Kids now watching lecture videos at 1.5x speed

NAGPUR: When academician Panini Telang’s teenage son passed him the smartphone and asked him to listen to an interesting lecture on YouTube, he wondered why the audio was incomprehensible. “Oh, I forgot to change it to normal speed,” replied his son Kanad.
Many teens like Kanad have now shifted to watching lecture videos at minimum 1.5x speed, which saves time without compromising on the audio quality. This “fast-mo” (opposite of slow motion) is now a trend gaining traction rapidly among youngsters as they consume more online content. “For the majority of the videos we keep speed at 1.5, thus saving time,” he said.
Another teen, Dayanand Kalse, said shifting playback speed has multiple benefits. “The majority of speakers on YouTube unnecessarily drag the video to increase air time. Some speakers are slow or pause often. Increasing the playback speed takes care of these issues without hurting the quality,” said Kalse.
TOI, too, listened to a video at 1.5x speed and the speech of an instructional video was comprehensible. Kanad and Kalse stressed that they revert to “normal” speed for important lecture videos where new concepts are being taught. Rajnikant Bondre, a parent and an academician, said the speed-watching concept has in fact become “very common”. “This is considered the best tool for revision of topics,” said Bondre.
However, Academician Sameer Phale says watching educational videos related to complex scientific concepts is not advisable. “Listening and comprehending are two different things,” he said.