The comedy4cast network. Let's dog ear that for now.
This is comedy4cast, Episode 814, A View of the Many.
It's time once again for the Dog Days of Podcasting. For more information and
to hear all the shows, go to dogdaysofpodcasting.com.
Let's get started with Odd News Plus.
Here are our odd news stories for Thursday, August 22nd, 2024.
First up, a look at your daily horoscope. If you're an Aquarius, today is your day.
The stars have finally aligned and you will have a major breakthrough on those
issues that have been testing your resolve.
Celebrate the day, But please, whatever you do, do not turn on your phone tomorrow.
No texting, no social media. Just no.
But did we mention that today is your day? Have some cake.
Now let's get to our actual for real odd news story.
We've all been there. You're in the all too appropriately named waiting room
at the doctor's office. Or standing on a platform, wondering when the f***ing
T train is going to get here.
And there's nothing to do. So you take out your phone and begin scrolling through videos.
That should be fun. Yes, it should.
But is it? A new study finds that watching short snippets of videos or fast-forwarding
through them makes people even more bored.
Lead researcher Katie Tam said that study participants predicted that they would
feel less bored by switching videos instead of watching them in their entirety.
But participants, who were allowed to freely switch between seven different
videos within 10 minutes, reported they were more bored than when they watched
a single 10-minute YouTube video all the way through.
Participants also reported similar results when they watched a 10-minute video
rather than fast-forwarding or rewinding through a 50-minute video for 10 minutes.
Okay, that makes no sense.
How can I be more bored if I'm watching someone showing me how to pull off that
viral lip-sync challenge?
Then, switching over to a supercut of cats being frightened by a cucumber.
Then, over to a staged practical joke, clearly going to be made much funnier
by pitching up the voice a few octaves.
Over to two girls showing off a dance move.
Then, over to a highlight about a sport that I think may be soccer,
where the player may have done something good or bad. Oh, and here's someone
else doing that same dance move as before.
It kind of looks identical, but it's not. And a short clip of someone scrolling
through their phone made totally engaging because they sped up the video and
added a distorted bass beat.
Yeah. It turns out digital switching is less uplifting than sticking with one
video and watching it all the way through.
Maybe a good way to think about it is it's like going to the movies.
You get more enjoyment out of immersing yourself in the single video rather
than swiping through a ton of them.
Just please don't watch the video while you're in the theater.
And finally, in the age of chatGPT, AI song generation, and instant conversion
of text prompts to images or video, what's next?
It seems we may have our first indications.
Researchers say they have been able to develop the next generation of AI products
by introducing something they're calling artificial interference.
Apparently, it's a form of... Excuse me. Yes, what is it? Nothing. Go on. Okay.
Artificial interference will allow... Sorry. Excuse me again. Yes?
Yes. What? You interrupted me.
Oh, now I get it. Wow. That is... Really annoying. Yes.
That about wraps it up for today's Odd News Plus. A big thanks to the
comedy4cast patrons for helping make this show possible.
Story, voices, well, most of them, and original music by Clinton Alvord. Copyright 2024.
All rights reserved. Talk to you next time. But for now, that's it.
We're done, done, done, done, done. Bye-bye.
Music.