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Executive Says Facebook Will Be All Video, No Text In 5 Years (mashable.com)

Posted by msmash on from the from-the-future dept.

Kellen Beck, writing for Mashable: Video must be doing well on Facebook, because an executive at the company just predicted that's all Facebook will be in five years. Nicola Mendelsohn, Facebook's vice president of European, Middle Eastern and African operations, said at a conference Tuesday that in five years, Facebook "will be probably all video," Quartz reported. Mendelsohn added that video is "the best way to tell stories in this world" and "helps us to digest much more information." Mendelsohn is predicting the obsolescence of the written word, at least on Facebook, according to Quartz. That sounds far-fetched, but consider the way Facebook is decreasing an emphasis on text and diving headfirst into video with numerous recent updates and features.

25 of 244 comments (clear)

  1. haha by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    how stupid

    1. Re: haha by NotInHere · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The moderators have made it "Redundant". Its obvious that facebook is stupid, nobody needs to point it out.

  2. Fuck that... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There are countless situations where it is easier and more appropriate to write a short text comment than to make sure you are presentable enough to record video of you saying something.

    All video... that is ridiculous.

    1. Re:Fuck that... by tattood · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is quite true. If Facebook is all video, then that means people can no longer view Facebook at work, or any other place where you don't want to draw attention to yourself. The day Facebook is all video is the day their user base starts to drop.

      --
      WTB [sig], PST!!!
    2. Re:Fuck that... by Tukz · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Have you seen the staggering amount of YouTube DIY Videos, that lasts for more than 10 minutes, but could be summarised in a paragraph of text?

      So many times when I am looking for solutions to a problem, I find hordes of videos explaining it, where a simple paragraph of text could have done the same thing.
      Why? I don't get it.

      It's much easier, and faster, to read some text than watching through a video of some guy explaining it with 4 different analogies.

      --
      - Don't do what I do, it's probably not healthy nor safe. -
    3. Re:Fuck that... by Chalnoth · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There's also the point that it's typically far faster to read than it is to listen to a video.

    4. Re:Fuck that... by Ghostworks · · Score: 4, Insightful

      endelsohn added that video is "the best way to tell stories in this world" and "helps us to digest much more information."

      A few more reason's that that's a stupid claim:

      I can read faster than my grandmother can speak. I can scan and skim faster than my friends can speak spread over 12 different videos.

      I can read at work without anyone noticing and without putting on headphones. I can type a response without anyone else being aware of it. I can even read text in a meeting.

      I can search for specific text.

      To pause "text with pictures", I stop paying attention; to resume, I start paying attention. Video will never be able to strip down a UI to that level of control.

      I can polish text in drafts. I can compose text in my underwear. Neither are true about recording a video.

      Speaking to her "best way to tell stories": as an example of how that's ridiculous, think about the resources it takes to film a season of Game of Thrones versus how much it took George R. R. Martin to write the book. People can get through the former faster and with less effort, but only only for the modest price of $6 million per hour. (Don't worry, once you get 8 million followers, that's not so bad per follower....)

      If her statement were true, it would basically mean that Facebook is dead, because YouTube already does video. It's a lot easier to staple social functionality onto a video site than it is to press video into a social site.

      You think the way text messages have nearly done away with voice calls and voicemail between friends would be a clue that most people prefer text to listening. And that's what amateur video usually is: a talking head in a bedroom.

      If everything is a video, things that have to be a video -- a dance, a recital -- don't stand out above the noise.

    5. Re:Fuck that... by mlts · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think TFA was written by someone who wants video because it means they get their ads in front of screens far longer than a text page. Same reason why a lot of the clickbait crap always leads at a video, when they could have easily stated their piece in 1-2 paragraphs.

      Text is not going anywhere. People don't have time to watch a video 24/7 for everything, nor really care to watch someone yap in their house about a topic that could easily be covered by another medium of communication.

    6. Re:Fuck that... by cfalcon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Reading is an order of magnitude faster than listening.

    7. Re:Fuck that... by fnj · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Reading is an order of magnitude faster than listening.

