A bit of a tangent, but YouTube had sucked me into hours of economic doomscrolling a day. I even purchased the premium tier to avoid ads. Then suddenly two months ago they changed some algo and all the good videos are gone, along with most of my engagement.

The lesson I learned: Even if I find magic, magic can quickly disappear with a new production release.

Interesting. I haven’t experienced that. I have premium too. But mostly I have my subscriptions which the algorithm doesn’t impact; it just riffs on what’s already there: education/cooking/exercise/comedy.

I'll agree here, the algo has changed, but maybe not for the worse. I am doomscrolling less, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. It can't be healthy to constantly be doomscrolling.

I've now collected several different creators who are one both platforms, and without exception I prefer their content on YouTube over TikTok. You just can't compare the quality level expected for youtube to tiktok. On Youtube, if you want any views at all, you pretty much MUST have a high quality HD camera (some modern phones now count), a good microphone, good presentation, there was most likely a script written out and edited, there will often be diagrams or explanations or rationalizations for many parts, there will be digging into details basically.

Physically speaking, TikTok videos CANNOT do anything but be extremely shallow "Fast Fact" videos that just make a claim, with no evidence, no reasoning, no verification, just a "Hey I'm me and I say I'm someone and this is a factoid and either believe me or don't". These videos are great for addiction, because if you are gullible for those kinds of factoids you will love an endless barrage of dopamine inducing "Facts" that you can repeat at the next party you attend.

Youtube has similar "Factoid" videos but you will also find 20 minute short form essays rebutting those factoids with demonstrations, evidence, citations, etc. You simply can't rebut a 1 minute claim in a 1 minute video in a way that laypeople should be convinced by. It's weaponization of "It's harder to debunk that spout nonsense"