I've been vegetarian since 2009 and in the past 2-3 years I keep getting all kinds of bow hunting videos.
It's particularly amusing when my plan was to watch an old episode of "The Golden Girls."
They REALLY misread my demographic.
this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2023
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Asklemmy
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If I use a private window, and don't log in I get a lot of right-wing stuff. I've noticed it probably depends on IP/location as well. If at work, youtube seems recommend me things other people at the office listen to.
If I'm logged in, I only get occasional right-wing recommendations interspersed with the left-wing stuff I typically like. About 1/20 videos are right-wing.
YouTube Shorts is different. It's almost all thirst-traps and right-wing, hustle culture stuff for me.
It could also be because a lot of the people who watch the same videos you do tend to also watch right-wing stuff.
In general, the algorithm tries to boost the stuff that maximizes "engagement," which is usually outrage-type stuff.
Social Media in general has that habit of furthered spreading far right content and dragging people into such content bubbles.
Right-wing media is well-funded.
"Hi, I'm a guy in early thirties--"
Well there's your answer.
You need to train your algorithm.
When you hover over those videos there will be three dots in the lower right hand corner use either not interested or don't recommend this channel to clear the right wing trash from your feed.
On videos you do like you need to do some engagement, watch complete videos, thumbs up (or down it doesn't matter) and comment.
Do that for a few days and your feed should clear up.
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Clear your history! I limit a lot of what Google collects. If I see videos trending in that direction, I clear youtube and start fresh.
You can have Google clear things automatically so it'll only keep things for a certain amount of months.
Without any history Google often shows pretty extreme videos, so in my experience the lack of any history is not good.
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three dots -> don't recommend channel
use it on anything even a little sus
It's because you are a guy in your 30s. You (and me) are in a shitty demographic so the algorithm peddles us shit. It doesn't matter how many times I list shitheel vids by the ppl you me mentioned as "do not recommend channel", I will always have Rogan or Peterson popping up in my feed to ruin my day. It drives me crazy
Why does it recommend this shit to me
Because you, or someone using your account, has watched this type of shit in the past.
Not necessarily, although YouTube shorts may be it's own thing in terms of algorithm I frequently see andrew tate, ben shapiro, jordan peterdon clips despite disliking and inmediatly scrolling past when I see their faces. Also I have encountered a lot of anti feminism content of the likes of 2014 this year, where someone is seen mocking "feminists" making what seems like stupid remark and getting owned with some sigma face meme from the american psycho guy and music.
it has been the case multiple times that the YouTube algorithm makes weird connections which often lead to right wing channels being promoted. Or sometimes an entire subsection of creatores are libked with the alt right without being direct (the old atheism sphere, gaming channels are common ones too)
I very rarely use YouTube, but I've noticed that when I start listening to older top 40 or contemporary bluegrass, those videos drop in
Youtube really said "you're old, you must be racist" lmao
I'll see major swings in the algorithm from time to time (a week of bass guitar video recommendations for some reason), but I can usually trace back a video or two that I watched that it just decided to try and cram the topic down my throat. I would just say make sure you keep avoiding the conservative vids to try and get the recommendations to stop. I wonder if maybe one of your kids is watching videos on your account and skewing it?
It can also be linked based where it recommends videos that conservatives have enjoyed that seem unrelated. Like maybe watching home improvement videos and historical war videos then the algorithm feeding new content that seems unrelated but actually is according to it, since it's trying to expose you to new interests to expand the time you spend there.
Best I found is just not using YouTube with an account and having cookies cleared on exit, or using newpipe (Android) and freetube (desktop) which let's you have an accountless subscription feed with Adblock and sponsorblock support.
(a week of bass guitar video recommendations for some reason)
Sometimes I wish youtube's algorithm were sentient so I could shake it and ask why the fuck--
For me it was a week of growing your own backyard basil. Not herb gardens, not vegetables, not self-sufficiency in general. Literally just basil. I don't even own a single plant.
One thing I noticed about browsing the youtube homepage on PC is if your mouse hovers over a video, it starts playing, and that puts it in your watch history. So you might be accidentally adding a trash video it recommended to your watch history while looking at the other offerings. You can disable the "mouse hover auto play" by clicking your profile pic in the top right > settings > playback and performance > inline playback.
Maybe you have the same problem I have: my wife is still a republican. When that kind of stuff shows up, I know she has been watching it on the family PC. She's not that tech savvy, so I usually go in later and block or limit some of it. It's a pain to fight the algorithms.
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(5 replies)
Fix the input not the algorithm - either disable watch history, or clear it of anyone who you don't trust their viewers to recommend positive channels.
If you watch something that turns out to worsen your experience, purge it from the view history, undo any likes and remove any comments.
Just use Odysee, the YouTube algorithm is fully cooked from millions of hours of pure crap being posted every day.