My favorite thing on the internet by far is video essays. Rarely a week goes by where I don’t pass some of my time with headphones in, listening to someone on the internet discuss any manner of things they’re interested in. Hearing people speak with passion about a topic they love is not only engaging, but infectious–I can’t help but adopt some of their enthusiasm as my own.
I’m also deeply curious as a person in general I think. I love learning all kinds of things and there’s hardly any time happier for me than when I’m fully engaged with new ideas that resonate with me. When truly engaged with media or ideas, it’s like I can feel this humming within my chest, behind my eyes, and deep in my head–like I can feel neurons forming new connections, and it’s somewhat addictive. Feeling that kind of engagement where everything else falls away is something I chase when deciding what I want to learn about.
Video essays have been a way for me to have easy access to lots of different topics and the people who are knowledgable about those topics, or who are at least are adept at presenting them in an ordered and comprehensible way. Being able to listen to/watch 20, 30, 40 minutes videos or even several hour long videos gives me an introduction into topics I otherwise would have had to read several books for in order to gain a comprehensive understanding. For this reason, this easy access to a whole world of intrigue, my blogging Identity is going to center around video essays. Each post I will discuss a new video essay I’ve engaged with in the last week. I’ll talk about the content discussed in the video essay, but also my take on how the information is presented, critiques or compliments I may have for the essayist’s synthesis of the information, maybe even background on the poster themself. And I’ll be including links to the video essays I discuss for readers to go and check it out for themselves if they wish of course.
Each post will be unique just as each new piece of information, topic, and niche is unique. My blog will be engaging with knowledge for the pure love of knowledge and for the sake of curiosity. Hope you enjoy reading!
Ike
February 14, 2025 — 5:45 pm
Great post! I can understand where you are coming from because I consider myself to be a visual learner and video essays help me the most as well.
Prof L
February 19, 2025 — 4:13 pm
Ike, “visual learner” is the most common “learning style” I hear students use when labelling themselves. I encourage y’all to talk, not about learning styles, but about preferences between mediums for particular purposes. Eg, video is a medium; the video essay uses that medium for a particular purpose or kinds of purpose. Make sense?
Asher Smith
February 19, 2025 — 6:07 pm
I myself listen to the true crime/ unsolved crimes genre of video essays. I agree about how other peoples passion can transfer to ones self. However, other areas of the video essay genre I just cannot get myself to stick to them.
Miles Whisenant
May 6, 2025 — 3:49 am
I resonate with your similar views and interest as well. I greatly enjoy these videos on YouTube as well as podcasts for similar reasons. The ability to listen to experts on a topic while they condense their thoughts and their research within an hour-or-so block is a great new piece of media that’s developed during the 21st century. Passive time might as well be spent learning, or during long car rides turning on a podcast soaking up information during your drive is a great idea. Some questions do arise, however, with the future of this longer-form content. Instagram reels and TikTok videos usually less than 30-seconds long may mold our generation into shorter attention span human begins with less capacity to listen to these longer videos, so who is to say that the future of podcasts or video essays may continue.