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For people confused like me on what intensification means, it means maximizing the amount of attention and interaction that occurs. On Youtube this would be the

by Salgat 2y ago

For people confused like me on what intensification means, it means maximizing the amount of attention and interaction that occurs. On Youtube this would be the metrics that drive engagement, including views, likes, comments, shares, and watch time. The issue is that the content focuses on driving engagement at the expense of communicating ideas with coherence and depth, for example by sensationalizing or oversimplifying a complex issue (especially for things like political discourse focused on sound bites and emotional appeals, or with virtue signaling and outrage culture). I think the above commentor is right, in my opinion, intensification shapes our world into being very reactionary, with only a superficial understanding of issues, and platforms like Youtube Shorts and Tiktok take this to its furthest possible level.

llamaimperative 2y ago
For an excellent, prescient, hilarious, and terrifying book on this topic, I highly recommend "Amusing Ourselves to Death" by Neil Postman.
- stafford_beer 2y ago
  OP here -- excellent suggestion, I've been heavily influenced by this book and would also recommend Postman's "Technopoly"
  - disqard 2y ago
    Thank you for writing this, and making it available online! When researching+writing this, did you find it useful to look through McLuhan's "Medium is the Message" lens? If so, what are the "message" implications of this ouroboric/circular/whirlpool medium?
bilbo0s 2y ago
I think the above commentor is right, in my opinion, intensification shapes our world into being very reactionary, with only a superficial understanding of issues In fairness, this is how the world has always been. In the US for instance, back when there were only 3 networks and a channel for public tv, people were "reactionary, with only a superficial understanding of issues".
- Salgat 2y ago
  To some degree yes. Funny enough, llamaimperative's book suggestion goes into detail on how television is where this really started ramp up and how the Age of Reason was likely the peak of rational argument, where the focal point of transfer of information was through the written word. "He repeatedly states that the eighteenth century, the "Age of Reason", was the pinnacle for rational argument. Only in the printed word, he states, could complicated truths be rationally conveyed. Postman gives a striking example: many of the first fifteen U.S. presidents could probably have walked down the street without being recognized by the average citizen, yet all these men would have been quickly known by their written words. However, the reverse is true today. The names of presidents or even famous preachers, lawyers, and scientists call up visual images, typically television images, but few, if any, of their words come to mind. The few that do almost exclusively consist of carefully chosen soundbites. Postman mentions Ronald Reagan, and comments upon Reagan's abilities as an entertainer." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death
  - lupusreal 2y ago
    Reagan apparently hated reading and would often skip written briefs given to him by, for instance, the CIA. Then somebody got the idea to put those briefs in the form of a television news style video made just for Reagan. Some of them are on youtube now. They have the tone of spoonfeeding a midwit.
    - 1659447091 2y ago
      Trump was/is the same. At one point they tried powerpoint like presentations with graphics. I don't know about Reagan, but from my personal experience with dyslexia (though I love to read--and dislike videos--even as it takes forever), I think Trump may be dyslexic. I would not be surprised if Reagan were too. I only wish it was more public (if true). It would help eliminate the stigma and eliminate most of the cheap shots about how he can't read or spell and how his speech is "simple" (as he has trouble pronouncing more complex words). Things that those of us with dyslexia can have problems with also. *I did not vote for him
prpl 2y ago
You see this a lot in strange ways these days. Rage bait, feigned ignorance, and things like that. It’s anti-quality and it’s just as effective (if not more) than quality content.
- _DeadFred_ 2y ago
  What was the Twitter joke. 'If I want an answer to a programming question, I post the question, and then an incorrect response from a different account.' No ones posting to help, but a lot will post to smugly correct the wrong answer.
  - snowfarthing 2y ago
    I'm not entirely sure if smugness is the entire reason for doing it -- I suspect that for many of us (particularly autistics like me) there's a certain amount "But someone's wrong on the internet!" syndrome going on. Some of us just can't work up the energy to answer a question, but if we see something wrong, it doesn't sit well with us, and we have to correct it. And yes, sometimes when I see a question I can answer, it gives me the energy to answer it ... but not always ...
  - refulgentis 2y ago
    old IRC joke
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
  - SpaceNugget 2y ago
    This trick has been around forever, it's actually got a name, "goodhart's law"
    - sotix 2y ago
      Oh your comment is so clever because now I’ve gone to correct you that it’s actually Cunningham's Law.
brandall10 2y ago
"at the expense of communicating ideas with coherence and depth" To be fair, while shorts is clearly designed to generate high virality and compete w/ TikTok, YouTube does incentivize longer form content. For regular videos the platform appears to optimize for engagement at about the 10 minute mark. Political/social discourse is complex and I believe goes beyond a simple soundbite problem. One could argue this began with 24 hour news cycles with all the time in the world, and news had to become entertainment to fill the space. The movie "Network" presaged this sensationalized this culture situation well before it became a thing, and certainly well before social media was conceptualized.
- tartoran 2y ago
  > YouTube does incentivize long If they only gave you the option to remove shorts from results...
  - s1mplicissimus 2y ago
    oh there is an X on the top right corner of the shorts block on the website. but don't you believe clicking it will remove the block for more than a couple days. and you're right, the mobile website/app doesn't even have that
    - olyjohn 2y ago
      Yes it says 'hidden for 30 days' and every damn month I click it again.
  - olyjohn 2y ago
    And the stupid ass playables that they're spamming me with now. It's not enough that I pay for Premium.
lalalandland 2y ago
The creators publication frequency is also an important factor. If you don't put out content at least once per week you fall off the recommended and lose a lot of views. Once your content is shallow, simple and without reflection, you are trapped in a hamster wheel of click bait vapidness.
- cool_dude85 2y ago
  Is this accurate in all cases? Isn't Jenny Nicholson one of the bigger YouTubers, with videos coming out maybe once or twice a year?
  - radpanda 2y ago
    Seems like it might be the exception proving the rule. People say “every” restaurant these days needs to use something like Toast to provide online ordering and needs to play nice with DoorDash for delivery and needs to host ghost kitchens to increase income, etc. Of course there’s that one old-school place with the established reputation that does simple dine-in only and is thriving. But the new upstart can’t just not play the game - that privilege is reserved for those who have already won.
  - nemomarx 2y ago
    Jenny Nicholson and similar accounts rely on other channels than YouTube notifications. basically their video releases become events big enough to get minor news attention, chatter on discord, xitter traffic, etc. if your channel doesn't have dedicated enough fans to do that it's not gonna work on you. and you almost certainly aren't getting news coverage of your review of a star wars hotel, you know? Jenny is rare for that.
  - gilleain 2y ago
    There are a few 'long form' creators like Jenny Nicholson (I recommend the one about the failure of the Star Wars Hotel!). Contrapoints (eg the Twilight one), Big Joel's (recently made a 6hr one!), FoldingIdeas and so on. It's a very different model, and a number of these creators also make videos for Nebula.

