I recently decided to private all but one of my YouTube videos. There are a couple of reasons for this.
First, almost all of my videos were related to Obsidian. I no longer use Obsidian, and I actively discourage people from using it. Therefore, it felt a little disingenuous to leave all that stuff up. If you’re wondering why I don’t use Obsidian anymore, the short answer is that I prefer FOSS software, and Obisidian is not FOSS. I also don’t use the Zettelkasten method as rigorously as I used to. It’s still in my toolbox, but my approach is a little more eclectic now.
Second, some of the other videos I removed had my face in them. Now, I’m not anonymous. If you wanted to figure out some of my personal details, you probably could. I’m in Christian ministry, so my name and face show up elsewhere on the internet all the time. There are many, many hours of my preaching and teaching available on various websites if you know where to look. But I think it’s good to put some distance between my real life and my internet life. That’s good for both of us, by the way. It limits the weird parasocial effects of the internet.
Finally, I just ran out of things to say on that medium, and so there’s not much point in letting the channel continue to gain views and subscribers. I really want people to engage with me here. This is a much better medium for what I’m trying to do, and frankly, it’s a lot less work. I can normally write a blog post (excepting some of the more developed pieces) in less than an hour. A YouTube video takes a lot more time and energy, and I’ve got family and pastoral duties. I’m too busy wiping butts and visiting hospitals to edit a YouTube video, but I do occasionally find a few minutes to knock out a blog post.
So, if you watched my YouTube, sorry. You’ll just have to keep rewatching my one remaining video.
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