular prompts:
- Are you generally excited about having more video/audio on the Forum?
- Are there particular features or content you would like to have on the Forum related to video/audio?
- If you are a content creator who currently does not feel comfortable sharing their content on the Forum, I would be interested to hear from you about what would make the Forum a good place to share your content.
Appendix: real estate devoted to text versus video
In platforms which support both text and video content, we can get a sense of how valuable the platform thinks each type of content is by looking at how much real estate they give it. Platforms consistently give substantially more space to videos than to text.
Facebook
Well written! Great points! 10/10 am convinced.
I would love to have more audio and video content. I consume in that medium almost exclusively. I always prefer audiobooks over ebooks, podcasts over blogs, and videos over articles.
But the medium I love most of all is the combination of all of it together in a beautiful, complementary harmony. Give me the audio paired with the text transcript paired with the visual imagery and video elements 🤌
Mmmm what a pairing! (If only I could taste the altruism and smell the effectiveness.)
We've evolved to listen to other people talk and to parse visual imagery. Our ears are remarkable listening tools honed by evolution over 2 million years at least (speculative assumptions here), and our eyes are tremendous observation tools for extracting meaningful images out of visual patterns (also developed by evolution since basically forever). We shouldn't willfully neglect these things.
Bring the senses together, and you've got a recipe for effectively encoding information that will not be easily forgotten and will be much more easily retrieved!
The main critiques from the comments here are:
To be fair, there's good concern there regarding the whole "engagement" thing, but that misses the point of this and focuses too much on a problem that isn't really a problem on this forum.
(Also side note probably not worth mentioning... If we looked at the stats on how many people read the average post on here [and for how long], then I don't think any of us would be deeply concerned about "engagement" being a problem right now haha. [Not sure where those stats would be, but I kinda imagine that the average post on here gets rather few reads and most people don't spend a whole lot of time on here in general.])
I think there are wonderful things to be learned from two great examples: TED and Kurzgesagt.
TED has figured out the power of a short talk (less than 18 minutes, usually) to effectively spread an important idea. As an organization they've given thorough thought to their process and structure, concluding that a "talk" is the most effective means to communicate ideas worth spreading. They help people condense their incredible research and books into ~15 minutes of good discussion, usually paired with visual imagery accompaniment. But they also go way out of their way to get all their talks transcribed into every language they can. And on their website, you can watch the talk, listen to audio, and read along all at the same time, while the website automatically highlights the currently spoken sentence in the transcript. (You can even click on any portion of the transcript to jump straight to that point in the talk.) And the entire transcription is timestamped. It's really fantastic but could still be even better!
Imagine written forum posts having the complementary accompaniment of (1) the author reading the post as a script and (2) helpful imagery to visualize the concepts and ideas in the discussion. At that point, you're basically breaking down all the classic components of a video and letting them each provide benefit when needed. (Again, the more senses activated, the better the encoding and retention.)
Secondly, I mention Kurzgesagt because it's just incredibly successful at getting the public to care about science and education in a way that is rather surprising. Consider the fact that this little YouTube channel, founded by brilliant information designers, now has 17.5M subscribers. Every video they release is immediately trending in the top 10 videos on YouTube for usually two days, getting easily 5M+ views within the first week. Each video they make is serious and spends upwards of 10-15 minutes explaining a concept in great detail. They're packed with valuable information from rigorous research.
If this kind of communication can suddenly spark the interest of millions and millions of people to care about thinking through topics like energy, meat, disease, and existential risks (all with a scientific lens), then why wouldn't it be possible to do the same with EA concepts?
These things captivate me.
I want to be captivated by EA content and writings in this same way. I want it. And despite this desire, I so rarely read text and text alone. I'm not the only person out there like this. If great ideas from EA folks only ever sit on the shelves of this forum in text alone, they may never reach a broader audience. And that's a shame, because I relate to that audience and have the audacity to believe that they have some terrifically valuable contributions to offer.