Somewhat recently I've been made aware of the "filler" category in sponsorblock and I have some thoughts. Read below the cut.
Recently, either reinstalling youtube vanced or an update to sponsorblock added the "filler" category to the sponsorblock on my phone. Now I think this is a good idea on paper, after all youtube videos often times do have a lot of space of essentially nothing in them. This, however, becomes very apparently a flawed idea when you consider that sponsorblock is based on user input, meaning that anyone can submit a section of content in a video to be "filler" and it will be marked as such until enough people go out of their way to vote it as a bad submission.
I have noticed that people's use of the "filler" category is very broadly applied. Two prominent examples I've seen are entire segments of Stephanie Sterling videos where she talks about old toys or her own sexuality and sexual desires (which arguably are as much of the main content of their show as the talk of video games), and stumbling over words that only lasts less than a second of a video essay that really benefits from a minor pause in the scripted talk in my opinion.
Now this wouldn't be such a big deal to me were it not for the fact that sponsorblock seems to have "filler" content set to automatically skip by default. This means that people that use the extension might just assume these likely trivial breaks from the main content of the videos they watch are just not worth seeing, which I find disheartening and disappointing. I would at the very least suggest that sponsorblock makes the "filler" category either something that requires user input to skip or just entirely untouched by default.
Now while I was thinking about this, it led me to think about the fact that people so commonly label the content they do as "filler". Personally it brings to mind how short form content such as social media posts on platforms like twitter (suck my cock elon) and tiktok are most likely training people to shorten their attention spans and patience. Even a slight pause in a video for someone to stumble or think over their words a disruption that's proven to be good for discussions, is noticeable enough of a disturbance to people to get cut out of videos. Personally it has me rethinking my use of social media (even without platforms like tiktok on my phone) and pondering the fact that I seem to struggle with finding the mental patience and capacity for the deeper games I used to enjoy when I was a child such as factorio and modded minecraft. Games that require the use of your mind and patience no longer come nearly as easy to me and that has me concerned.
If you read this far, thank you. I'd ask that you maybe make the efforts to give your brain more time to breathe and think, and perhaps reconsider how media has shaped the way your brain works. I'm going to certainly try and do the same myself.
