[disqard]

Yeah, Kevin Munger's book skillfully dissects what he calls "The YouTube Apparatus" [0]

The creators aren't really tuning their output based on consumer feedback, they're actually optimizing for the platform's metrics, so it's the (algorithmic) machine incentivizing humans to essentially feed it money.

[0] https://kevinmunger.substack.com/p/in-the-belly-of-the-mrbea...

[marginalia_nu]

Yeah I've explored similar ideas before as well:

https://www.marginalia.nu/log/98_youtube-crabs/