In the wonderful world of video, there is: binge watching, which consists of watching a series in one go, as well as speed watching, which involves accelerating the content you are watching to save time. Quite simply ! This feature has been around for over a decade on YouTube, and in a recent blog post, the platform says more and more users are using it.
Google does not dwell on numbers and focuses above all on usage. On average, Internet users currently “save” more than 900 years of video per day thanks to accelerated playback.
Of course, most people watch content normally and very few do so in slow motion. Users are therefore turning to speeds above 85% to save time and consume more content. YouTube also specifies that the most used speed is 1.5x, followed by 2x and 1.25x takes the third step of the podium.
Another interesting phenomenon is that the average reading speed increases throughout the day. In the morning when you wake up, the speed remains normal. Then, it increases when the working day begins. YouTube then notes a slight drop in usage between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. at dinner time, before a recovery that generally lasts until 1 a.m. among Internet users who are fans of 1.5x speed.
Always more…
Internet users have become accustomed to having everything immediately, and always faster. By devouring content at this rate, several questions arise: is the appetite for video limitless? Does the short format of videos on social networks accentuate this trend? Are the contents so uninteresting to be consumed at a faster than normal speed?
Beyond the purely practical aspect that this functionality offers, there is perhaps an opportunity to be seized on the side of the creators. By changing video playback speeds, new creative formats can emerge. Where today some people speed up in front of videos that only half interest them, videographers could take advantage of this and thus attract the viewer’s attention by deliberately modulating the speed of certain parts of their creations.