There are many great videos uploaded to YouTube each and every day. Which isn't surprising when you consider that 100 hours of video are uploaded to the site every minute. That's a lot of clips of cute cats and dumb dogs. But clips of cute cats and dumb dogs are welcomed, unlike some other types of videos which are either pointless, annoying, stupid, unnecessary, or all of the above.

These are the genres of videos that no one should watch. They deserve to get zero views and zero comments, because they don't deserve a place on the most popular video sharing site in existence. What follows are five of the worst examples of amateur video that, should you value your place in society, you should avoid uploading to YouTube at all costs.

Unboxing Hardware

http://youtu.be/waDlwfE66ZE

The craze for unboxing videos started somewhere around 2006, just as YouTube was growing into the behemoth it now is. Against all the odds these videos appear to be very popular, with many racking up millions of views. This despite the fact that they're the most banal genre of video in existence.

Hardware video reviews make sense, as does footage of someone using a new device even if they're not voicing their opinion about it. But what is the point of videos merely showing an individual unboxing a piece of hardware? So, I now know what's in the box, and that helps me how exactly?

Reactionary Reactions

http://youtu.be/V_Qrt1k8qHo

Reaction videos are, as you may have guessed by the name, videos of people reacting to stuff. It could be another video on YouTube, a real-world event or piece of news, or even something happening in an individual's personal life. Regardless, these videos are rarely, if ever, anything but embarrassing.

The video embedded above is the perfect example of this genre and why it needs to die. This girl is upset, and by that I mean crying and ranting, because Kristen Stewart cheated on Robert Pattinson. She's just a fan with no connection to the former couple, but that doesn't stop her getting extremely angry at the news. In the interactive, multimedia dictionary of the future, this video (and others like it) should be posted as the definition of 'Annoying'.

TV Recording

http://youtu.be/HL3sl3Yb89w

If you're ever tempted to record something off the TV and post the resulting video on YouTube… don't. Honestly, you'd be better off just not bothering than attempting this trick that results in videos that, at best, look like they've been shot with a potato, at worst, are unwatchable.

These types of video are invariably uploaded by n00bs who believe that a) this is the only way to record something off the television, and b) that doing so means they aren't breaking the intellectual property rights of the broadcaster. Both of which are wrong, plain and simple.

Photo Montages

http://youtu.be/u5evXcPK2i8

Photo montages have their place in the world, but that place isn't on YouTube, a site designed to house videos, not a series of still images pieced together under a cheesy soundtrack. These never look good, and are always a source of disappointment if stumbled upon while searching for a real video.

The video embedded above is a striking example of the genre which has all the elements needed to demonstrate why photo montages need to die. We have 11 minutes of photos of Morgan Fairchild, who no one under the age of 40 will even have heard of. All soundtracked with True Devotion by Samantha Fox. Please, make it stop.

Attention Seeking

http://youtu.be/QIt_hedcBTc

This is a rather vague genre as it deals with all those videos created by attention seekers. You could argue that you'd have to be an attention seeker to upload a video to YouTube in the first place, but there's a subtle distinction between wanting to be a YouTube celebrity and using a "Look at me!" gimmick (rather than quality content) to achieve that goal.

The video embedded above demonstrates the problem perfectly. This girl wants to teach the world to speak Japanese, which is really generous of her. But in order to stand out from the crowd she decides to put her rather large assets on display while doing so. Cue millions of views from frustrated men everywhere. None of whom want to learn Japanese.

Conclusion

If you find any of these videos entertaining then that's great; carry on watching them or even uploading your own examples of each genre. But I suspect I'm not alone in having had enough of these particular types of videos and wishing they would just go away.

As with lots of websites that rely on user-generated content, YouTube offers a fantastic opportunity to get creative with videos and offer something great to the world. None of the videos embedded above, or the genres they belong to, fulfill that promise. You can do better than this, Internet, so go out there and prove it.

Image Credit: Jakob Montrasio