The Strange Appeal of Absurdly Long YouTube Videos That Play Nothing

For once on YouTube, the title of the video is pretty clear: “24 hours + pure black screen in HD!Barring questions about the difference between standard- and high-def pure black screens, the video does what it says on the tin. Hit play, and you get a black screen and silence for over 24 hours — 24 hours, one minute, 27 seconds, to be exact. It’s like turning off your computer without turning off your computer.

This video has got 40.2 million views.

The first time I saw it, I assumed there was a joke or Rick Roll or something and looked long enough to find it. Nothing. So I thought it was a bit much. Funny meta-commentary about the drivel people choose to watch! Most commenters seemed to agree and goofed up on the concept. “How is this not in the cinemas?” Commenter Orbital wrote. “The story, the characters, the acting is a masterpiece! Especially at 1:23:53, where the darkness acts as a void, it’s just beautiful.” Uinthlees YT called it “an absolute masterpiece” with “many wonderful, heartwarming moments”. And Buzzcat Boy wrote that he watches it every night before going to sleep: “I’ve seen this video so much I still watch it when I close my eyes as if my eyelids are playing this master piece.” Small screen.”

But now, after spending way too many hours watching very long videos like “24 hours + pure black screen in HD”! I think I have discovered their true purpose. Not only are they no joke, but they’re also some of the most useful and user-friendly stuff on YouTube.

Ultra-long videos are definitely a longtime staple of YouTube. first i remember i was looking goats have been mooing for 10 hours The chorus of Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble,” but I think my all-time favorite is when Nathan Graham of the gaming channel Unspeakable uploaded a video called “…Playing minecraft 24 hours straight!Which turned out to be about 23 hours of looped footage of a few minutes of gaming and Graham sleeping. Result: 14 million views. It’s a good joke.

There are even more useful mega-long YouTube styles. you can get 24 hours of fierce fire, which is going to be a good background viewing in winter. There’s a surprising amount of content directed at dogs, which amounts to over 20 hours of mostly soothing music and nature shots. (the “most repeated” bit one such video Below the beach is a sweeping overhead shot of a lush island, and I like to imagine my dogs going back to that bit again and again to soak in the island vibes.) Lots of super-long There are also cat TVs. But that seems less popular. I found one that is just a 20 hour seal frolicking in the water, titled “20 hours no need to bother!!” It has 644,000 views, many of which are now me.

The most sensible long videos are the ones with music. Twenty hours of spa music, 12 hours of jazz, 14 hours of lounge covers of popular hits. I’ve found these even better than always-streaming channels like Lofi Girl because they’re so predictable – I’ve run a 24 hour video called “Starbucks Jazz Music Collection 2021 – 24 Hours of Smooth Jazz for Studying, Working, Relaxing, Sleeping“So often that my brain knows its ups and downs, and it barely even registers when I go about my day.

And yet, I still can’t explain why “24 hours in HD + pure black screen!” It’s such a big hit. its channel owner, a man named Noah who calls himself “Black Screen Guy”, has amassed 65,000 subscribers and over 150 million views on the video. even longer”44 hours of pure black screen in HD!” has 5.4 million views. Thirty-five hours in, 2.2 million views. Thirty-two hours, 2.4 million. The channel’s most surprising success story? ,24 hours pure white screen!is exactly what it sounds like and has 44 million views. Which is a lot more than 7.2 million”A red screen for 24 hours!,

In this case, it turns out, the outrageous length is the whole appeal. In all of these videos and many other Silent Blank videos, each viewer seems to have their own use case. The most common, by far, is to simply use these videos as a way to keep your device moving. “I keep playing this all night so my laptop doesn’t shut down while the game downloads,” wrote one commenter. “I have to keep it open on my phone because it’s broken and won’t turn back on if it turns off,” said another.

Surprisingly there are times when you want your device to be on but the screen is off. “I use this so I can open music on another tab at night and have it open so the screen with the music on doesn’t shine so bright in my room,” wrote one commenter on a video of a two-day blank black screen. “I use it every night, put on a podcast and cue it to come on next,” said another. Another wrote, “Uncommonly useful for avoiding screen burn in.” “Big thanks <3."

In the description of a video, 10 hour saga Of pure black screen, the Black Screen Guy himself suggested even more possibilities. You can use the black screen to check your computer’s backlight or to look for dead pixels; to trick your parents into thinking you’ve locked the computer so you can play games without re-entering the password; to track the time how long the video has been playing; To clear your screen without turning off the computer; and so much more. A black screen works wonders, apparently, especially when it doesn’t involve shutting anything down.

My immediate reaction to this was confusion. Just turn off your screen! You can change settings on a Mac or PC to turn off your display without turning off your computer, and smartphones and tablets have plenty of ways to keep audio playing in the background even when the display is off.

But you know what’s really easier than changing a bunch of settings, especially for younger users who are used to finding everything they need on YouTube? just playing a video. A commenter on a blank screen video called it “the perfect video to cast to your TV when you’re too tired to get up and turn it off,” which both sounds ridiculous — if you can’t cast from your phone to your TV. Cast, you can probably use your phone to turn off your TV! – and saying. A blank screen video is both a stupid solution and an oddly elegant one.

In a way, I have come to see “24 hours in HD + pure black screen”! As a perfect microcosm of YouTube. YouTube is part entertainment platform, part information library… and part tool repository. It can soundtrack your day, teach you how to beat any game or solve a problem, entertain your pets while you’re gone, or teach you almost anything on earth. move to the location. A blank screen video is a productivity tool, plain and simple.

i still understand why seven days video, which is a timer counting down only 168 hours, has been viewed 3.7 million times. One commenter summed it up as, “This is the timer you need when you need to stay active on your computer while working from home. No one will notice you’re gone because this video keeps playing.” As long as the computer is on, I can be wherever I want.