YouTube, the Great Radicalizer · Synthesizer School

Oct '22 (edited) in Other

YouTube, the Great Radicalizer

I stumbled on this article today, and I think it is relevant here: YouTube, the Great Radicalizer (New York Times, 2018)

Basically, the theory is, that in hopes of getting the users hooked, the YouTube recommendation engine constantly ups the stakes.

This means, recommended videos become more and more "radical" the longer the auto-play function runs. This goes across all topics. The recommendations become more and more "extreme":

Eat healthy >> Vegetarian >> Vegan

Jogging >> Marathon >> Ultra-Marathon

Make Money >> Become a Millionaire >> Become a Billionaire

Donald Trump >> Fascism >> Holocaust Deniers

Joe Biden >> Socialism >> Communism

You get the idea.

Psychologically it makes total sense and I agree with the author, that this can't be healthy, considering that the world is consuming a collective of one billion hours on YouTube per day.

What do you think about this radicalization theory?

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