it is day 3 of Mental Health Awareness Month and what we're going to be talking
about today is a lot of people ask why are people more depressed more anxious
than ever before and part of it is the platform that we're currently on which
is YouTube what is up everybody this is Chris from the rewired so when we talk
about the problem but focus on the solution if you're new to my channel
sometimes what I do is pull different topics from the YouTube community and
talk about them and one of my passions is mental health even though I'm not a
licensed therapist or psychologist I am somebody who has had my own personal
struggles and I do a lot of research and reading and trying to understand this
thing so if you're into that stuff make sure you subscribe and read that
notification about yeah so we are going to be talking about the YouTube
algorithm kind of explaining how it works how it's affecting our own mental
health but this topic has just been on my mind since I just finished the book
by Matt hey called notes on a nervous planet so like I said in the intro there
is a question there was a question of why are people more anxious more
depressed than ever before this book this book by Matt Haig was so good and I
can't even begin to put it into words like so a lot of this book is about the
anxiety we have in the modern age a lot of it has to do with technology and just
the way the world is right now but he does so many like he does so much like
explaining good solutions for this thing but the way it's written like you can
feel you can kind of feel that anxiety because he like kind of like spitfires
these lists of certain things that are making us anxious I listen to audiobooks
so maybe that's why the experience was a little bit more like I really understood
what he was saying by this stuff but anyways check it out Matt Hague he's
amazing author follow him on Twitter he's on there all the time he's a cool
dude anyways no ton of nervous planning I'm
gonna link it down in the description below excellent book but anyways
what we're gonna be talking about today is the YouTube algorithm and this is one
of the reasons why our mental health is being effective now I have a youtuber
I'm on the YouTube platform and what what I want you to remember and we'll
circle back around to this by the end of the video is there is a solution but in
order to get to the solution we have to acknowledge the problem all right so
anyway something that Matt Haines talks about is how not just YouTube but social
media as a whole it keeps us in a bubble okay and it's it's a tricky situation
for all of the social media platforms like I'll have no delusion like the
social media platforms are gonna stop doing what they're doing or we're gonna
go backwards in time and stop using them there are some things that social media
platforms are trying to do to kind of help the situation because they still
need to make their money but they also don't want us going insane I'm gonna
make another video about the Instagram like situation but anyways the number
one goal the number one goal of any social media platform is to keep you on
their platform for as long as possible okay why is that why is that well most
social media websites whether it's YouTube Twitter Facebook Instagram
whatever it is they make their money a lot of it comes through advertising okay
with the amount of time that we're spending on social media advertisers big
companies they might as well put their ads on there we're not watching TV the
same way that we used to but we are on social media so the longer each platform
can keep you on there the more ads that are gonna get in front of your face but
what we saw with the mark zuckerberg you know in front of congress what was it
last year like these social media platforms they are learning us that
learning our behaviors that are trying to understand us okay and this this is
another thing that requires balance I know a lot of people you know hate how
they're tracking us and doing that I do think some of it is a little too far but
here's the philosophy I have when it comes to
causing is this it's like I remember being a kid and watching like shows or
even just being a teenager I think the teenager is a better example watching
shows and they would just show me commercials that had nothing to do with
me right the way I see advertising like YouTube ads Facebook ads Instagram ads
I'm like at least you know what I want to see now you know sceles I'm like
somewhat interested and now I can make the decision of whether or not I buy it
but YouTube in particular and I'm a youtuber I'm gonna let you get on some
of the dark secrets alright as a youtuber our goal is to figure out how
to get our video in front of people who are going to like this video
right and the three ways that we do that is the YouTube title the YouTube
description and the tags okay and we put in as much information as possible or at
least I do of some other youtubers who are doing another quote-unquote best
practices we're putting as much information in there as possible to get
it out to other people like a lot of you have commented on my descriptions
sometimes they're a little you know wonky or whatever it is a lot of that is
just for the algorithm alright but here's the thing when you combine that
when you combine what I'm trying to do as a youtuber and what YouTube is trying
