3 ms·

That's super weird. Have you tried to figure out what the difference is? Netflix and the like also have a lot of the features that I can think would cause such

by d3nj4l 5y ago

That's super weird. Have you tried to figure out what the difference is? Netflix and the like also have a lot of the features that I can think would cause such a reaction: infinite playback without user input, very little friction from opening to playing something and so on. Is it the content? Or what it recommends? Might give a reason to why kids seem to be hooked to elsagate videos...

api 5y ago
I can't quite figure it out, but I think the colors and flashiness is part of it. Combine that with the tightness and apparent effectiveness of the engagement-maximizing algorithm and how quickly it moves you along to the next thing and I think you have something. The content the kids get hooked on is sometimes down-right weird. My older daughter got hooked on this Minecraft YouTuber called Preston who just yammers for hours at the speed of an old fashioned auctioneer. It's utterly obnoxious to grown ups but the kids will sit there until they're in a puddle of their own urine. A neighbor kid got hooked on weird "meme videos" full of pictures from horror games set to banal nursery rhyme style music. They got obsessed with characters from a game called "Five Nights at Freddie's" even though they've never played it. Some of these videos are 12 hours long and obviously assembled by bots. It's fucking "kill it with fire" creepy. It's so extreme with kids if I didn't know such things were impossible I'd start wondering about 5G mind control conspiracy theories. (Alas, the link is WiFi not 5G...) Other parents have told me the same thing. I've helped a few neighbors ban YouTube on their routers. I've read it on parenting forums too. I've heard TikTok can be this way for teens but have no direct experience.
- d3nj4l 5y ago
  I'm repeating myself, but that's so weird. From personal experience, I've only ever thought of the YouTube algorithm as crap. Every time I check YouTube everything there is just irrelevant to me, and the recommendations next to any video are just as random and pointless that I rarely watch more than one video at a time. It might help that I'm actively repelled by clickbait, and a lot of YouTube has (had to?) go down that hole.
  - aerovistae 5y ago
    Right, same, but we're adults. I also find clickbait repulsive, am extremely conscious of what youtube is trying to do, and constantly tell it "I'm not interested in this channel" when it starts showing me a ton of content to match something I just watched. But I've seen young kids (6-11) behave EXACTLY as OP has described here, word for word. Just pointlessly watching assemblages of Five Nights of Freddy footage for hours, despite not having the game.
- cecilpl2 5y ago
  This has a name - Elsagate [0]. There's a subreddit [1] devoted to tracking it. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsagate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsagate [1] https://old.reddit.com/r/ElsaGate/ https://old.reddit.com/r/ElsaGate/
nicolaslem 5y ago
As an adult I can relate with the fact that Youtube is addictive while Netflix is not. If I had to guess why I would say that it's due to the fact that Netflix is mostly fictions. There is a limit to how much fiction I can consume before having enough. On the other hand Youtube has a lot of non-fiction content on specific niches. The kind of content that teases the brain just enough to make me feel that I'm learning something and not in fact wasting my time, similar to HN. This is made worse by the very accurate algorithm, which works so well because Youtube has orders of magnitude more content than other platforms.

by d3nj4l 5y ago

api 5y ago

I can't quite figure it out, but I think the colors and flashiness is part of it. Combine that with the tightness and apparent effectiveness of the engagement-maximizing algorithm and how quickly it moves you along to the next thing and I think you have something. The content the kids get hooked on is sometimes down-right weird. My older daughter got hooked on this Minecraft YouTuber called Preston who just yammers for hours at the speed of an old fashioned auctioneer. It's utterly obnoxious to grown ups but the kids will sit there until they're in a puddle of their own urine. A neighbor kid got hooked on weird "meme videos" full of pictures from horror games set to banal nursery rhyme style music. They got obsessed with characters from a game called "Five Nights at Freddie's" even though they've never played it. Some of these videos are 12 hours long and obviously assembled by bots. It's fucking "kill it with fire" creepy. It's so extreme with kids if I didn't know such things were impossible I'd start wondering about 5G mind control conspiracy theories. (Alas, the link is WiFi not 5G...) Other parents have told me the same thing. I've helped a few neighbors ban YouTube on their routers. I've read it on parenting forums too. I've heard TikTok can be this way for teens but have no direct experience.

d3nj4l 5y ago
I'm repeating myself, but that's so weird. From personal experience, I've only ever thought of the YouTube algorithm as crap. Every time I check YouTube everything there is just irrelevant to me, and the recommendations next to any video are just as random and pointless that I rarely watch more than one video at a time. It might help that I'm actively repelled by clickbait, and a lot of YouTube has (had to?) go down that hole.
- aerovistae 5y ago
  Right, same, but we're adults. I also find clickbait repulsive, am extremely conscious of what youtube is trying to do, and constantly tell it "I'm not interested in this channel" when it starts showing me a ton of content to match something I just watched. But I've seen young kids (6-11) behave EXACTLY as OP has described here, word for word. Just pointlessly watching assemblages of Five Nights of Freddy footage for hours, despite not having the game.
cecilpl2 5y ago
This has a name - Elsagate [0]. There's a subreddit [1] devoted to tracking it. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsagate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsagate [1] https://old.reddit.com/r/ElsaGate/ https://old.reddit.com/r/ElsaGate/

nicolaslem 5y ago

As an adult I can relate with the fact that Youtube is addictive while Netflix is not. If I had to guess why I would say that it's due to the fact that Netflix is mostly fictions. There is a limit to how much fiction I can consume before having enough. On the other hand Youtube has a lot of non-fiction content on specific niches. The kind of content that teases the brain just enough to make me feel that I'm learning something and not in fact wasting my time, similar to HN. This is made worse by the very accurate algorithm, which works so well because Youtube has orders of magnitude more content than other platforms.