permanent note
Summary
- Social media algorithms are designed to keep you watching, and the best way to do this is to show more and more extreme things
Details
- whatever you start watching, it will show you more and more extreme videos.
References
- Brandwashed - Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy - Martin Lindstrom
Quotes
Just like Facebook, YouTube makes more money the longer you watch. That’s why they designed it so that when you stop watching one video, it automatically recommends and plays another one for you. How are those videos selected? YouTube also has an algorithm – and it too has figured that that you’ll keep watching longer if you see things that are outrageous, shocking and extreme. Guillaume had seen how it works, with all the data YouTube keeps secret – and he saw what it meant in practice. If you watched a factual video about the Holocaust, it would recommend several more videos, each one getting more extreme, and within a chain of five or so videos, it would usually end up automatically playing a video denying the Holocaust happened. If you watched a normal video about 9/11, it would often recommend a ‘9/11 truther’ video in a similar way. This isn’t because the algorithm (or anyone at YouTube) is a Holocaust denier or 9/11 truther. It was simply selecting whatever would most shock and compel people to watch longer. Tristan started to look into this, and concluded: ‘No matter where you start, you end up more crazy.’