YouTube Changes Video Quality Preferences to Preserve Bandwith

COVID-19 has forced the world indoors, and people are filling their free time with digital streaming. Bloomberg reports that YouTube will reduce video streaming quality around the world to limit bandwidth usage, as all major streaming platforms experience surges in traffic. The service is lowering the default video quality for 30 days, which users can still reverse manually.

Representatives with YouTube are merely taking preemptive measures to ensure network space for government activity, but they don’t believe the world is running out of bandwidth. Should you feel so inclined to fight the good fight and moderate your usage to preserve speeds in your area, more power to you. If you’re unfazed unless this becomes a serious problem, that’s just as well. Though, as this pandemic wears on, moderation and preservation of resources become crucial to maintain the levels of gratification we need to stay sane in our isolation. Without clear schedules to limit our indulgence, the Internet can easily exacerbate our incapacity to self-sooth with personal investments of our time. Perhaps there is a guitar collecting dust in your corner, or maybe some pencils and sketchbooks laying around from that art class you forgot you took all those years ago. Now is a great time to remember how to draw pleasure from your offline hobbies, as the internet might not be as infinite as we think. Even if your privilege of digital streaming lasts through your entire quarantine, is that all you want to accomplish this month?