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General discussionOne sided recommendations on youtube(26 posts)(26 posts)
(26 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted August 22, 2016
It's hard to write this without sparkling a flame war, but I'll try by trying to keep it as generic as possible.

Recently, I had a surge of interest on a certain topic due to reasons, and watched some youtube videos on the issue in question. I started from one with the viewpoint I originally agreed with, and then clicked on one of the recommended to continue, and so on. Didn't take me long to realize that every single video had the viewpoint I agreed with, and even though many were debunking and responding to the "other side" I felt the opposing arguments were ridiculously weak and unconvincing.

So, the question that arose is, I'm I so awesome that I hold an uncontestable truth and anyone who disagrees with me is an idiot? Or is Youtube simply feeding my confirmation bias and only recommending me things I already agree with? Considering my own faults and googles data mining capabilities, I'm inclined to believe that both are true. And while the first is simple common sense, the second pisses me off. I hold uncontestable truth on my awesome side, I need not shy away from dissenting opinions!

So yeah, I'm kinda pissed at youtube recommendations. While it's certainly entertaining to watch the opposite side get destroyed on every video, I don't feel like I'm getting a full view of the matter at hand. I suppose I could put effort into researching this one thing that interests me, but if I'm offhandedly watching youtube videos about it at night before bed is because I don't care enough to do any actual research to begin with.

My question to the goglodytes here would be, do you feel this one sided worldview stemming from data mined recommendations as a problem? And how do you deal with it?
Posted August 22, 2016
Well, Google and youtube are in business to make money. Feeding you content that it thinks you might not want to witness - say, the opposing viewpoint - might turn you away from youtube and thus turn away potential revenue. Guessing that if you search for the opposing view on your own, you'll suddenly get more "recommendations" reinforcing THAT position.

Easy enough to avoid: simply don't click the "recommendations" too often.

And yeah, it's a problem.
Posted August 22, 2016
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P1na: *snip*
I'm not sure whether YT only recommends videos that reflect one's own preferences, but in recent time I get a lot of videos recommended in which representatives of the AfD and similar persons appear in positive light. Could be that this videos are very popular here in Germany that they get recommendations but I doubt that they are recommended because I would watch them. I have never clicked on any of them.
It's irritating and annoying.
Posted August 22, 2016
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P1na: ...snip
Youlube much like all other Googlewares capture every single click and key you type, every link in every website everywhere. Somewhere out there is a file on you, get used to it, it only gets worse.
Posted August 22, 2016
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P1na: So, the question that arose is, I'm I so awesome that I hold an uncontestable truth and anyone who disagrees with me is an idiot? Or is Youtube simply feeding my confirmation bias and only recommending me things I already agree with?
Not only YT. You'll have confirmation bias in any internet community. The guys that disagree with the "core" majority opinion of the community will be shoved toward the exit (or leave to find a community best fitting their tastes), until only people from "your" side are left, and you are left to think "hey, everybody agree with me, so I must be right, isn't it?"

Can be somewhat harmless (like everyone on a gaming forum thinking that videogames are awesome, harmless and cool) or more concerning when you're talking about extremist opinion.

YT just has a tendency to create such communities with their recommandations (If you look video A and B, it will recommand you video C, which is popular with other people who looked at A and B, etc...)
Posted August 22, 2016
Clear your cookies and youtube (is this a verb? I guess it is nowadays) "pineapples suck". You should start seeing the videos you don't agree with. Enjoy!
Posted August 22, 2016
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P1na: So, the question that arose is, I'm I so awesome that I hold an uncontestable truth and anyone who disagrees with me is an idiot? Or is Youtube simply feeding my confirmation bias and only recommending me things I already agree with?
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Kardwill: YT just has a tendency to create such communities with their recommandations (If you look video A and B, it will recommand you video C, which is popular with other people who looked at A and B, etc...)
In YT's case, that's the unfortunate side: they have content from just about every position out there so it's not that the site itself is one-sided. But their recommendation algorithm can create a sort of artificial echo chamber.