to do by keeping people on the platform is that YouTube is going to keep
recommending things that you like all right it's going to keep recommending
you youtubers who are in that same niche in that same genre but this can be very
dangerous for our mental health and here's why it creates a bubble okay
it creates an echo chamber and one of the biggest issues that all of us
struggle with is and it's part of human nature it is part of the human
experience is that we are constantly looking for people to agree with us that
beautiful thing called confirmation bias so what's happening is is although
YouTube is just trying to keep you on the platform show you more videos that
you like and that you're interested in one of the issues is is that it keeps
giving you the same information over and over and over and over again and I don't
want to be extra about this but but it's kind of brain
you guys alright so it keeps recommending you videos about a certain
topic and this is where commentary channels like myself and others I feel
that we we have a responsibility to have more of an opinion more of a discussion
on our channels especially if it's a trending topic we need to really put
ourselves in there right and that's just my opinion right because I understand
how the YouTube algorithms going to work and something that I have to do but I'm
going to come do some commentary on things happening in the YouTube
community or in the news or culture or whatever I'll just sit back and ask
myself understanding how the algorithms working and how I've been watching
videos that are all agreeing with one another as I sit back and form my own
opinion okay because this is one of the issues is that without even realize it a
lot of us are not forming our own opinions I made a video about this a
long time ago about proud psychology all right and it gets to a certain point
where we keep getting the same information over and over and over and
over again and we quit thinking for ourselves we're in a time right now
where I feel personally just by watching human behavior on social media and
everything like that I feel that we were in a time where we have less independent
thinkers than ever before than ever before and this is one of the reasons I
believe mob mentality is such a thing so again the solution is to be aware of
this to be aware of the situation so like what do I do personally when I'm
researching a topic I try to look for multiple sources that don't have
anything to do with each other all right I want to see both sides of the opinion
a great example is last night there was some news I was thinking about making a
video on this topic I'm not gonna tell you what it is cuz they want it to be a
surprise if I end up doing a Bayless it was a topic I started seeing people
talking about it I was forming an opinion and then I did some more
research and I found a different opinion I was like oh okay
you know and I kind of was able to sit back and form my own opinion on it and
now I'm debating on whether or not I even want to make a video on that but
the last thing I want to talk about I'm gonna keep bringing this up until
November of 2020 like we are in the political season again I remember I
remember during the last election how confused I was how I was so confused I
was so confused by the results of that election okay and that's what I realized
how social media was keeping me in a bubble like to anybody that was trying
to get out of outside their bubble try to look at other people's opinions other
people's points of views and things like that the results were not that
surprising right but for me since I didn't understand
what was happening to me and all I was doing was sitting in an echo chamber of
people who had the same political opinions and views and everything like
that of mine I was completely caught off guard so something that I've personally
done is I follow media outlets news outlets social media people like it's
not because it's not always because I agree with them but I want to hear
what's going on outside of my bubble I want to find out why there's so much
disagreement even though we're all working towards the same goal which is a
better world you know what I mean but we all have different opinions or views or
perspectives on what that better world is so I just really want you to think
about this stuff think about how YouTube is keep recommending you the same videos
and over and over and over again what are you doing to step outside of your
bubble and last thing I'll say is this is one of the reasons why I talked about
people like Joe Rogan and Russell Brand sitting down and having a conversation
together alright anyways again notes on a nervous planet is such an amazing book
by Matt Hague please do yourself a favor and go check
it out I'm gonna link it down in the description below alright anyways let me
know your thoughts on this do you feel that you're in an echo chamber what are
your thoughts on social media and how it keeps you in your own little bubble
recommending stuff that you're already interested in and not
giving you another perspective let me know let's have the conversation down in
the comments below alright anyways that's all I got for this video if you
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take a tap on that picture on icon right there alright thanks again so so much
for watching I'll see you next time