Re:“User Engagement” Is Code for “Addiction”
by slothtrop on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @02:38PM
(#26157827)
Just yesterday I got recommendations for Sky News, some preacher, and conspiracy clips. All it took was to watch a couple of music videos with several million views. This is what the algorithm is shoveling to people.
One evening of video surfing and you'll practically trip over them. I have no idea how it is one could never notice this stuff. I clear cookies and have no account.
Re:“User Engagement” Is Code for “Addiction”
by ohdannyboy on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @02:56PM
(#26158033)
Interesting. I do look at related videos so it's not about noticing anything... We clearly have different experiences.
The difference I see is that I have an account with subscriptions and years of activity data. I guess the algorithm knows I don't click on that stuff so they stopped trying to show it to me. I'm very surprised to learn they are giving users these recommendations by default.
Re:“User Engagement” Is Code for “Addiction”
by Kaze404 on Thursday February 18, 2021 @05:42AM
(#26178288)
It is mine. I don't watch much political content on YouTube, and I constantly get Steven Crowder and PragerU videos on my recommended feed. Needless to say I don't subscribe to their ideas (to put it lightly).
Want a non-conspiracy example? Search "obama is gone" on youtube then on DuckDuckGo. Even a stupid crab rave meme is buried, presumably for the purposes of preventing Obama related conspiracy theories from emerging.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=obama+is+gone https://duckduckgo.com/?q=obama+is+gone+site%3Ayoutube.com
I'd still never park my kid on Youtube but things aren't like they were pre-adpocalypse.