      More importantly, the speed of reading is user controlled. Watching and listening is force feeding and the speed is controlled by somebody else.

      Reading is much faster than watching and listening - except for stupid people. Using Farcebook is already evidence of gross stupidity.

    8. Re:Fuck that... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Have you seen the staggering amount of YouTube DIY Videos, that lasts for more than 10 minutes, but could be summarised in a paragraph of text?

      So many times when I am looking for solutions to a problem, I find hordes of videos explaining it, where a simple paragraph of text could have done the same thing.
      Why? I don't get it.

      It's much easier, and faster, to read some text than watching through a video of some guy explaining it with 4 different analogies.

      Also the joy of fast-forwarding to try to find the step that you're stuck on and rewinding a few times because they blazed through it too fast or used a poor camera angle.

    9. Re:Fuck that... by bozzy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      A short, concise, thought-out video demonstration of a task can be more informative than pure text.

      However, most of these DIY videos are neither short nor well thought-out. Such videos take effort to produce.

      If you can't take the time to do a good job with a video, you'd save time by writing the simple paragraph. A maybe have a static image or two.

      --
      playmoney.me - The free alternative to paper board game play money
    10. Re:Fuck that... by Darinbob · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I can also skim when reading, being able to skip straight to the important point. Most people when they pick up a book aren't reading the preface completely, or the copyright page, and so forth. They want to get to the good stuff. If you read a newspaper you're flipping through to the stories that are interesting, headlines that catch your attention. But with video you are stuck listening to a very slow talker who takes minutes to get to the point; and if it's youtube you have a horrible UI that doesn't let you skip forward or backward efficiently like you can with a DVR (don't know what facebook is like there but I doubt it's any better).

  3. LMAO by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "helps us to digest much more information."

    Yes, if you have the attention span of a goldfish.

    Of course, if you're a facebook executive, that's probably the case.

  4. Only users left by mpol · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That means that the only users that will use Facebook are people that want videos.
    People that do not want videos will not use Facebook anymore.

    --

    Well, don't worry about that. We can get you back before you leave. (Dr. Who)
  5. Too Slow by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No.
    It's not the bandwidth-- it's just that video is too damn slow.
    I can skim a text post in a second, maybe two. If I slow down to read it, maybe fifteen seconds tops. If I have to watch a video from every person on my friends list-- I just won't.

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
    1. Re:Too Slow by Drethon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Pausing video is also a royal pain, pausing text works nice as I can scan back a couple words to get proper context where needed.

    2. Re:Too Slow by nitehawk214 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And nothing of value... Fuck it, it is already worthless.

      --
      I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
  6. Uh good one by redmid17 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ms Mendelsohn,

    What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

    It's quicker to consume text than video. Just an FYI

    1. Re:Uh good one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's hard to embed unskippable ads in text.

  7. Not likely by doconnor · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's not hard for anyone to write quickly write readable text, like I'm doing now. For me to make a comment like this in video it would either generate a stammering barely understandable video, or require fifteen minutes of planning, rehearsal and editing to make it a reasonable 30 second video, that is still less convent then the 10 seconds you look to read this.

  8. Re:Video is often the worst way to convey informat by Junta · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Furthermore, phone calls are closer to video than text. We had audio phone conversations before we had instant text communication in everyone's hands, and text communication caught on like wildfire as an easier, less intrusive thing to do.

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
  9. Re:Bandwidth? by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You can already disable video over mobile data on Facebook. VERY useful feature.

  10. Really? by jenningsthecat · · Score: 3, Insightful

    FTS: "... consider the way Facebook is decreasing an emphasis on text ..."

    Consider the way people seem to be decreasing their use of Facebook and other social media.

    If this decrease actually constitutes a trend, and the trend accelerates, then in five years FB will have bigger problems to worry about than encouraging its users to be less literate.

    Also, in light of the fantastical nature of Mendelsohn's conjecture, I'd say that Facebook's Kool-Aid is laced with some very powerful hallucinogens.

    --
    'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
  11. Re:Bandwidth? by Barny · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So in five years, would that just block facebook?

    --
    ...
    /me sighs