I watched this video this morning and it really has been instructive for understanding, well, a lot of behavior.
https://youtu.be/bNOol5OTasw
https://youtu.be/bNOol5OTasw
Comments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWtvrPTbQ_c
Love your work.
https://youtu.be/jQIHqkudgNY
It is random, but because of the physical universe. And you can get better at it, but you're never going to be perfect. But it's not a program making it artificially difficult.
Like I don't even mind short from content, but I use Youtube shorts almost exclusively for that because you click on individual videos still. Something about the lack of control just causes me to bounce off it
Every service I use has autoplay disabled and I actively avoid the "swipe up" on any video app I do use.
I get distracted of my own accord, I don't need an app for that!
https://www.minimalistphone.com/
Absolute madlass.
Open a new account on a different phone, and start the process anew and watch what happens in real time.
It's terrifying the addiction is the goal, not the info.
Billions can't put the phone down now.
https://wikitok.vercel.app/
I'm toying with making a main channel video where I talk about this. Not in the scope of addiction but in the idea of human curation over algorithmic slot machines.
ISWYDT
I find myself constantly scrolling the youtube homepage looking for the next fix, and find the subscription feed lacking. I don't _like_ it, but so it goes.
Not how my brain works, but a lot of people are just busy and tired and don't think about things like good search strategy, etc. I can see how it seems hard
But there's a brain nugget burying itself in me which says "we need to help each other learn how to find stuff"
i can find 3 matching pairs of stuff and let my brain turn off
and i agree, time to bring back manual link-aggregator sites. also a great way to fight against shitty SEO, for people who actually make good stuff
I created a little exercise based on some questions people were asking me here which were very answerable
the scrolling addiction is imo bc people don’t have something specific in mind, and coming up with something feels laborious and scrolling is infinitely easy — like channel surfing before it
but people absolutely also don’t know how to search when they do have something in mind
YouTube has a pretty tame algorithm and I often find myself just out of content.
It's a lot of work to do that constant curation, and how do you make people care about doing it?
I think it's good that there is an end. If I'm bored, I'll do something else. Or maybe give the algorithm a spin.
But reaching the end is good.
Maybe we just need to help people find more offline hobbies again.
I got free cable up onto the 2010s so I could always have something I'm in the background. Now I need YouTube to fill the gap and it requires more attention to find of content because it's semi-pro.
I do often have TV on in the background while doing other things, but I find myself able to tolerate/actually crave silence more and more as I age.
Audio books are good for stuff like cleaning or cooking.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on psychology as technology.
Less than 3 percent of my channel's view in 2024 came from the subs feed. Yet it's... right there.
This is partly a people problem.
And then people complain that YT doesn't show them every single video from a subscription-- like- hello?! *gestures wildly at Subscription feed*
I do still browse the home feed on my phone sometimes, and I do love seeing new creators that I've not seen before in there
But most of my YouTube viewing is on PC, where it's sub only
Yet more evidence for my theory that I am an alien masquerading as human.
if I see a new video on the front page I'm likely to click it from there or as a suggested next video
it's rare that I haven't caught up with my subs by the time I get bored of the front page
Kind of shocking they haven’t deprecated it, but I appreciate it.
But then again, it's not the default feed and asking people to press one more button when they open an app is impossible.
I never miss a video from the channels I care about, and I can group channels by interest and upload frequency.
Only downside is shorts are mixed in there, and I haven’t found a way to filter them out.
p.s. I spared you all from the word "algorizzm"
some days are boring when no one uploads, but thats just an opportunity to seek out new videos on my own
Granted I'm far from typical, but I know I make a point of staying logged out of G except when absolutely necessary.
The algorithm was also good for discovery for a while, though I've subscribed to almost everything good it shows me now.
Like perfectly intelligent people who have convinced themselves that tech is just beyond-
Otherwise, browsing hashtags.
I kind of think that might be the main driver of political polarization - it's a bias amplifier. And I'd almost wager some engineer somewhere figured a 50/50 split in two directions was "fair"
Humans and unfettered cellphone use is causing a global mental health crisis.
https://youtu.be/q0V-C5yr5sg
I've done quite a bit of self hosting and administrative maintenance to clean up my home network.
Love all the work you do, I learn about stuff beyond my personal tech-sphere 'cause of you.
I was addicted to BBSs in the 90s
I was addicted to Napster, Pirate Bay, Kazaa, and Limewire
I was addicted to Facebook
I was addicted to TikTok
I got over them all and moved on without a problem.
Algorithmic feeds are just these endless scrolls and they just tank my focus and productivity, especially when they begin to figure me out and how to take advantage of my hyperfocus and chemical imbalances.
Now it does make me wonder how I can follow other YouTubers I subscribe to here without manually searching for everyone…
i've been putting links to my bluesky and mastodon in every new video for over a year.
I am merely now habituated to a rapid, and more efficient, flow of data.