There’s Something Wrong With Youtube
The illusion of choice
--
Youtube has many problems.
Kids is one. Kids of all ages are consuming repetitive, mind-numbing content by the hour.
I took a look at what Youtube thinks is kids-friendly content. Here’s what I saw:
Honestly, I’d rather have my kid watch rap videos all day than float in this psychedelic vacuum.
Censorship is another problem.
Whenever advertisers raise their voice, Youtube jumps to mass-murder a bunch of channels via demonetization or outright removal. Most of these punished channels are absolutely innocent and have zero say in the matter.
Still, the advertisers calm down, Youtubers eventually give up, and the cycle continues.
Youtube is also silently, but actively political.
A while ago, they took down a music video criticizing Joe Biden. Last year, they demonetized a video criticizing AOC, and possibly demonetized a video critical of the Chinese government.
Whenever they get caught doing this, they just reverse their ban and say “oops.”
Meanwhile, celebrities are given priority status in every way possible:
- Celebrity videos are usually instantly “verified” (which goes against Youtube’s policy of having 100,000 subscribers, which they said applies to everyone)
- Celebrity videos are almost always pushed on the platform, especially on new channels
- Celebrities almost never get demonetised or removed for sexually explicit or violent or offensive content, because “art”
But the biggest problem about Youtube isn’t censorship.
The biggest problem is that it’s making intelligent, adult, self-aware individuals dumb.
To understand what makes Youtube dumb, you need to understand what makes Youtube Youtube.
Youtube is different from TV because it offers choice.