by Salgat 2y ago

llamaimperative 2y ago

For an excellent, prescient, hilarious, and terrifying book on this topic, I highly recommend "Amusing Ourselves to Death" by Neil Postman.

stafford_beer 2y ago
OP here -- excellent suggestion, I've been heavily influenced by this book and would also recommend Postman's "Technopoly"
- disqard 2y ago
  Thank you for writing this, and making it available online! When researching+writing this, did you find it useful to look through McLuhan's "Medium is the Message" lens? If so, what are the "message" implications of this ouroboric/circular/whirlpool medium?

bilbo0s 2y ago

I think the above commentor is right, in my opinion, intensification shapes our world into being very reactionary, with only a superficial understanding of issues In fairness, this is how the world has always been. In the US for instance, back when there were only 3 networks and a channel for public tv, people were "reactionary, with only a superficial understanding of issues".

Salgat 2y ago
To some degree yes. Funny enough, llamaimperative's book suggestion goes into detail on how television is where this really started ramp up and how the Age of Reason was likely the peak of rational argument, where the focal point of transfer of information was through the written word. "He repeatedly states that the eighteenth century, the "Age of Reason", was the pinnacle for rational argument. Only in the printed word, he states, could complicated truths be rationally conveyed. Postman gives a striking example: many of the first fifteen U.S. presidents could probably have walked down the street without being recognized by the average citizen, yet all these men would have been quickly known by their written words. However, the reverse is true today. The names of presidents or even famous preachers, lawyers, and scientists call up visual images, typically television images, but few, if any, of their words come to mind. The few that do almost exclusively consist of carefully chosen soundbites. Postman mentions Ronald Reagan, and comments upon Reagan's abilities as an entertainer." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death
- lupusreal 2y ago
  Reagan apparently hated reading and would often skip written briefs given to him by, for instance, the CIA. Then somebody got the idea to put those briefs in the form of a television news style video made just for Reagan. Some of them are on youtube now. They have the tone of spoonfeeding a midwit.
  - 1659447091 2y ago
    Trump was/is the same. At one point they tried powerpoint like presentations with graphics. I don't know about Reagan, but from my personal experience with dyslexia (though I love to read--and dislike videos--even as it takes forever), I think Trump may be dyslexic. I would not be surprised if Reagan were too. I only wish it was more public (if true). It would help eliminate the stigma and eliminate most of the cheap shots about how he can't read or spell and how his speech is "simple" (as he has trouble pronouncing more complex words). Things that those of us with dyslexia can have problems with also. *I did not vote for him

