Is it common for people to watch Youtube sped up?
I've heard of people doing this for podcasts and audiobooks and never understood it all that much there. Just feels like 'skimming' a real book instead of actually reading it.
Additionally, the brain tends to adjust to a faster talking speed very quickly. If I'm watching an average-paced person talk and speed them up by 2x, the first couple minutes of listening might be difficult and will require more intent-listening. However, the brain starts processing it as the new normal and it does not feel sped-up anymore. To the extent that if I go back to 1x, it feels like the speaker is way too slow.
Same with a video. A lot of people speak considerably slower than you could process the information they are conveying, so you speed it up. You still get the same content and are not skipping parts as you would when skimming a book.
That's the goal for me lately. I primarily use Youtube for technical assistance (where are the screws to adjust this carburetor?, how do I remove this brake hub?, etc). There used to be short 1 to 2m videos on this kind of stuff but nowadays I have to suffer through a 10-15 minute video with multiple ad breaks.
So now I always watch youtube at 2x speed while rapidly jumping the slider forward to find relevant portions.