YT shorts, Instagram Reels, and TikTok: which one has the best content? The answer is simple– TikTok and for solely one reason.

First of all, YouTube Shorts could be MUCH better! I mean, there is no other “social media” app with less relevant and less entertaining content. This is due to trends making their way to YouTube weeks after they have already died out. In my opinion, nothing is appealing about YouTube Shorts. It’s the thing my parents use to find out about “breaking news” that happened months ago.

But more than that, YouTube Shorts is a site where lazy AI and social media outreach to young kids thrive.

Gabriel Sanchez ’29 said, “YouTube shorts are filled with AI summaries of series and Reddit stories, and make viewers’ attention span worse. YouTube should not just have short videos because it gives kids access to a similar type of content as TikTok, which is age-restricted for a reason. It is also just so boring, there’s no good content on the site.”

Evidently, YT shorts is a site where culture is dead, and views come from an influx of old folks and young children who have easy access to this type of social media. In terms of relevancy and entertainment, both Instagram and TikTok are leaps and bounds ahead of YouTube Shorts. YouTube should stop trying to be short and instead be short-term content.

Now I’ll be the first one to say this: Insta is funny. Whether it’s sports content making fun of NBA players after a horrible night or reposted flight clips, there’s a ton of good ideas and jokes constantly circulating.

In these regards, TikTok and Reels are practically the same, with content creators posting the same skits or sharing music and dances. But why TikTok is superior comes down to one thing: edits.

Where else can you relive twenty-three years of LeBron’s greatness in thirty seconds while hearing clips perfectly matched to the rhythm of a song, or watch what feels like the greatest advertisement in the world for a Spider-Man movie? Beyond just how satisfactory these edits are to watch, they represent something deeper.

Alumni Camilo Choi ‘24 explains, “TikTok is consistently the most up-to-date and relevant content to me. I think what really separates the two [Instagram and TikTok] is edits. The edit culture is really interesting to see grow. Once an editing style gets popular, it infiltrates every fanbase in the pop culture sphere.”

The reason TikTok is better and more “addictive” is that it has one more extension over the other two that functions on the basic principle of community. As they gain more users and more dedicated content creators like these “editors,” different fanbases and communities continue to grow exponentially. In addition to this, it is where people saw the short-term style content for the first time, amidst COVID.

Edit styles and songs are what thread together a powerlifter and an anime fan because edits are accepted as enjoyable and cool.

Now, if you want to ask what the best app is for Cubs? That is easily YouTube shorts, since no one really gets addicted to it. Having only uninspiring content to watch keeps you off your phone and productive, as it can encourage doing homework instead of watching short-form content.