prpl 2y ago

You see this a lot in strange ways these days. Rage bait, feigned ignorance, and things like that. It’s anti-quality and it’s just as effective (if not more) than quality content.

_DeadFred_ 2y ago
What was the Twitter joke. 'If I want an answer to a programming question, I post the question, and then an incorrect response from a different account.' No ones posting to help, but a lot will post to smugly correct the wrong answer.
- snowfarthing 2y ago
  I'm not entirely sure if smugness is the entire reason for doing it -- I suspect that for many of us (particularly autistics like me) there's a certain amount "But someone's wrong on the internet!" syndrome going on. Some of us just can't work up the energy to answer a question, but if we see something wrong, it doesn't sit well with us, and we have to correct it. And yes, sometimes when I see a question I can answer, it gives me the energy to answer it ... but not always ...
- refulgentis 2y ago
  old IRC joke
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- SpaceNugget 2y ago
  This trick has been around forever, it's actually got a name, "goodhart's law"
  - sotix 2y ago
    Oh your comment is so clever because now I’ve gone to correct you that it’s actually Cunningham's Law.

brandall10 2y ago

"at the expense of communicating ideas with coherence and depth" To be fair, while shorts is clearly designed to generate high virality and compete w/ TikTok, YouTube does incentivize longer form content. For regular videos the platform appears to optimize for engagement at about the 10 minute mark. Political/social discourse is complex and I believe goes beyond a simple soundbite problem. One could argue this began with 24 hour news cycles with all the time in the world, and news had to become entertainment to fill the space. The movie "Network" presaged this sensationalized this culture situation well before it became a thing, and certainly well before social media was conceptualized.

tartoran 2y ago
> YouTube does incentivize long If they only gave you the option to remove shorts from results...
- s1mplicissimus 2y ago
  oh there is an X on the top right corner of the shorts block on the website. but don't you believe clicking it will remove the block for more than a couple days. and you're right, the mobile website/app doesn't even have that
  - olyjohn 2y ago
    Yes it says 'hidden for 30 days' and every damn month I click it again.
- olyjohn 2y ago
  And the stupid ass playables that they're spamming me with now. It's not enough that I pay for Premium.

lalalandland 2y ago

The creators publication frequency is also an important factor. If you don't put out content at least once per week you fall off the recommended and lose a lot of views. Once your content is shallow, simple and without reflection, you are trapped in a hamster wheel of click bait vapidness.

cool_dude85 2y ago
Is this accurate in all cases? Isn't Jenny Nicholson one of the bigger YouTubers, with videos coming out maybe once or twice a year?
- radpanda 2y ago
  Seems like it might be the exception proving the rule. People say “every” restaurant these days needs to use something like Toast to provide online ordering and needs to play nice with DoorDash for delivery and needs to host ghost kitchens to increase income, etc. Of course there’s that one old-school place with the established reputation that does simple dine-in only and is thriving. But the new upstart can’t just not play the game - that privilege is reserved for those who have already won.
- nemomarx 2y ago
  Jenny Nicholson and similar accounts rely on other channels than YouTube notifications. basically their video releases become events big enough to get minor news attention, chatter on discord, xitter traffic, etc. if your channel doesn't have dedicated enough fans to do that it's not gonna work on you. and you almost certainly aren't getting news coverage of your review of a star wars hotel, you know? Jenny is rare for that.
- gilleain 2y ago
  There are a few 'long form' creators like Jenny Nicholson (I recommend the one about the failure of the Star Wars Hotel!). Contrapoints (eg the Twilight one), Big Joel's (recently made a 6hr one!), FoldingIdeas and so on. It's a very different model, and a number of these creators also make videos for Nebula.