I spend a lot of time on the major socials. From my days as a BBS sysop, I’ve enjoyed accessing my informed online, and my entertainment from tv. Now that video is online too, I don’t watch much TV anymore.
I once realized I was watching up to 60 hours a TV a week, and cut back thanks to my new ant-obsessive medication. This week I’ve started watching tv again, and by tv I mean YouTube videos. Not news..all my video consumption is online these days.
Even my late night talk shows are presented in bits. YouTube is like buying the Greatest Hits or a musician. It’s all there and the algorithm shows me what I like daily.
Sadly, things that are good are always used for both good and evil. Rigging the algorithm to get your video in my face starts as a powerful too but it gets bastardized for profit. Google mastered the search engine early on but as timeoved forward more and more people figured out ways to get their content at the top.
Google is no longer showing me the greatest hits. It’s showing me the best manipulators and the greedy impatient people. Companies spend huge money to cheat and compete for the top spot.
Now that AI is learning the tricks, the internet is flooded with the earliest stages. People have figured out the best way to make money from this, is to sell the secrets to making money to people who want to make money.
YouTube is filling with mini documentary type videos lasting twenty minutes or more. Random bits of trivia that are genuinely interesting and educational. I like them but at the same time I am frustrated that it’s so obviously created by AI simply because somebody figured out it would be successful and earn money.
It also bothers me that I know AI makes up facts in order to appease the creator. Add to this, the hunger of clicks and click bate means that ordinary citizens are creating AI versions of news that would be better if I watched the professionals. Especially given the political climate today, the chances of these videos being artificially fake or biased is great.
I’ll still consume it anyway.