Edit for missing word
Post edited August 22, 2016 by HereForTheBeer
Posted August 22, 2016
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Avogadro6: Clear your cookies and youtube (is this a verb? I guess it is nowadays) "pineapples suck". You should start seeing the videos you don't agree with. Enjoy!
Sure I want different viewpoints, but I don't want to waste my time with absurd crazy talk either!
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HereForTheBeer: Guessing that if you search for the opposing view on your own, you'll suddenly get more "recommendations" reinforcing THAT position.

Easy enough to avoid: simply don't click the "recommendations" too often.
sigh... but that requires effort. Can't somebody else do it for me? That's why I pay them on one of the most requested commodities of GOG, nothing.
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Kardwill: Not only YT. You'll have confirmation bias in any internet community. The guys that disagree with the "core" majority opinion of the community will be shoved toward the exit (or leave to find a community best fitting their tastes), until only people from "your" side are left, and you are left to think "hey, everybody agree with me, so I must be right, isn't it?"

Can be somewhat harmless (like everyone on a gaming forum thinking that videogames are awesome, harmless and cool) or more concerning when you're talking about extremist opinion.

YT just has a tendency to create such communities with their recommandations (If you look video A and B, it will recommand you video C, which is popular with other people who looked at A and B, etc...)
The thing with YT is that pretty much every opinion is represented, so it would be kinda nice to be shown a dissenting oppinion occasionally.
Post edited August 22, 2016 by P1na
Posted August 22, 2016
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P1na: snip....
1. Within specific YT video, suggestions works by "global pools of interests" which are defined mostly by how much previous people where interested and clicked on specific related videos. To be somehow "fresh" from specific suggestions, a video as to be brand new, having only generic terms ("Adobe Premiere" is already too narrow) and the channel shouldn't have many videos already posted. In those rare cases, the related videos will be totally random.

2. The YT homepage is defined by your overall Internet activities (and your YT history of course), your google search history being of course being taken heavily into account.

3. The YT search engine bar autocompletion is also biased by your history. A good example of that is when I look for booktubing channels with the French word "lecture" (reading). On my 3 computers, I wil get different autocompletion suggestions based on "lecture du coran" ("reading of the quran") and not in the same order when just typing "lecture".
Posted August 22, 2016
Solution: turn off personalized results in both google and youtube, then search for things directly, instead of following recommendations.
Posted August 22, 2016
A couple other ideas:

1. Use a different search engine. Duck Duck Go doesn't store your past searches, so its results are not related to previous searches.
2. Search through a proxy or VPN that you don't normally use. (Make sure you aren't logged in to your Google or other accounts when you do this; private browsing is a good idea here.)

Edit: Add parenthetical note.
Post edited August 22, 2016 by dtgreene
Posted August 22, 2016
I think they're giving us stuff that will appeal to us. I recall having a poll on my youtube frontpage asking me whether I find any of my recommendations offensive. I also recall watching many C.Hitchens and R.Dawkins videos but never having videos from those more progressive (read Buzzfeed progressive) leaning channels ever recommended to me.

I don't know if they're filtering channels or just recommending similar videos, but it is definitely happening, IMO.
Posted August 22, 2016
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Avogadro6: Clear your cookies and youtube (is this a verb? I guess it is nowadays) "pineapples suck". You should start seeing the videos you don't agree with. Enjoy!
I think YT uses the fingerprint of your computer instead of cookies. I delete cookies after each session and yet get recommendations that are similar to the stuff I watched in the past.
Posted August 22, 2016
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PaterAlf: I think YT uses the fingerprint of your computer instead of cookies. I delete cookies after each session and yet get recommendations that are similar to the stuff I watched in the past.
Maybe they just recommend popular videos. I've cleared my cookies just a minute ago and the main page is all about sport, movies and music. All things I couldn't care less about.
Posted August 22, 2016
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P1na: My question to the goglodytes here would be, do you feel this one sided worldview stemming from data mined recommendations as a problem? And how do you deal with it?
You're asking for a viewpoint from a forum as one-sided as this place is?
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This is my favourite topic
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General discussionOne sided recommendations on youtube(26 posts)(26 posts)
(26 posts)