Re:I don't want to spend my one precious life dealing with G...
by mrweasel on Thursday May 16, 2024 @03:27PM
(#40382139)
> Your algorithm is a reflection of you.
Yes and no, you're correct in that it feeds you more of the stuff you engage with, but that's not what it should be going if YouTube cared about the mental well being of it's users. The YouTube algorithm is notorious for not responding to deliberate user input. Say I know that the content I engage with is harmful to my mental health, first step in dealing with the issue. You CANNOT tell YouTube to stop enabling you, even if you try. There are things the algorithm isn't smart enough to understand, or if YouTube is evil, understand that it SHOULD NOT respond to.
Example: I wasted a lot of time on Shorts, and videos less than 2 minutes, junk content. So I start hitting "Not interested", the algorithm WILL NOT pick up on the thing these videos have in common, that they are short. You can block channels, that works, except that there are thousands of similar channels which YouTube will then just push instead.
What I would like to see is YouTube have settings for: What kind of person do you want to be? And then just push the hell out of relevant content, ignoring any level of engagement. I think everyone knows why YouTube won't be doing that.
YouTube is a company, they do what's good for the stock price / profit margin. If it hurts the users, they don't care. It's not that they are evil, they just don't give a crap.
Yes and no, you're correct in that it feeds you more of the stuff you engage with, but that's not what it should be going if YouTube cared about the mental well being of it's users. The YouTube algorithm is notorious for not responding to deliberate user input. Say I know that the content I engage with is harmful to my mental health, first step in dealing with the issue. You CANNOT tell YouTube to stop enabling you, even if you try. There are things the algorithm isn't smart enough to understand, or if YouTube is evil, understand that it SHOULD NOT respond to.
Example: I wasted a lot of time on Shorts, and videos less than 2 minutes, junk content. So I start hitting "Not interested", the algorithm WILL NOT pick up on the thing these videos have in common, that they are short. You can block channels, that works, except that there are thousands of similar channels which YouTube will then just push instead.
What I would like to see is YouTube have settings for: What kind of person do you want to be? And then just push the hell out of relevant content, ignoring any level of engagement. I think everyone knows why YouTube won't be doing that.
YouTube is a company, they do what's good for the stock price / profit margin. If it hurts the users, they don't care. It's not that they are evil, they just don't give a crap.