"Boiled dressing is a type of creamy salad dressing of English and German origin that was especially popular in the 19th century and early 20th century as an alternative to mayonnaise, which is of French origin.[1] Boiled dressing is easier for less skilled cooks to make from scratch, and liquid food oils needed to make mayonnaise were not readily available in Northern Europe and the United States in the 19th century.[2] Mayonnaise was not available for retail purchase until 1912.[3]
First: I love the aphid photos! Ants are particularly creative exploiters of aphids: some ant species (such as the one pictured) keep aphids as livestock, "milking" them for "honeydew". It's wild!
Second: "Video is a performer's medium." Yes, and I suspect that's the key here. You and the other schmoes posting photos for each other on Instagram are worth just about zilch to Zuck and his bros except as audiences for performative content from advertisers and "influencers". "Pivoting to video" is apt to make those advertisers and "influencers" even more dominant, partly because fewer people can make engaging videos than can take arresting photos. Also, I suspect fewer people want to. I certainly don't. It's an awful lot of trouble.
Perhaps more idiosyncratically - I'm not sure - I'm also resistant to watching videos. On news sites, for example, I'd almost always rather read a piece than watch a video. Partly, it's that the affectations of some news presenters make me cringe, but mostly, it's that I get information faster by reading. When I do have to watch a video for information, I often speed it up. Anyhow, for me, "pivoting to video" is a good way to get me to stop visiting a site.
(I've never seriously used Instagram, though. I once spent about half an hour with it before concluding it was so badly designed, I couldn't stand it. E.g., it took five minutes or so to figure out that it was, at that time, impossible to post photos from desktop computers, which was (1) a ridiculous limitation and (2) ridiculous that they didn't inspect my user agent string and warn me immediately that I wouldn't be able to post photos. As a professional web developer, I felt vaguely insulted. Then again, Facebook has always been the B team of web engineering - don't even get me started on its technical defects - so I guess Instagram fit right in.)
In case anyone else was curious, "boiled dressing" is some sort of proto-mayonnaise:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiled_dressing
"Boiled dressing is a type of creamy salad dressing of English and German origin that was especially popular in the 19th century and early 20th century as an alternative to mayonnaise, which is of French origin.[1] Boiled dressing is easier for less skilled cooks to make from scratch, and liquid food oils needed to make mayonnaise were not readily available in Northern Europe and the United States in the 19th century.[2] Mayonnaise was not available for retail purchase until 1912.[3]
First: I love the aphid photos! Ants are particularly creative exploiters of aphids: some ant species (such as the one pictured) keep aphids as livestock, "milking" them for "honeydew". It's wild!
Second: "Video is a performer's medium." Yes, and I suspect that's the key here. You and the other schmoes posting photos for each other on Instagram are worth just about zilch to Zuck and his bros except as audiences for performative content from advertisers and "influencers". "Pivoting to video" is apt to make those advertisers and "influencers" even more dominant, partly because fewer people can make engaging videos than can take arresting photos. Also, I suspect fewer people want to. I certainly don't. It's an awful lot of trouble.
Perhaps more idiosyncratically - I'm not sure - I'm also resistant to watching videos. On news sites, for example, I'd almost always rather read a piece than watch a video. Partly, it's that the affectations of some news presenters make me cringe, but mostly, it's that I get information faster by reading. When I do have to watch a video for information, I often speed it up. Anyhow, for me, "pivoting to video" is a good way to get me to stop visiting a site.
(I've never seriously used Instagram, though. I once spent about half an hour with it before concluding it was so badly designed, I couldn't stand it. E.g., it took five minutes or so to figure out that it was, at that time, impossible to post photos from desktop computers, which was (1) a ridiculous limitation and (2) ridiculous that they didn't inspect my user agent string and warn me immediately that I wouldn't be able to post photos. As a professional web developer, I felt vaguely insulted. Then again, Facebook has always been the B team of web engineering - don't even get me started on its technical defects - so I guess Instagram fit right in.)