ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Datamoshing

Datamoshing is like a magic trick for videos. You know how sometimes you get frustrated with YouTube and you want to skip ahead to the good part but it's annoying to watch the video load and load? Well, datamoshing happens on purpose!

See, every video you watch is made up of tiny pieces called frames. Each frame has a picture in it, and when you play them really fast, it looks like a moving video. Datamoshing is when you mix up the frames so they don't match up anymore.

It's like playing a puzzle game with a friend, but you switch the pieces around to make a funny picture. And it's not just the pictures that change. The way the frames are supposed to fit together also changes, so it can make the video look like it's melting, stuttering, or glitching.

It might sound messy, but some people think it looks really cool. They use special software to datamosh videos on purpose to make art or music videos. And some people just do it for fun, like when you shake up a snow globe to see what happens. It's like a special effect that makes videos look different and unique.