Leave it to big tech to introduce the same exact product with less features while they gaslight you into believing it's a shiny new product that you should be excited about.

Pro tip: if you replace "shorts/" with a "watch?v=" in the URL of a YouTube shorts video, you can watch it like a normal video.

Another pro tip: if you replace the entire URL to "https://www.who.int/health-topics/mental-health", you can learn about mental health, which is an essential piece of knowledge in the case you watch YouTube shorts.

YouTube is the worst with this, because they've even gone so far as to convert older videos under 1 minute to shorts. They weren't uploaded as shorts, but now congratulations you can't scrub through the video or share a timestamped link anymore.

Perfect example of continual enshitification, there's no reason even a 15s "short" or other quick media couldn't have video controls, it's just intentional because some dogshit behavioural phycologist they've paid said that's the best way to coerce more engagement.

The best days of the internet are behind us.

I also hate players where the overlay doesn't go away. My girlfriend still watches videos on Facebook sometimes, and when she sends them to me, it always drives me crazy. You can't see like 30% of the video, often the part of the screen where the captions are

Especially with no volume knob on desktop. What in the actual fuck?

It's designed to keep you rewatching until you get the info you want or give up and keep scrolling. Eroding your attention span in the process.

TikTok is an evil platform that I will never use till the day I die. Don't @ me

VLC Media player is still the best way to watch a video.

If the site that hosts the video you want me to watch doesn't have an audio slider, I won't fucking watch it.

I firmly believe videos without controls are just gifs with sound.

TikTok has controls now actually.

There's a scrollbar, playback speed, PIP mode, zoom, captions, and you can remove the Like, Comment, Share buttons as well (they call it Clear Display mode). Videos with different aspect ratios can also be put in landscape mode for better viewing.

if they had their way they'd glue you to your seat, staple your eyes open, pin your arms down and play endless ads at you, purchasing on your behalf (with your credit card, of course) every time you watched one. Your ability to choose interferes with their business, which is sodomizing you and your family's wallets.

GET OUT HERE AND WATCH YOUR FAKE PODCAST HIGHLIGHTS

This, and autoplay muted videos in a feed like Twitter or Facebook drive me crazy.

You click unmute but you’ve missed 15-30 seconds of audio, so then you have to restart the video and click again.

Just add a “unmute and restart” button!

You get to an age where new shit doesn't seem like a good way to spend time. TF anyone wants to watch a stupid tiktok hand dance video for is beyond me. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some DVDs to alphabetize. I'm going to be watching some sick special features for Blade Runner while idiots wave their hands around to chipmunkified "oh no" song for internet points. I don't know who's winning.

Why are there so many people in the comments staning YouTube?

YT Shorts, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook Reels... These are things I just don't bother watching.

The only reason social media companies took the controls away is because they know the videos being uploaded are shit but they want you to watch the whole thing for engagement. So they take away the controls to force that engagement. Go fuck yourself.

Also people who upload using these services - especially Shorts and Reels when other options exist on the same damn platform - are literally worse than Hitler.

Installed an extension to be able to see forward and back and change the volume. Volume is another one in a bad direction

YouTube shorts do have controls, you can scrub through the video with the progress bar along the bottom edge of the screen? Unless they're getting rid of it.

It doesn't super matter to me, I try really hard to avoid short form content. My attention span is bad enough as-is

This is what I hate about shorts... I can't skip to the relevant part if I kiss something before it loops

Can’t speak for TikTok as i’ve never really used it, but Shorts and Reels do have a seek bar at the bottom of the screen. It’s barely noticeable at first but it’s there. And on Shorts you can tap once on the screen to pause the video if you’re on mobile.

Now, I love to hate on the smartphone-ification of web video as much as the next person, but this meme just feels like bait.