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Imagine doing your usual stop at a local coffee shop, only to after minutes of having gotten your usual order of iced coffee with milk, the waiter chimes in unbeknownst, wondering if you’d like to eat raw Ghost pepper based on what you just picked up. On top of it sounding incredibly odd and just creep-inducing on a level most-primitive, you’d immediately start wondering what did upper management do to warrant such a choice so seemingly illogical, to become something they’d even consider doing.
Such is the status of modern YouTube. The platform has made itself a habit of promoting content to users that they may not have any cursory interest in, but being the naturally-curious beings we are, some click on that content and may end up enjoying it-maybe even become influenced by it. If the extent of these recommendations was cooking videos and travel vlogs, the purpose of this story would become moot; but contrary to a much-lauded narrative from YouTube’s public-facing figures, the algorithm does not only stop at suggesting you content within the lane you’re interested in, or even branch you out a little bit to eke out extra watch-time- it is in extreme cases radicalizing individuals by preying on their most primitive…
