YouTube, the Great Radicalizer ⇥ nytimes.com

Eye-opening op-ed by Zeynep Tufekci, in the New York Times:

Human beings have many natural tendencies that need to be vigilantly monitored in the context of modern life. For example, our craving for fat, salt and sugar, which served us well when food was scarce, can lead us astray in an environment in which fat, salt and sugar are all too plentiful and heavily marketed to us. So too our natural curiosity about the unknown can lead us astray on a website that leads us too much in the direction of lies, hoaxes and misinformation.

In effect, YouTube has created a restaurant that serves us increasingly sugary, fatty foods, loading up our plates as soon as we are finished with the last meal. Over time, our tastes adjust, and we seek even more sugary, fatty foods, which the restaurant dutifully provides. When confronted about this by the health department and concerned citizens, the restaurant managers reply that they are merely serving us what we want.

I’ve been paying attention to the examples of this that Tufekci has been collecting on Twitter and it’s eye-opening. Even videos about relatively mundane topics lead users down a rabbit hole of bullshit. I’m not one to play the “think of the children” card but, in this instance, I strongly believe that it’s a concern.