They need to stop showing people the upvote and view COUNTS. Behind the scenes they can still use it to make recommendations.
Those numbers are pseudo signals of quality to people who encounter content they have never encountered before.
Even when they have doubts that are watching something unhealthy the mind goes "well if the rest of the world thinks this dumbass is important I better pay attention..."
If a dumbass hurting people on video gets 10 million views other dumbasses worldwide automatically get triggered looking at the count. "hey I can do this maybe I should run for President..."
Remove the counts and you remove the pseudo signal of quality.
Edit: the Instagram motivation is admittedly a bit different, but a good path regardless
I want to see the counts. I feel it is far more transparent to see the counts than for things to just be surfaced or not opaquely. Youtube is not a discussion site and it does not work as one. How popular things are is a part of the context of pop culture, and most youtube content is pop culture.
I can't think of any traditional medium that tells you the popularity of something before you consume it. Movie theaters, TV stations, radio stations, etc. have no concept of "view counts" telling you whether or not to consume something.
He gets an average of 10-15 views per day.
The value this guy adds to my day is literally measurable in $$$.
If I could find more people like him, that would be great, but instead these are my recommendations:
- 5 ways to do X
- Bill Gates breaks down blah blah blah
- Something about Tesla
- One video by a guy I discovered outside of YouTube who is similar to the guy I watch every day. I don't watch this one that much though.
1. Account for actually useful stuff where YT's recommendations are useless
2. Account where YT's recommendations are OK: white noise like things. Howard Stern interviews, etc
I interpret 4 upvotes and 1 downvote much differently than 4000 upvotes and 1000 downvotes.
Well, information IS available, beforehand in nielson ratings and films' grossing numbers, but you're essentially right.
That's the problem: opaqueness leaves us vulnerable to being misled. Some PR company calls it "the hottest ticket of the season," and we have no way of corroborating this claim.
That only works for rational people.
View counts ~= box office take ~= TV ratings ~= Billboard.
Every type of media you list has gatekeepers, kingmakers, and counters, and other things influencing your to or not to consume.
And content-creators play a part in this: next time you hear about some pop-drama do a youtube search and admire how many videos are a single person just reblabbing the same story in front of a mic, cam, or videogames. You'll find hundreds. And so many things on youtube are like this...
Only with respect to people you know talking about it. Not just arbitrary metrics. Rating systems are part of the context of putting valuations on ads, not part of culture. Whatever impact they do have is based on advertisers trying to reel you in by applying the bandwagon fallacy and stoking your sense of FOMO. It's not something edifying.
I figure that they probably don't give a damn about users like me, the algorithm is designed to steer traffic to a pyramid of monetized content and I don't seem to have any options to fight the trend but to disengage.
There are some channels/users that I started following a long time ago but after I watch one of their videos I land back on the crapflood.
Also, I'd say people turn rational or irrational on their own choices.