I don't get why grown adults are acting like it's some kind of revelation that social media platforms thrive on misery and conflict.
How have physical newspapers kept going for all these decades/centuries?
Also, children have way more free time than adults, poor impulse control and short attention spans so will continually click through, of course Meta etc are reliant on them. If big tech was genuinely concerned with mental wellbeing they'd whack an 18+ barrier with ID verification in front of all their products.
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Turtle Power & Knuckles, Fri 30 Sep 2022, 19:46,
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Agreed on all that. I'm not looking forward to my son discovering it.
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evil_andy Stick stick stick stick sticky sticky stick stick, Fri 30 Sep 2022, 20:14,
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I die inside a bit every time I see some toddler wandering about clutching a smartphone
Seems like childhood isn't really a thing now
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Turtle Power & Knuckles, Fri 30 Sep 2022, 20:27,
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It's a relatively modern invention, supposedly.
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brb Monkhouse Stampede, Fri 30 Sep 2022, 21:13,
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Childhood.
It's supposedly a thing we did without until two or three hundred years ago according to some over-educated social science types.
Not that women used to give birth to adults, just that we didn't use to fetishise/idealise the concept of childhood as a special time of innocence and wonder, rather we put them to work, and/or sold/married them off asap.
The evidence for this theory is pretty shonky as I recall.
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brb Monkhouse Stampede, Sat 1 Oct 2022, 21:37,
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It's a cause célèbre to distract.
Controversial subjects always attract attention, most mammals pay attention to potential threats to survive. My question is why should we be any different?
It is much easier to blame the media rather than look at what might lead to young people to be depressed, the answers might be far more painful to accept.
Edit: For light relief, Radio 4 is serialising The Exorcist, starting 11pm.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03vgxyz
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FeralCatMan Unusual disease collector., Fri 30 Sep 2022, 20:44,
Reply)
To be fair, it was more a post about how the beeb seems to think someone posting something on twitter is news, but here we are.
You are right, the media (social or otherwise) aren't entirely to blame and there are much deeper and harder problems to solve. However I don't think they're exactly helping the situation. Quite the opposite. YouTube for example has been trying to force some particularly fringe content on me of late, despite me telling them I don't want it every single time it appears. Nobody seems to be taking responsibility for the societal cost of The Algorithm, despite it clearly having one.
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evil_andy Stick stick stick stick sticky sticky stick stick, Fri 30 Sep 2022, 22:19,
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The Algorithm is another way of displacing responsibility.
'It isn't our fault (don't sue) it needs a tweak (then we'll blame an underling)" meanwhile the stock is still priced okay, so we're fine.
I watched a few chemistry videos and now it spams me with the sort of chemistry that prompts watch lists.
Maybe the royal worshippers
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FeralCatMan Unusual disease collector., Fri 30 Sep 2022, 22:35,
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Don't be signed in when watching YT videos, and delete cookies from Google and YouTube on a daily basis. Works for me.
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Turtle Power & Knuckles, Sat 1 Oct 2022, 9:58,
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The problem with this is that I can't use 'like' as a 'bookmark for later' feature.
I've never really had an issue with the 'suggested videos' feed, because I've never really paid any attention to it. When I find a channel I like (usually through recommendations from other channels I like), I subscribe to it. Whenever I visit YouTube, I go directly to my subscriptions feed and watch any new content from there.
On the occasion that I have stumbled across the suggested/recommended feed, it's only ever been 1) Fucking loads of knock-off versions of channels I've subscribed to, 2) Linus fucking Tech Tips, or 3) Videos that Youtube is pushing due to current cultural/political trends. It's bollocks.
Mind you, YouTube's entire business model is absolute bollocks, so it's not much of a surprise that their recommended feed is curated to suit YouTube far more than it's tailored to fit the user.
(, Sat 1 Oct 2022, 10:26, Reply)
Bookmark the url in your browser instead, unless you're talking the mobile app.
Yeah, "Recommended" is BS.
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Turtle Power & Knuckles, Sat 1 Oct 2022, 10:55,
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I like saving the stuff I do like and 'watch later' functions.
My memory is too rubbish.
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FeralCatMan Unusual disease collector., Sat 1 Oct 2022, 20:03,
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Youtube suggestions have been pretty sane for me lately.
My google news feed is absolutely hatstand though. It's like they're two different companies with two very different ideas of what I'm interested in, yet both are google.
I thiiiink YT suggestions are based on previous likes and 'engagement'. I suspect the news feed is based on card purchases (which explains why I get news that might interest people I've bought presents for, but none of any interest to me).
'Don't Recommend Channel' is the option that works, btw. Seems to chop off a lot of crazy branches for me, anyway.
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brb Monkhouse Stampede, Fri 30 Sep 2022, 22:59,
Reply)
'Don't Recommend Channel' is precisely what I've been using, and every now and again YouTube decides that perhaps I didn't mean it and starts showing me the channels again. I've had to block some upwards of four times now.
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evil_andy Stick stick stick stick sticky sticky stick stick, Sat 1 Oct 2022, 0:20,
Reply)
Mozilla looked into it
theverge.com/2022/9/20/23356434/youtube-dislike-not-interested-buttons-bad-recommendations-mozilla-report
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Mudface The web isn't callipygian, Sat 1 Oct 2022, 5:44,
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That explains why it keeps trying to get me to watch egregious shitheads
despite repeatedly telling YouTube to fuck right off.
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wheresthefish Partly filled with wrong, Sat 1 Oct 2022, 11:30,
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"Shitheads with millions of views" is all that YT cares about pushing
not sure what buttons I have to press to get "Sidemen" and "MrBeast" to disappear completely
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Turtle Power & Knuckles, Sat 1 Oct 2022, 11:59,
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I very rarely get recommended popular shitheads.
IDK who Sidemen or MrBeast are.
I've heard of the Paul brothers through boxing and wrestling. I'm aware of Poodiepie or whatever he's called through South Park. Beyond that I have no fucking idea who is popular on YT.
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brb Monkhouse Stampede, Sat 1 Oct 2022, 14:31,
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I think they all belong to this group of people that mainly "react" to other people's videos
but MrBeast does it while simultaneously setting fire to a million dollars each time
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Turtle Power & Knuckles, Sat 1 Oct 2022, 20:02,
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That doesn't surprise me one bit.
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evil_andy Stick stick stick stick sticky sticky stick stick, Sat 1 Oct 2022, 16:22,
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Are you the only person using your yt account?
Cos this stuff doesn't happen to mine.
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brb Monkhouse Stampede, Sat 1 Oct 2022, 14:27,
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It happens to everyone, the channel owners see it at the point of origin.
Shadiversity did an interesting* video on it a few weeks back.
*your mileage may vary
(, Sat 1 Oct 2022, 16:14, Reply)