Idk if the Recommends have gotten worse so much as the quality of content has been chasing the algorithm and resulted in a downturn over overall uploads.
I remember back in college when every third video had the thumbnail of a woman's tits in a low cut top on display. Now the YouTube algorithm filters those out, so we get the painfully white Soyjack face instead. The site also tends to favor longer form videos, so we get a lot fewer comedy out-takes and sketches. Instead, we get 400 Hours of LoFi Beats and talking head rants.
But, more than that, its a lot of content I'd expect to see on a Waiting Room TV playing "The Chive" endless clip streams. Lots of Mr. Beast and sports highlight reels and "You'll never believe this video!" clickbait. Lots of clip-shows from SNL or Pawn Stars or dance videos or hot-sauce challenges. I think I'd have to go back 10 years to really remember what the site was like back then. But I seem to remember more tangible content - original music, tight five comedy sets, visual art displays - and less ten minutes of build up for a thirty second payoff.
I keep my stream pretty tightly filtered (SponsorBlock and some other ad-ons screen out the worst shit) and I don't actually watch much of it. So most of my front page is just Stav or Chapo clips, D&D Let's Plays / FoundryVTT tip guides, the occasional Bad Faith or WTYP video...
Like from a popular documentary with 4 million views with a title like “WELCOME TO NORTH KOREA LAND OF FAMINE” or “YouTuber shills for China!!”
I think a lot might just be keywords you search on promoting content you don't like. If you were heavily into basketball or competitive LoL or fashion/makeup blogs, I doubt you'd see any of that.
But the thing I keep coming back to - even with a heavily parsed down feeds - is how much of this shit effectively just remains ads. Even the podcasting stuff - podcasting stuff I generally like - is just promo material. I think that's what really hurts the overall quality of YouTube today. The Korea/China shit is effectively just ads for foreign policy. The sports/gaming/fashion stuff is just ads for gambling or consumerist spending. The podcasting stuff is just ads for the respective acts.
That's not even really any of their fault, per say. Its just what YouTube has geared itself to reward. Everyone is just cutting WWE wrestling promos all the time forever.
Idk if the Recommends have gotten worse so much as the quality of content has been chasing the algorithm and resulted in a downturn over overall uploads.
I remember back in college when every third video had the thumbnail of a woman's tits in a low cut top on display. Now the YouTube algorithm filters those out, so we get the painfully white Soyjack face instead. The site also tends to favor longer form videos, so we get a lot fewer comedy out-takes and sketches. Instead, we get 400 Hours of LoFi Beats and talking head rants.
But, more than that, its a lot of content I'd expect to see on a Waiting Room TV playing "The Chive" endless clip streams. Lots of Mr. Beast and sports highlight reels and "You'll never believe this video!" clickbait. Lots of clip-shows from SNL or Pawn Stars or dance videos or hot-sauce challenges. I think I'd have to go back 10 years to really remember what the site was like back then. But I seem to remember more tangible content - original music, tight five comedy sets, visual art displays - and less ten minutes of build up for a thirty second payoff.
I keep my stream pretty tightly filtered (SponsorBlock and some other ad-ons screen out the worst shit) and I don't actually watch much of it. So most of my front page is just Stav or Chapo clips, D&D Let's Plays / FoundryVTT tip guides, the occasional Bad Faith or WTYP video...
I think a lot might just be keywords you search on promoting content you don't like. If you were heavily into basketball or competitive LoL or fashion/makeup blogs, I doubt you'd see any of that.
But the thing I keep coming back to - even with a heavily parsed down feeds - is how much of this shit effectively just remains ads. Even the podcasting stuff - podcasting stuff I generally like - is just promo material. I think that's what really hurts the overall quality of YouTube today. The Korea/China shit is effectively just ads for foreign policy. The sports/gaming/fashion stuff is just ads for gambling or consumerist spending. The podcasting stuff is just ads for the respective acts.
That's not even really any of their fault, per say. Its just what YouTube has geared itself to reward. Everyone is just cutting WWE wrestling promos all the time forever.