• sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    And how does YouTube know what people might want to watch? By tracking what they watch and adjusting their algorithms appropriately.

    My experience is that I do not like what the autoplay function plays next, for example.

    Perhaps you’re not part of the quiet majority.

    but also controversial stuff like criticism

    Sure, that one is self-serving, but it’s probably in line with what the majority want. Most people don’t care about YouTube drama, they just want to watch entertaining videos. Look at the most popular YouTube videos, TV shows, etc, that’s what the quiet majority are watching, and it’s probably a similar demographic as those who actually click ads.

    By using Lemmy, you’re self-selecting as not the quiet majority. I’m guessing you’re quite into tech and probably either work in tech or are going to school in tech. You also probably care more about the openness of tech than the number of other people using the platform. You’re absolutely in a minority, probably several different minorities.

    YouTube’s number one goal is to show ads, and their service does that by getting people to watch more videos. And how do they do that? By recommending videos the majority want to watch, and by nudging users toward more “addictive” videos (those high energy, high engagement videos where you just have to keep watching). People like watching crap like Mr. Beast (dream about being the benefactor of one of his stunts), which is why he’s so successful.

    • KomfortablesKissen
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      2 months ago

      And how does YouTube know what people might want to watch? By tracking what they watch and adjusting their algorithms appropriately.

      My point is that that is not the reason, but one step on the way. And it is a way to influence people even to the point of enforcing things.

      Perhaps you’re not part of the quiet majority.

      Correct.

      YouTube’s number one goal is to show ads, and their service does that by getting people to watch more videos.

      Which is a singular goal with a reachable epitome of video making that is essentially enforcing a rally between content creators to find this epitome.

      How does this create unique content? This is merely tolerating the existence of such content, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of profits or rock any boats with “youtube drama”. How does this competition create unique stuff?

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        People aren’t going to watch variations of the same content back to back, but they do want content presented in a fairly consistent way that draws their attention.

        YouTube also penalizes creators from straying too far from their typical content, encouraging separate channels if they want to make diverse content. So that encourages creators to carve out a niche for themselves and fill it. Users will gravitate toward the “best” in a given niche (for various definitions of “best”), so there’s pressure on creators to get better at whatever their unique niche is.

        If you really look at YouTube, you’ll find a huge variety of content with high production value that follow a similar marketing style (thumbnails, titles, and presentation format). The marketing style being similar doesn’t mean the content is similar.