General > General Technical Chat
How do YouTube "reviewers" manage to get basics SO WRONG?
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eti:
Here's some things that both baffle and irritate me about most of these self-proclaimed "tech experts" on YouTube.

Okay, so years ago,  back in 2007, Apple introduced the aluminum iMac computer. Almost immediately, nearly EVERY SINGLE "tech journalist" (I use the term loosely) began parroting about it's "brushed aluminum finish"; erm, no guys, that's BEAD BLASTED aluminum - were it *brushed* it would look like it been, ya know, BRUSHED, ya know, with LINES and streaks like a BRUSH had been taken to the aluminum.

Now, in the age of the smartphone, this ignorance of BASIC information about mass-produced consumer technology, is propagating yet again amongst the technically illiterate - the youngsters of the "Tech channel" types, who fall over themselves in a blind panic to be "FIRST!!!!!!" to release a "review" of the latest device to YouTube (although, how one is able to form a well-rounded, carefully considered, well written and intelligently conveyed "review" with less than 24-48 hours of use under their belt, baffles me no end)... okay, so what NEARLY EVERY SINGLE ONE of these "reviewers" get wrong is something so incredibly DUMB, it blows one's mind as to how this has become common YouTube technology parlance:

When referring to device battery capacity, I defy you to find more than TWO of these countless thousands of copycat "reviewers" who refer to battery capacity using the correct terminology - "milliamp HOURS", and not the mass-adopted "milliamps". Go on, go and watch 30 smartphone review videos, and 29 of these will incorrectly say "It's got a 3,000 milliamp battery"


Wow... what the? It's one extra word, and missing that one extra word off, makes you come across as technically unqualified for the job you appointed yourself, as a "reviewer".

How do people become so oblivious to the fact that some percentage of their audience ARE going to spot these glaring errors in understanding, and discount their opinions on said product, because if you can't be bothered to get basic info right, why would we listen to you?

Okay that's all. 😁
EEVblog:
To be fair reviewers are a) generally not engineers, b) Can't be expected to know every aspect of every area of technology, engineering, fabrication and production, and c) can't be expected to double check every single word they say.
Try producing Youtube content and you'll find out it's a high pressure business of continual content.
Even engineers like myself will always get something wrong in every video, guaranteed. If you haven't found a mistake in one of my videos you probably haven't looked hard enough.
At some point trying to get everything 100% correct becomes diminishing returns.

Not trying to excuse basic mistakes, just trying to explain how and why it happens.

Not point getting upset about it, just correct them and hopefully they'll learn.
EEVblog:

--- Quote from: eti on March 27, 2020, 01:02:05 am ---How do people become so oblivious to the fact that some percentage of their audience ARE going to spot these glaring errors in understanding, and discount their opinions on said product, because if you can't be bothered to get basic info right, why would we listen to you?
--- End quote ---

The only thing that really matters is success. Why would a successful Youtuber care about finer technical details if they are already successful?
Most Youtubers are not successful because of their incredible technical skills or knowledge, they are successful because they are personable and connect with people, have a format people like, have a voice or face people like etc.
Also, the mass market audience and technical audiences are somewhat different. But even then there are countless technically brilliant Youtubers, they could even be to best and most knowledgeable in the world, but nobody wants to listen to them because they can't articulate well, have a poor presentation style etc etc.
amyk:
The majority of "reviewers" aren't actually reviewers, but paid shills or otherwise clueless consumers who don't know more about the product they're "reviewing" than how to take it out of the box and turn it on.
SiliconWizard:
I agree with Dave here, it's not that easy especially if you can't afford to spend weeks on a single video, and the example you chose, frankly, however annoying it may sound to a specialist, is relatively minor IMO. How many people out there actually know what "BEAD BLASTED aluminum" is and would that ring any bell to most of the public those videos are made for? Sorry but "bead blasted" doesn't sound like basic information to me.

That said, many people on Youtube are certainly not experienced professionals and their videos should be taken with a pinch of salt. It doesn't cost you a dime to watch them, their authors just don't owe you anything. Just live with it, it's the model of those platforms. If you want professional content every single time, you'll have to pay for it one way or another. That may bother you, but again those people don't owe you anything whatsoever, and if you're on some kind of quest to chase the "bad" reviewers on Youtube, I think it would look like you'd be a Don Quixote of the modern days, and you might eventually end up like he did. ::)
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