I applaud Hayden for bringing up this issue!
It always frustrates me that it seems nobody really understands what he is trying to say here. I my self have voiced this concern and received the same scorn!
An analogy is appropriate:

Say you love food, and frequently visit a particular restaurant that has become your favorite. They have all kinds of good food to chose from on the menu, and you love to try them all. As time pass, you notice that every time you visit, it seems that there is less and less options to choose from on the menu! One day you arrive, there is just ONE type of burger, that is it! Nothing else on the menu! OK, yes that burger is tasty and OK, but after eating the only choice on the menu for the longest time, you will certainly loose interest in the whole restaurant and stop visiting.
Regrettably everybody seems to get mad and stand up on their soapbox and yell: “Don't  tell me what to do!” or “Stop talking #x* about my FT8!”
We are NOT telling you what mode to use.  And we are not stepping on FT8!
What we are trying to express here is a feeling of loss / sorrow that it seems like there is only one ting left on the menu: FT8!

I love FT-8. Living in an apartment with limited power/antennas to collect qsl's and experiment has been a God send to this old guy with bad hearing.

Lots of people found a mode they really enjoy.  Let them enjoy it.

Honestly, I don't care about SSB/talking on HF, so digital is the way for me.   SSB & digital I use on satellite.

I use all modes, SSB, CW and digital.  Love FT8 and so does my family at night because my loud voice is quiet.

Thank you so much Hayden, been waiting for so long for one of you youtubers actually address the biggest issues with ft8 instead of encouraging people to use it during these times of good propagation like most of the other youtubers do. Thank you

Well said. i have been preaching this for a long time now.  ft8 has it's place, but many have become zombies to it.  But in addition to being lazy, i fear for many, it's become a numbers game, "how many i got in the log today".  People are just numbers now, and not people.

Some of us at home have no choice,  at my home, the noise floor is so bad that FT8 is really the only option for me.  (Even CW is very hard to copy here)

Great video really well said, me personally im a SSB only operator love the challenge of working stations and the whole point i got into the hobby is to talk to real people not play on a keyboard, but each to their own i guess. And like you said i hear alot of strong stations on the digital modes that probably could use cw or ssb. Also you never know if the bands open unless you call.

I got my general license this year. I originally started with the idea of just CW for SOTA. After some initial frustrations and failures I bought a QDX, started working FT8, and have been having a lot of fun with POTA hunting and activations. This has rekindled my desire to build a QMX radio kit and get on the air with CW. I feel a lot more confident now having the operating experience from the last several months on FT8. I see FT8 as an HF mode with minimal barriers to entry that has allowed me to experience the excitement of operating on the HF bands and learn first-hand about propagation, antennas, common mode currents, etc. This has kept me interested in the ham radio hobby so that I can take the next step.

I’m lazy. I got my license in 1977, then had children sold my gear and was off and radio until 2022 when I retired. Finding out how much the technology has changed with FT8 and wanting to get as many DX stations as I can during this period of solar max, I feel like I’m playing catch up in DXCC and WAS. So yes I’m doing mostly FT8 in about 2 years I have WAS in 80-10 meters and DXCC on 40 -10 meters, with 195 confirmed DX entities on QRZ.  I have over 26,000 confirmed QSO’s on QRZ. That isn’t doable on SSB or CW modes. Yes, I’m lazy, but I have achieved quite a list DX stations and States. I do VARA HF another digital texting mode , which is keyboard to keyboard communication on HF. It’s much more time consuming, but enjoyable in a real communication process takes place. I SSB with friends on 40 and 80 meters, I FM on the local 2 meter repeater, and Digital FM using my DMR Anytone handheld and my PiStar hotspot. So I’m not apposed to using other modes. But most of my HAM time is FT8… I’m lazy but I enjoy my hobby with the new digital mods that are available now. 73

I have a problem with SSB: Hardly anyone on SSB actually communicates. You don't have to ragchew, but.. my god, do something other than contesting for once. And if you have to ask me 5 times for my callsign then don't give me 59. To me, that's the same as if you had given me no signal report, because in those cases, the only thing I know is that I am everything BUT 59.
And finally, if two people are talking, or even rag chewing, don't whistle into the mic. If you wanna join break in, otherwise spin the dial.
73!

If people want to use FT8, they're going to. If they want to use SSB or CW, they're going to do those things as well. Before I had my EFHW high enough, I couldn't do SSB because my noise floor was too high and FT8 was all I could do -being able to make contacts in Antarctica from Seattle, is frankly what kept me interested in the hobby.

FT8 paired with PSKreporter is also a great propagation tool to see if it's even worth trying SSB calls.

I get this perspective, but I really enjoy FT8 when paired with Grid Tracker.  I'm also really busy right now, and FT8 allows me to flip on the radio and make some contacts during short slow-periods at work when I'm able to split my attention.  Just now, from Colorado, I made FT8 contacts to New Zealand, Australia, and Africa on 10 meters.  Then I made a contact on 15m to Japan and suddenly five DX stations were contacting me when I wasn't even calling CQ.  It was really fun(!), even tho I didn't "talk" to anyone.  Probably only my 5th contact with Australia during the current solar cycle.

I like FT-8 for making a few quick contacts over lunch, but I miss seeing a lot of activity on PSK-31.  I always enjoyed a rag chew and there seem to be fewer and fewer signals on psk.  I often struggle with voice because of less than stellar hearing, but with strong signals as you say - it's totally viable a lot of the time

I got my license just so I can do FT8 and other digital modes. I know some of my ham friends also work digital exclusively. For discussions about ham tech things etc, we use FB groups. Digital communication do attract it's people to ham culture.

Electronic communication has removed a lot of personal interaction. When TV came out people stopped visiting each other, stopped going out and stayed home. The internet has continued this further. Now everybody is communicating and nobody is speaking. Ham radio digital modes are just an extension of this phenomenon.

Thanks for your video 👍old school is the best i guess brings back a lot of good memories

It's the same issue with people being reliant on internet for digital voice. It has taken a lot people away from using pure RF communications.

I have used FT8 some, but I like the personal rag chew style available with voice. I have also experimented with JS8 and like that much better than the connect, signal report, and log type contact style of FT8. Great informative video. Thanks...  de AC7TY