We have lots of wonderful accounts that do a great job of telling if the animal video is cute or not, but it's important for everyone to exercise critical thinking skills and learn how to analyze them too! Here's an infographic with some basics on animal science that can help you decide what to look for.
Key questions for analyzing videos:
Are all of the animals and people in the video (including the filmer) safe?
Is the animal choosing to participate?
What behavior or activity is being shown - is it a natural and positive behavior for the animal, is it enriching? Or may it be a negative behavior? You can search ‘animal’ ‘behavior’ online - like “gorilla picking itself” - for a quick check!
What’s the purpose of the video - is the situation created for the animal, or for viewers?
Is it sensible that the animal is there, doing what it is doing?
Overall - figure out what you can see, and what you need to find out/double check, and then search that! Add it all up and you should be able to draw your own conclusions too.
Please check out some of our other posts for examples on how to think through videos you may see!
Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute. (2022, May 25). Animal Enrichment. Smithsonian's National Zoo. Retrieved March 28, 2023, from https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/animal-enrichment
Bielawski, J. (2017, January 5). Beware what you share! "Cute" videos are often cruel. Animal Help Now. Retrieved March 22, 2023, from https://ahnow.org/blog/2017/01/05/beware-what-you-share-cute-videos-are-often-cruel/
Goldstein, H. (2022, April 13). What to do when you see animal cruelty on Social Media. What to Do When You See Animal Cruelty on Social Media. Retrieved March 28, 2023, from https://www.worldanimalprotection.us/blogs/what-do-when-you-see-animal-cruelty-social-media
American Veterinary Medical Association. (n.d.). Animal welfare: What is it? Animal Health Welfare. Retrieved March 28, 2023, from https://www.avma.org/resources/animal-health-welfare/animal-welfare-what-it Colchester Zoo. (2022, February 11). Environmental enrichment. Colchester Zoo. Retrieved April 3, 2023, from https://www.colchester-zoo.com/about-us/environmental-enrichment/
i made another survey for my media course, a much shorter one this time, talking about animation videos on yt pls take a minute of your time to answer ty :,)
Hetalia but it's that one time america invited sweden to come play a war game in 2005 but ended up panicking becaue "wtf HOW DID YOUR SUB DO THAT I PREPPED EVERYTHING" *is baaically in tears* "HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS I THOUGH YOU JUST RUN IKEA"
Finlnd, who's made us of Sweedish weapons befored "i know isn't it so AWESOME his gun is just as cool!"
america: "okay just-oi sweden ima need to borrow your sub for a bit longer for research because fuck this"
your racist biology teacher sounds crazy, what else did he show/tell you guys?
My memory is pretty poor, but as far as I can recall I don't think he ever really showed/taught/told us anything else that would be considered racist or alt-right dogma besides that. While plenty of people who believe in the great replacement are actively malicious racists, I'm pretty sure he was more on the "average person genuinely tricked into thinking alt-right dogwhistles have any credibility" side of the scale, especially since the video in question was clearly intended to feel more "educational" than scaremongering. I hesitate to just chalk it up to him being racist, because it's important to remember that anyone can be tricked into believing things like this are true. Even I didn't really think to question it that much at the time because, like I said, it was presented in an "educational" manner that seemed to be backed up by statistics.
Regardless, while I'm here I might as well say for anyone not familiar: if you ever see someone talking about The Great Replacement, or the idea that white European populations are being demographically and culturally replaced with non-white peoples—especially from Muslim-majority countries—through mass migration, demographic growth and a drop in the birth rate of white Europeans, do not believe it. It's a racist (and usually Islamophobic and/or antisemitic) conspiracy that has absolutely no basis in reality and is used as a justification for white nationalism. If you'd like to know more, the youtuber Shaun made a video going a bit more in depth about what The Great Replacement is and why it's bullshit (warnings for antisemitism, Islamophobia, and racism from the people whose arguments he's debunking in the videos).