The video’s title is, for as soon as on YouTube, fairly simple: “24 hours + of pure black display screen in HD!” Leaving apart the questions in regards to the distinction between standard- and high-def pure black screens, the video does what it says on the tin. Hit play, and also you get greater than 24 hours — 24 hours, one minute, 27 seconds, to be actual — of black display screen and silence. It’s like turning off your pc, with out turning off your pc.
This video has 40.2 million views.
The primary time I watched it, I assumed there was a joke or a Rick Roll or one thing in there someplace and watched an upsettingly very long time to search out it. Nothing. So I figured it was a bit. Enjoyable meta-commentary in regards to the drivel folks select to look at! Most commenters appeared to agree and have been goofing on the idea. “How is that this not in theaters?” commenter Orbital wrote. “The story, the characters, the performing is a masterpiece! particularly at 1:23:53, the place darkish acted because the void, is simply so stunning.” Uinthlees YT known as it “an entire masterpiece” with “many great, heart-touching moments.” And Buzzcut Boy wrote that they watch it each night time earlier than they go to mattress: “i’ve watched this video a lot that i even see it when i shut my eyes like my eye lids are a little bit display screen taking part in this grasp peice.”
However now, after spending too many hours watching too-long movies similar to “24 hours + of pure black display screen in HD!” I feel I’ve found their true function. Not solely are they not a joke however they’re additionally a number of the most helpful and user-friendly issues on YouTube.
The ultra-long video is a longtime staple of YouTube, after all. The primary one I keep in mind watching was 10 hours of goats bleating the refrain to Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Had been Bother,” however I feel my all-time favourite is when Nathan Graham from the gaming channel Unspeakable uploaded a video known as “PLAYING MINECRAFT FOR 24 HOURS STRAIGHT!” which turned out to be a couple of minutes of gaming and about 23 hours of looped footage of Graham sleeping. The upshot: 14 million views. It’s a great joke.
There are extra helpful genres of mega-long YouTube, too. You will get 24 hours of a roaring hearth, which is nice background viewing within the winter. There’s an astonishing quantity of content material directed at canines, which principally quantities to 20-plus hours of soothing music and nature pictures. (The “most replayed” bit of 1 such video is a sweeping overhead shot of a lush island, all the way down to the seashore, and I like imagining my canines simply scrubbing again to that bit again and again to soak within the island vibes.) There’s additionally loads of super-long Cat TV, too, however that appears much less standard. I discovered one which’s simply 20 hours of a seal spinning round within the water, titled “No should be Upset 20 HOURS LONG!!” It has 644,000 views, a number of of which at the moment are me.
Essentially the most smart lengthy movies are the music ones. Twenty hours of spa music, 12 hours of jazz, 14 hours of loungey covers of standard hits. I’ve come to love these even higher than the always-streaming channels like Lofi Lady as a result of they’re so predictable — I’ve performed a 24-hour video known as “Starbucks Jazz Music Assortment 2021 – 24 Hours Clean Jazz for Finding out, Work, Calm down, Sleep” so many instances that my mind is aware of its ebbs and flows, and it barely even registers as I’m going about my day.
And but, I nonetheless can’t clarify why “24 hours + of pure black display screen in HD!” is such an enormous hit. Its channel’s proprietor, a man named Noah who calls himself “Black Display screen Man,” has picked up 65,000 subscribers and greater than 150 million views on movies similar to it. The even longer “44 hours of pure black display screen in HD!” has 5.4 million views. Thirty-five hours, 2.2 million views. Thirty-two hours, 2.4 million. The channel’s most stunning success story? “24 hours of pure white display screen!” is precisely what it appears like and has 44 million views. Which is much more than the 7.2 million on “a pink display screen for twenty-four hours!”
On this case, it seems, the outrageous size is the entire enchantment. Throughout all these movies and lots of different silent clean ones, each viewer appears to have their very own use case. The commonest, by far, is to make use of these movies as a technique to merely hold your system on. “I hold this taking part in in a single day in order that my laptop computer doesn’t shutdown whereas downloading video games,” one commenter wrote. “I’ve to maintain this open on my telephone as a result of it’s damaged and won’t flip again on if it turns off,” one other stated.
There are additionally a surprisingly giant variety of instances when you may want your system on however the display screen off. “I take advantage of this so I can have music open on one other tab at night time and have this open so the display screen with the music on it wont shine so vibrant in my room,” one commenter wrote on a two-day-long video of a clean black display screen. “I take advantage of this each night time, placed on a podcast and q this to return on subsequent,” stated one other. “Unironically helpful for avoiding display screen burn in,” one other wrote. “Huge thanks <3.”
Within the description of 1 video, a 10-hour saga of pure black display screen, the Black Display screen Man himself recommended much more potentialities. You need to use a black display screen to test your pc’s backlight or search for lifeless pixels; to trick your dad and mom into pondering the pc’s off so you may play video games with out having to reenter the password; to trace time by how lengthy the video’s been taking part in; to wash your display screen with out turning off the pc; and a lot extra. A black display screen does wonders, apparently, particularly when it doesn’t contain turning something off.
My fast response to this was, nicely, confusion. Simply flip off your display screen! You’ll be able to change the settings on a Mac or a PC to show off your show with out placing your pc to sleep, and smartphones and tablets have loads of methods to play audio within the background even with the show off.
However you realize what’s truly simpler than tweaking a bunch of settings, particularly for youthful customers accustomed to discovering every part they want on YouTube? Simply taking part in a video. One commenter on a blank-screen video known as it “the right video to forged to your television if you’re too drained to rise up and switch it off,” which appears each ridiculous — when you can forged out of your telephone to your TV, you may most likely use your telephone to show off your TV! — and telling. A blank-screen video is each a silly answer and a unusually elegant one.
In a approach, I’ve come to see “24 hours + of pure black display screen in HD!” as an ideal microcosm of YouTube. YouTube is a component leisure platform, half data library… and half instruments repository. It might probably soundtrack your day, train you tips on how to beat any recreation or clear up any drawback, hold your pets entertained when you’re gone, or transport you to simply about anywhere on earth. A clean display screen video is a productiveness software, plain and easy.
I even perceive now why a seven-day-long video, which is only a timer counting down 168 hours, has 3.7 million views. One commenter summed it up thusly, “That is the timer you want when you could keep lively in your pc whereas working from residence. Nobody will discover you have been gone as a result of this video retains taking part in.” So long as the pc’s awake, I might be wherever I would like.