Why I Sometimes Instantly Close Certain Videos

When a scene tries too hard to be epic through excessive effects, it often loses the very emotional impact it was trying to create.

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Modern content often relies on overwhelming visuals to grab our attention.

You know that feeling when you’re scrolling through social media, you open a video, and almost immediately... you close it? Yeah, that one. I’ve been thinking about why that happens to me, and honestly, it’s not just about the content being “bad” or whatever. There’s more going on, and I think it’s partly about how the video tries to manipulate my attention.

For example, let’s talk about those military videos—tanks rolling, missiles being fired, artillery blasts, all of that. Sure, the tech is impressive, I get it. But then they add this overly dramatic music, slow motion, beep-beep scanning sounds, flashy overlays... ugh. Suddenly it’s not just “here’s a tank.” It’s like, look at how epic this tank is, you better feel something now. And honestly? I don’t. It just makes me feel a little irritated. Feels more like a performance than reality.

Too much flash just leads to instant burnout.

I notice the same thing in anime and action films. You know the type: character does a move, energy shoots out of their hand, the background explodes, camera spins around like it’s in a roller coaster. I get that it’s meant to be thrilling, and sometimes it is, but other times it just makes me go, “okay, yeah, maybe skip this one.” It’s almost too much—too loud, too flashy, too obviously trying to force me to feel excited. Feels less immersive and more overdone, I guess.

I think part of why I react this way is because my brain is pretty sensitive to forced emotion. When something tries too hard to make me feel impressed, scared, or amazed, I get this reflexive urge to close the video. Not because I can’t appreciate it, but because it feels manipulative, like it’s telling me how to react instead of letting me react naturally.

And to be clear, this isn’t me saying I hate all flashy effects. I like anime, I like action films, I even like some military tech videos. But there’s a difference between enhancing a scene and overproducing it so it’s almost cartoonish. I see the difference, and my tolerance for the latter is pretty low.

I guess what I’m saying is: it’s okay to critique videos as a viewer. You don’t have to be a filmmaker or animator to notice when something feels off. Sometimes I watch, sometimes I skip, sometimes I close instantly. That’s just how my brain filters content. Feels more honest than pretending to like everything or swallowing everything passive.

At the end of the day, I think I just appreciate something that trusts me as the audience. Something that doesn’t try too hard to grab my attention, doesn’t scream “look at me!” every second. Raw footage, quiet tension, subtle effects, those feel better to me than all the “epic” extras piled on.

So yeah, that’s why I sometimes close videos instantly. Not because I’m negative or hard to please. Just because some videos feel like they’re shouting at me instead of letting me watch. And honestly, that’s exhausting.