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In the belly of the MrBeast

kevinmunger.substack.com

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Re: In the belly of the MrBeast

#141

Post by brandall10 »

Salgat wrote: post #83
iambateman wrote: post #4

First of all – the essay is phenomenal and his book is available online for free – https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/youtube-apparatus/36... > “Communication within the YouTube Apparatus has no meaning.” The rapid feedback loop between creators and audiences (as constructed by platform metrics) means that the system more and more responds to itself. Rather than trying to go somewhere (as is the case with politi…

For people confused like me on what intensification means, it means maximizing the amount of attention and interaction that occurs. On Youtube this would be the metrics that drive engagement, including views, likes, comments, shares, and watch time. The issue is that the content focuses on driving engagement at the expense of communicating ideas with coherence and depth, for example by sensationalizing or oversimplif…

"at the expense of communicating ideas with coherence and depth"

To be fair, while shorts is clearly designed to generate high virality and compete w/ TikTok, YouTube does incentivize longer form content. For regular videos the platform appears to optimize for engagement at about the 10 minute mark.

Political/social discourse is complex and I believe goes beyond a simple soundbite problem. One could argue this began with 24 hour news cycles with all the time in the world, and news had to become entertainment to fill the space. The movie "Network" presaged this sensationalized this culture situation well before it became a thing, and certainly well before social media was conceptualized.

Re: In the belly of the MrBeast

#142

Post by jonasced »

magicalhippo wrote: post #50
hn8726 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no clue how to use YouTube. It seems like as soon as it latches on 3-4 interests of mine, the entire home page is exclusively filled with videos relating to that. I can mark videos as "not interesting" but it doesn't do much. I will see exactly the same videos on the home screen, ones that I'm not interested in and don't plan on watching, for weeks or months sometimes. I'm sure there's plenty of interesting co…

While I do agree it has a very strong focus on suggesting more of what you've recently watched, I feel it's also managing to suggest new and interesting unrelated stuff from time to time. Some habits I have is to subscribe to channels which I truly enjoy, instead of marking as "not interested" I select "do not suggest channel", and be cautious of click-bait titles. If I get lured in, I remove them from my history. So…

I too liked to prime my own algorithm but Yanis Varoufakis book Technofeudalism kind of ruined it for me. On a individual level it's nice to get good recommendations, but on a societal level I think it's starting to get a bit scary to the point of me wanting to opt out and instead curate my own feeds based on first hand sources.

Re: In the belly of the MrBeast

#143

Post by campbel »

The reciprocal relationship between speakers and audiences is well documented in rhetorical studies. The example of Hitler's development as a speaker is discussed in Ian Kershaw's biography "Hitler: 1889-1936 Hubris." According to historical accounts, Hitler's early speeches in 1919-1920 for the German Workers' Party were rather technical, focusing on economic topics like inflation and the Versailles Treaty's economic impact. Through audience reactions, he learned which themes resonated most strongly and adapted his rhetoric accordingly. His latter speeches focused on topics like nationalism, anti-semitism, anti-marxism, etc... topics far more popular with his audience.

Re: In the belly of the MrBeast

#144

Post by [deleted] »

NAHWheatCracker wrote: post #53
hn8726 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no clue how to use YouTube. It seems like as soon as it latches on 3-4 interests of mine, the entire home page is exclusively filled with videos relating to that. I can mark videos as "not interesting" but it doesn't do much. I will see exactly the same videos on the home screen, ones that I'm not interested in and don't plan on watching, for weeks or months sometimes. I'm sure there's plenty of interesting co…

I think what you describe is what infecto was saying. You can't use YouTube to find interesting content anymore. You can only use it to find more of what you've already seen. In the past, it was better at unearthing new things. Personally, I added uBlock filters so the home page is empty and recommended videos aren't shown. I only ever go to subscriptions now.

