via GLP:
“In the past couple of weeks I have noticed changes I don’t like.
For example, I am subscribed to several gardening channels, notifications turned on, but they no longer show up in my feed. Instead I am bombarded with click bait AI gardening channels with dubious “tips” and misidentification of plants.
I subscribe to several independent journalists on Canada affairs, but they stopped being suggested. Instead I get new channels with AI voice, sensational thumbnails with headlines I wish were true but know they aren’t. I think I have been identified as not a fan of the narrative so they want to lead me into woowoo land to distract me from looking for truth, logic and balance.
There is a weather channel I watch daily, the only one I am subscribed to, but he doesn’t show up in my suggestions anymore. If it does, it’s not today’s video, it’s about a hurricane that happened last year. Instead I get global warming advocates and AI forecasts for Florida and SC.
And in the last few days I have been inundated by videos about supposed historical cases of cults, deranged children doing deranged things, the dark past of the Amish and Quakers, etc, read by AI (badly) and provably false with a few searches. I click to have these removed from the feed, but they keep coming back.
I keep indicating that I want fewer shorts, but they still dominate. If I wanted to see shorts I would get a tik tok account.
So for now I will stick to my sub list, but it’s a shame that I am unlikely to find good new to me channels. Sucks for legit content creators.
It’s insidious, they feed you what they think you want to hear and they do it in a way that steers your attention away from anything real and useful.
I have been on youtube since the late 90s. That should be enough time to establish what my preferences are. I watch or listen to all sorts of things, like archeology, astronomy, music, audio books, short stories, independent news and commentary. Normally I get up, load a queue of interesting things from my home page and get about my chores, my coffee, playing with the dog while listening. But not anymore. It sucks.
So whatever. I can listen to local radio in Spanish which is actually pretty good and dust off my external drive where decades of music is stored. Don’t get me started on Spotify. Another platform that has lost touch with the user.”