[1]:https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3617062/children-turn-backs-on...
(I get the irony of pushing a gossip blog to prove the point)
As others have mentioned, before the rise of Youtube, the learning based channels on TV weren't doing so well in terms of popularity.
On a positive note though, our late stage capitalism era(plus half the millenial generation failing) has beaten any idea of "follow your dreams" out of young peoples souls. As a result, Gen-Z (and I suspect Gan Alpha) seem to be very pragmatic when they come of age and realize that the only real viable career is to hide in a closet/cube and be a coder or (surprisingly) enter the trades. Great for the US economy, terrible for the generation's self-esteem. (Gen-Z has one of the highest suicide rate of any generation in American history).
[2]:https://www.businessinsider.com/cdc-teenage-gen-z-american-s...
Given how many Americans mistrust "academia," "liberal education" and "mainstream science," I'm gonna go with yes, given some disturbingly large value of yes.
It would be nice if Youtube and other algorithmically driven platforms preferred to surface educational and factual content but as soon as they tried, of course, Americans would scream bloody murder about the Ministry of Truth trying to indoctrinate them with wokeist propaganda, censor alternative facts and placate the masses with MKULTRA mind control. And we'd have to have another futile conversation about who watches the watchers and what even "facts" are.