Caught in the Vicious Circle of YouTube Recommendations
It would certainly not be an exaggeration to state that the popular documentary on Netflix “The Social Dilemma” has created quite a stir and has been acting as an eye-opener to many, and I see myself featuring into one of those categories. The ramifications were the most profound in the initial days when I’d try hard to sever myself from the beckons of social media, and also instructed those in my vicinity to do so.
But the point was till when? Truth to be told, you are going to need to browse through YouTube at some point in your life, maybe for browsing a thing as meagre as a friend forwarding a link to you, asking you to watch it no matter what. When you do oblige, you do see a series of related videos, much to your liking, and would want to eye through those, when you suddenly recall your severance vow and decide against it.
Again the point is till how long? I am specifically making a mention of this, as recently I did take refuge in YouTube to glance through decent meditation-videos, with a hope to calm my stormy life, and I can, under no circumstances continue to live in denial of the fact that not only did I get, what I wanted exactly, but there were several videos following that looked even more promising. Perhaps, it’s the common human psyche that usually operates the way situations unfold themselves in front of them, especially when they are too immersed in the same.
Something similar happened with me as well, where I began delving deeper with every intrinsic video concerning mindfulness, calming of the mind and relaxing presented itself before me. The mind really did get relaxed, fresh and soothing, and soon again this severance vow churned out, making me feel miserable, not only because of the vow being broken but striking with the realisation that I presented myself as nothing other than a lab rat in front of YouTube.
Do I regret the move? Yes and no. No, because I couldn’t be more grateful to YouTube for providing me with exactly what I was desperately in need of, and yes, because I realised, even though quite late, that my behaviour of using the platform could be easily regulated now. And, honestly, I had already started anticipating videos to appear in my home tab, the ones which YouTube would want me to watch, a few days from now.
Now, what is to be done? Especially after realising that you are caught up into a vicious circle, totally fallen into the pit, knowing that you are being manipulated/shall be manipulated in a few days from now? One of the steps could be to pause, analyse yourself, and possibly refrain yourself from engaging in recommendations of similar kinds. While this isn’t an easy a task, with a little practice, I guess all of us would be getting there soon enough.
While concluding, I’d like to mention something similar on the same lines as the documentary mentioned that said that there are a lot of other things to focus on. The valiant sky and the lush greens could be ones to begin with.
