• FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    14 hours ago

    YouTube is making us stupid. My aunt sent me a video claiming Trump has been removed from office and she believes it

    • Obi@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      13 hours ago

      I give YouTube the “double edged sword” rating. If you control yourself and your feed, you can learn soooo much on YouTube, but yes if you tell it “I like butts and brain rot reaction videos” then I assume it can be just as bad as tiktok or any other.

      • FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        12 hours ago

        Yeah, there are some very informative videos on there. I’m pretty sure the algorithm showed my aunt that fake news video because she’s always watching weird conspiracy theory videos.

        • SpacetimeMachine@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          4 hours ago

          Yea the issue with algorithms is that they don’t adapt to your viewing habits, they instead try to adapt your viewing to known “rabbit holes” that have massive engagement. Conspiracy content is one of the biggest ones on there and thus a ton of people get pushed conspiracy videos constantly. Thankfully there is also a large (but not nearly as large) anti-conspiracy community that is debunking a lot of stuff constantly, and calling out how stupid this stuff is.