[deleted]

Re: In the belly of the MrBeast

#145

Post by x187463 »

okdood64 wrote: post #114
x187463 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I obviously don't know your personal experience, but your description is still how YouTube works for me. For example, over the holidays I would occasionally put on a video from a channel that plays holiday music with various videos of this guy's model train setup in the background. I immediately started receiving model train videos, which, of course, I had to click on and now I know a little bit about trains and buil…

Agreed. This is still how YouTube still works for me. It's great. > That being said, occasionally I do have to go into my Google data and clear/clean the watch history to reorient my recommendations. Can you elaborate on this? What effect does this produce for your specifically?

If I find I am receiving recommendations in which I am uninterested and are clearly based on a handful of videos I watched previously, I can clear those from the history and the algorithm doesn't use them for future recommendations. The simplest example would be watching videos for a one-time use case such as repairing a specific home issue. I definitely don't need more recommendations to fix that/related issues, but YouTube is likely to spend a little time sending them my way. I can fix that quickly by removing the original videos from my history.

Re: In the belly of the MrBeast

#146

Post by michaelcampbell »

qskousen wrote: post #87
michaelcampbell wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't purely new, either. I'm perhaps dating myself a bit but I recall that over the years I have seen a few actors have this weird vibe where they're never "human", they always "on" and seem like their actor-thing has totally subsumed their humanity. David Cassidy and Shirley McClain come to mind for me on this.

I realize I'm probably in the minority for this, but for me when people create a "persona" for their media, it turns me away. I prefer watching people who are more genuine, whose content is less entertainment and more just themselves, even if that isn't what the internet seems to be looking for.

I find it somewhere between "very uncomfortable" and "creepy". Even as a kid something felt very off in those interviews.

Re: In the belly of the MrBeast

#147

Post by adamc »

add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #12
adamc wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that it's "interpolated".

That was my first instinct, too, but instead of reflexively posting about it I double checked and found I was wrong and learned something new.

I sit enlightened, although I don't like the word much.

Re: In the belly of the MrBeast

#149

Post by kube-system »

jasonmarks_ wrote: post #68

His view counts seem cooked to me. I would be interested to see what countries his viewers are claiming to be from. This article even reads as a guerilla upsell that his numbers are legitimate. Surely the urge to cheat is unbearable with millions of dollars on the hook. (Alot of apps on the app stores also claim to have quarter million 5 star reviews. Uhhuh)

His viewers skew younger. Kids have a lot of time on their hands. Given how ubiquitously well-known he is among younger people, I doubt there's much fraud necessary.

Re: In the belly of the MrBeast

#150

Post by ryandrake »

thinkingtoilet wrote: post #96
ravenstine wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't. My experience with their algorithm between 2014 and ~2020 was that autoplay would quickly turn into a form of video diarrhea composed largely of Jordan Peterson and Lex Fridman. Was pretty bizarre because I only watched a few Peterson videos in the beginning, mostly his "Maps Of Meaning" videos which I think are mostly poppycock, and ever since then YouTube would quickly bring me back to his content even tho…

Funny, I have the opposite experience. I used to get relevant videos to what I was watching. If I'm watching a Phish video, it would recommend other Phish videos. These days, if I'm watching a Phish video I will literally, as in literally literally, get a Candace Owens video recommendation. I have literally never clicked on one of her videos ever. I don't watch political content on youtube at all, and if I did I am v…

It's so weird and obvious that shenanigans are going on in the recommendation algorithm. I'll watch a Video Game Streamer, and in the sidebar, the top ten recommended related videos are:

- Same streamer, different video

- Different streamer

- Far right pundit blasts immigration

- Video game streamer

- Video game streamer

- Video game review

- Same streamer, similar content

- Ben Shapiro OWNS Liberals with FACTS

- Video game streamer

- Video game streamer

I've never watched one of these blowhards in my life, but man, YouTube thinks I'd love it. Because I watch video games? Is this the gamer-to-alt-right pipeline I keep reading about?

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