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This is very true. YT algorithm is scarily good. Now if I really need it, I only browse YouTube for something specific in incognito mode. Last year I spent an

This is very true. YT algorithm is scarily good. Now if I really need it, I only browse YouTube for something specific in incognito mode. Last year I spent an insane amount of hours watching what I thought was a mix of entertainment and educational videos but everything is entertainment on YouTube or as it seems in all the social networks. I’m not against entertainment but I want to be in control when I seek it, not letting myself be hooked by those algorithms all the time every day. They are so scary because they work too well.

BoiledCabbage 4y ago
You Tube's algorithm is not scarily good, it's scarily bad. It 100% over indexes on something that you watch and will then continuously send out tons of videos almost exactly like that. No discovery, no exploration - it simply sees something and then swarms you with it. The exact reason you need incognito mode to hide from it. The other thing it does, is continuously offer people extreme content of whatever genre because it thinks it can get high engagement. Whether it's UFOs, alt-right radicalizaion, or conspiracy theory of the day it constantly serves up content from the extremes of society because the people that do watch it typically become obsessive. The behavior of the people most susecptible to the fringes, because they watch so much youtube has enormous impact on what the majority of us see. YTs algorithm is absolute trash. There is a bunch of amazing content on Youtube, but I never find it due to recommendations. Only due to external pages that link to it which then show links to other related items. YT native recommendation is terrible. Watch a video and get recommendations for 30 other videos posted by that person, and 15 other videos on almost the exact same topic covering what you just saw. And then mixed in a few "Top 40" style videos from the genere you're in. Ie something barely unrelated, but is obviously popular. Absolute trash.
- throwaway290 4y ago
  My experience with YouTube is different. I get a decent mix of indie filmmaking advice and screenwriting tips, engineering, Russia-Ukraine updates, britcom and infotainment, cute animals. I did not do any special "training", it's all organic (apart from me clicking "do not recommend this channel ever again" from time to time). I dislike YouTube but not as much as TikTok. One makes you choose what to watch, but the other has no long-form content whatsoever. One of is motivated by greed, but the other is backed by CCP.
strogonoff 4y ago
Recommendations reflect what you want to watch, not what you want to want to watch. During pandemic at some point I started indiscriminately watching more YouTube while logged in, and do I regret it. It responded after my viewing habits changed. It seems possible to change it back gradually, but it takes some effort I wish I didn’t have to take. Second-order volition (“want to want to”) plays a big role in allowing yourself to evolve, i.e. you can force yourself to do something until you become interested in it. In this sense recommendations become a self-fulfilling prophecy, an automatic labeling system that makes you behave the way it thinks you should behave, which is approximately how you behaved before (ideally; we set aside the issue of algorithmic manipulation). This is true for any platform that has recommendations, and I am highly suspicious of the ones that don’t allow anonymous viewing.

BoiledCabbage 4y ago

You Tube's algorithm is not scarily good, it's scarily bad. It 100% over indexes on something that you watch and will then continuously send out tons of videos almost exactly like that. No discovery, no exploration - it simply sees something and then swarms you with it. The exact reason you need incognito mode to hide from it. The other thing it does, is continuously offer people extreme content of whatever genre because it thinks it can get high engagement. Whether it's UFOs, alt-right radicalizaion, or conspiracy theory of the day it constantly serves up content from the extremes of society because the people that do watch it typically become obsessive. The behavior of the people most susecptible to the fringes, because they watch so much youtube has enormous impact on what the majority of us see. YTs algorithm is absolute trash. There is a bunch of amazing content on Youtube, but I never find it due to recommendations. Only due to external pages that link to it which then show links to other related items. YT native recommendation is terrible. Watch a video and get recommendations for 30 other videos posted by that person, and 15 other videos on almost the exact same topic covering what you just saw. And then mixed in a few "Top 40" style videos from the genere you're in. Ie something barely unrelated, but is obviously popular. Absolute trash.

throwaway290 4y ago
My experience with YouTube is different. I get a decent mix of indie filmmaking advice and screenwriting tips, engineering, Russia-Ukraine updates, britcom and infotainment, cute animals. I did not do any special "training", it's all organic (apart from me clicking "do not recommend this channel ever again" from time to time). I dislike YouTube but not as much as TikTok. One makes you choose what to watch, but the other has no long-form content whatsoever. One of is motivated by greed, but the other is backed by CCP.

strogonoff 4y ago

Recommendations reflect what you want to watch, not what you want to want to watch. During pandemic at some point I started indiscriminately watching more YouTube while logged in, and do I regret it. It responded after my viewing habits changed. It seems possible to change it back gradually, but it takes some effort I wish I didn’t have to take. Second-order volition (“want to want to”) plays a big role in allowing yourself to evolve, i.e. you can force yourself to do something until you become interested in it. In this sense recommendations become a self-fulfilling prophecy, an automatic labeling system that makes you behave the way it thinks you should behave, which is approximately how you behaved before (ideally; we set aside the issue of algorithmic manipulation). This is true for any platform that has recommendations, and I am highly suspicious of the ones that don’t allow anonymous viewing.