It’s easy to say “You get awful recommendations because of the content you watch on Youtube”. I could say that very easily, but I don’t accept that premise because I took a Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies and I learned to think about deeper topics. I thought about media ownership, control and the theme of power without responsibility. It’s a book about the Press and Broadcasting in Britain but the concepts apply globally.
Recently I have been thinking more about trolling. I have been thinking about why, I, and others, appear so negative or toxic on social media. I believe that one reason for this is that algorithms drive conversations and popularity, rather than time devoted to social media, and conversationalism.
Return on Investment Then and Now By this I mean that if I spent 20 hours on social media in 2006 or 2007 I would have spent 20 hours watching conversations between friends, and friends of friends.
Today I spotted another clear sign that modern social media are toxic and unhealthy. I see this through the boy sober movement.
A new trend is sweeping TikTok: #boysober. Its rules? No dating apps, no dates, no exes, no hookups. Thousands of women are uploading videos describing why they have gone boy sober and extolling its benefits.
In my opinion this is a clear demonstration of why algorithms are so awful on social media.
According to a recent article YouTube will use AI to direct the content that people make, how it looks how it sounds and more. In so doing YouTube will be even less interesting.
AI tools will also begin informing what kind of content creators make. A new AI feature in YouTube Studio will generate topic ideas and outlines for potential videos. The AI suggestions will be personalized to individual creators, YouTube says, and based on what’s already trending with audiences.
If you want to see how unhealthy social media is just look at this story about DMs on Instagram. Now if you want to DM someone that you don’t follow they can send just one text message.
Imagine, you’re a user of Instagram. You’re following friends, family and colleagues. Now consider that every fourth post is by someone you don’t know anything about. Now imagine that you see the influencers several times a day, every single time you refresh your feed.