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0 pointsLewisVerstappen3y ago0 comments

> The impact isn't massive just on mental health, but also on general productivity and people's social lives. It's just way too addicting.

My main app of choice is YouTube and it's just astonishing how much amazing educational content there is on the app.

MIT OpenCourseware, 3Blue1Brown, PBS Eons, SmarterEveryDay, ... and I could go on and on....

DESPITE THIS, their recommendations and the YouTube search has gotten so unbelievably terrible over the past few years that it's just becoming unusable.

Their recommendations have nothing to do with the channels I'm subscribed to, instead it's so much goddamn crap with click-bait titles/thumbnails (because one of the biggest factors for the YouTube Rec. Algorithm is thumbnail click-through-rate).

For YouTube search, if you search for "schlieffen plan", then sure the first 3-4 recommendations will be based on what you searched. BUT after that, the fucking recommendations have nothing to do with your search query... instead it'll just be completely random stuff that the YouTube algorithm thinks you might click on.

It's gotten completely unusable with YouTube shorts now because they're trying to shove that shit down the throat of their users (99% of the YouTube shorts are complete fucking garbage).

It's really a shame because there's so much amazing content that's been uploaded to the YouTube platform, but the idiots in charge of the company are completely ruining the app... especially over the past few years.

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wackro3y ago

I remember reading part of a study a few years ago that noted that youtube was the only social media (in the study) that didn't negatively affect mental health. In fact it had a slight positive impact.

If I find it I will link it, but here's an article in a similar vein: https://www.psychalive.org/worst-mental-health-instagram-fac...

So yes, the search is obviously geared towards engagement. But not at the cost of mental health.

shuger3y ago

To be fair youtube is not really social media in traditional sense. It's more of a content delivery platform. It's not a place where you go to watch pixtures from your friends holiday or political hot takes but more traditional entertainment.

mgdlbp3y ago

It's funny how closely early YouTube resembles TikTok in the 'average people singing, dancing, vlogging, being funny in front of the webcam' type of video that's entirely missing from modern YouTube (the webcam having been seamlessly replaced by the front-facing phone camera).

Even the median length was similar, around 30 seconds, and the video responses feature for replying to one video with another certainly looks familiar. We can look back at exactly how it was in the Wayback Machine: here's a random snapshot of the 'Most Recent' page from 2006.[1] Remember the stereotypical TikTok feed full of dancing girls?

We can't get the past internet back, of course, but this realization really made me see TikTok in a different way. (though YouTube's propensity for recommending decade-old videos ought to be noted with regard to this--a social media site willing to show you some of its oldest content, that's rare!)

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20060612075750/http://www.youtub...

LewisVerstappenOP3y ago

Yeah definitely agreed. I was talking about "The impact isn't massive just on mental health, but also on general productivity and people's social lives. It's just way too addicting" so moreso general productivity as opposed to mental health. That's why I highlighted that part in my comment.

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