> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.cjchilvers.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# When text wins over video
- URL: https://www.cjchilvers.com/blog/when-text-wins-over-video/
- Published: 2024-09-16T13:39:12.000Z
- Updated: 2024-09-16T13:39:12.000Z
- Author: CJ Chilvers
- Tags: blogging, newsletters, youtube, video

I know the future, and present, of online consumption is video. Audio falls in and out of favor. Text seems like a dinosaur.

When does text still win over video? 

John Gruber thinks he knows and I find it encouraging – especially for email newsletter publishers. He recently released [a podcast episode](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/408-good-enough-to-be-pesky-with-taegan-goddard/id528458508?i=1000667932993&ref=cjchilvers.com) (yes, audio is meta here), about content strategy. In one segment of the episode, he talks about something new he’s noticing that he calls, “video fatigue.”

> *“Sometimes you never know, when you have an audience of our size, when you’ll just make an offhand comment that you didn’t even think twice about, but then all of a sudden your inbox fills up with email from readers, ‘Yes, yes, I have been waiting for someone to mention video fatigue. I’m so tired of hitting play and watching video. I read so much faster than I can watch a video, even with the playback controls, and get so much more out of it. I love that your site doesn’t have videos. Love.’”*

While I disagree with Gruber on just about everything he posts outside of tech, and sometimes within tech (he gets the founding of podcasting wrong in this episode), I’m drawn-in every time he opens up about content strategy. He’s always been a decade ahead of where the rest of the media should be.

I don’t think text is always the answer. It’s about clarity. If you can get the point across in a sentence or two, you’ll win over the algorithmically-incentivized, bloated, 10-minute YouTube video, or the outrage-fueled 30-second video that only exists to get you to click on the next outrage-fueled 30-second video.

Get to the point. Be useful. Text can win.