David Pierce: The odd appeal of absurdly long YouTube videos that play nothing on purpose

In a way, I’ve come to see “24 hours + of pure black screen in HD!” as a perfect microcosm of YouTube. YouTube is part entertainment platform, part information library… and part tools repository. It can soundtrack your day, teach you how to beat any game or solve any problem, keep your pets entertained while you’re gone, or transport you to just about any place on earth. A blank screen video is a productivity tool, plain and simple.

YouTube is something else. Fascinating use cases and a good reminder that users don’t always use computers the way they’re “supposed to.”