In the age of social media, the attention spans of kids and teens have become shorter than ever with the popularity of platforms such as TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. It seems that teens these days can only pay long enough attention to watch a 30 second video, but even that is becoming too long. I’m sure we’ve all seen the split videos with the actual content on the top and ASMR or gameplay on the bottom. With Gen Z’s average attention span being eight seconds, it might seem we are doomed to shorter and shorter attention spans. Surprisingly, another form of content has recently become popular among Gen Z: the video essay.
Video essays are exactly what they say: an essay in video form. They are often driven by a thesis and are made to teach people about a certain topic. Some people might think that sounds boring, remembering their school days of writing essays on mental health or climate change. But they are much more than that. First of all, they’re in video form. This way, they are more fun to consume and are the perfect thing to put on in the background while working or doing a hobby, such as writing or drawing. Second, video essays are about anything and everything.
Video essayists will talk about movies, reality television, fashion, pop culture events, celebrity lore and much more. Topics can range from anything as serious as how social media affects mental health or how reality TV desensitizes people, to something unserious like the lore of Samantha the American Girl Doll or how Sharpay Evans was the real victim of “High School Musical.” Video essays can be any amount of length with some lasting well over four hours.
With the rise of video essays, everyone has been jumping on the bandwagon these days. There are tons of video essay channels and thousands of video essays on YouTube. It can be incredibly overwhelming to know what to watch and what is going to be worth your time. While you could just search a topic you are interested in, that can get repetitive after a while, and you may find yourself quickly running out of topics to search for. So instead of leaving you to the wolves, I’m shouting out some of my favorite video essay channels that I personally love and have watched every video from, or at least, most videos.
MINA LE
Mina Le focuses her videos on style and media. She talks about an array of topics such as style trends, beauty and movies. Her videos range from 25-50 minutes in length, with many sitting between 30-40 minutes. My favorite videos of hers are “In Defense of the Femme Fatale” in which she discusses the origins of the trope and how it has evolved over time, and “Booktok & the Hotgirlification of Reading” in which she discusses the glamorization of reading and its turn into an aesthetic instead of a hobby.
Jordan Theresa
Per her YouTube bio, Jordan Theresa is a pop culture and internet trends video essayist. She mainly discusses fashion and beauty trends, and movies and television. Her videos range from 15 minutes to just over an hour in length, with the majority of her videos falling between 30-45 minutes. My favorite videos of hers are “Where Have All the Tweens Gone?” in which she discusses the lack of tween culture and how there is a more direct jump from child to teen, and “The Tweet That Went to Trial: Wagatha Christie Explained” in which she deep dives into a scandal in the WAG (wives and girlfriends of football players) community.
ashley norton
Ashley Norton discusses media and pop culture in her videos. She recaps movies and television, but also talks about celebrity lore and niche pop culture phenomenon, such as Stalker Sarah and KONY 2012. Her videos range anywhere from 15 minutes to over two hours, with her pop culture videos on the lower end and her movie and television recaps on the higher end. My favorite videos of hers are “The Fever Dream Era of YouTube Tours” in which she discusses the era of popular YouTubers going on tour, and “The Most Unhinged Season of the Bachelorette: A Deep Dive” in which she recaps and discusses Hannah Brown’s season of “The Bachelorette.”
mike’s mic
Mike’s Mic focuses his videos on media and pop culture. A couple years ago, he made short videos discussing iconic moments in media or pop culture. Recently he has shifted to movie and television reviews. Once a month, he posts 20-30 minute movie recap videos. However, he is more known for his season-by-season recaps of shows like “Gossip Girl” and “Lost,” of which typically span one to three hours in length. My favorite videos are his two “Glee” recap videos and “Pitch Perfect: A 2012 Period Piece.”
shitty book club
Ainslee, of the YouTube channel Shitty Book Club, reads and discusses books, mainly focusing on bad or “mid” books, such as those written by Colleen Hoover and Sarah J Maas. Her videos range from 30 minutes to two hours, with most of her videos being between 30-50 minutes. Unlike the other creators on this list, she started her channel fairly recently and only has 14 videos on her channel (at the time of writing this article), making it easy to catch up on all her videos. My favorite videos of hers are her “Twilight Saga” recap video and her two vintage romance novel videos.
When social media brain rot is more present than ever before, it’s nice to know that people are still interested in learning something new about a niche topic. So instead of spending hours scrolling on TikTok, I encourage you to spend hours watching video essays and learning about new and interesting topics. While there can be an argument that hours long video essays can promote the overconsumption of the internet and screen time, I argue that kids and teens are going to spend hours on their phones and computers anyway, so they may as well get something useful and insightful out of it.