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> Or maybe people are naturally more attracted to the extremes [..] What if youtube was just giving people what they want That's part of it, but I think the po
by azakai 9y ago
> Or maybe people are naturally more attracted to the extremes [..] What if youtube was just giving people what they want
That's part of it, but I think the point is more subtle. YouTube shows the content that will keep people on YouTube (to maximize advertising), but that doesn't mean it's what they most want.
Given good or bad news, we may prefer the good but spend more time on the bad, even if the bad news is something that's irrational to worry about.
The way to get people to spend more time on YouTube may be to make them worry more, care more, and overall be more involved in the topic by showing more extreme aspects of it. That may be more exploiting human psychology (perhaps unintentionally) than giving people what they want, or maybe it's giving our darker sides what they want.
- noobermin 9y ago>[not] giving people what they want >giving our darker sides what they want. This almost sounds like people have almost no agency or say in it.
- krapp 9y agoThese sites are designed to remove as much agency as possible, so that users are driven to behave in predictable, repeatable and easily monetizable patterns. The question is, how much agency can they actually remove? If someone uploads "radical" material and it's popular with other "radicals," then is exploiting that any worse than doing so for mainstream content?
- noobermin 9y agoI don't agree with the way you phrase it. No freaking suggested video is going to rob any individual of their agency any more than yet another hottake NYT Op-ed is going to rob mine. Their algorithms however do move the average, increasing monetization. The average is not the same as the individual. I don't see that as removing agency, even if it is influencing individuals a little. There are dark patterns like those employed by shady mobile game apps that hook in players into addiction. The recommended vids on youtube don't reach that level in my opinion and it's a category error to lump them together.