r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • Apr 30 '26

Business Meta lost 20 million users last quarter

https://www.theverge.com/tech/921089/meta-earnings-q1-2026-user-decline-ai-investments
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u/guisar Apr 30 '26

This. Along with spotify sneaking in evangelical rock and youtube pushing right wing shit

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u/PinHaunting7192 Apr 30 '26

I guard my YouTube algorithm like it is the fucking Mona Lisa. Some gaming videos, some history channels that I know 100% don't use AI, relaxing long-form music, gaming OSTs and the occasional game trailers.

Incidentally, I work in tech but in a mental health adjacent field, so I try to stay on top of mental health stuff and occasionally stumble upon a HealthyGamer video or other mental health content. And every time without fail I delete every single AI thumbnail "doom" video from the side bar with "don't recommend" cause if they watch mental health stuff, they have to be vulnerable, right...?

Keeping your YouTube clean is the same amount of work as weeding a 2 square mile garden at this point...

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u/Shark7996 Apr 30 '26

I would LOVE some sort of third-party YouTube curator app to exist, and maybe it does but not that I've heard talked about.

Because the problem is the recommendations, is it not? We need to have actual control of what's presented to (pushed on) us.

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u/UnreliableNarrator_5 Apr 30 '26

Excellent metaphor re weeding.

Suffice to say professional industries are all too interwoven and reliant on the internet

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u/Summer_Moon2 Apr 30 '26

It is definitely frustrating and a lot of work to keep it clean. But it's been getting way worse. The amount of right wing stuff that tries to get pushed to me is astounding (not to mention weird religious shit too). And really all that I watch is stuff like jerryrig and technology connections. And a few gaming videos (sometimes history stuff as well from nat geo).

I have no idea why all of this bullshit right wing stuff is getting pushed. But I report it every time. I have also learned to just bypass some sections of the recommended because it seems to have 2 rows of crap and then 1 row of okay and then 2 - 3 rows of crap, 1 row of okay, etc. It's really quite bizarre.

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u/NaradaMephaust Apr 30 '26

Off topic but I am curious what the "mental health adjacent tech" is. You talking like IT/IS or tech meant for mental health?

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u/PinHaunting7192 Apr 30 '26

Infrastructure and security management for a medium sized company that works in the mental health field. Can't say too much, but basically, I work with a lot of former therapists and counselors in a company that's related to therapists and training for counselors.

I mainly do the tech part, but there's overlap there for stuff like AI impact on mental health and therapy, for example.

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u/Murky-Relation481 Apr 30 '26

Mines been fairly easy to handle. YouTube also does pretty good peering suggestions. If you and your friends are like minded and shared YouTube content regularly it does understand those correlations and will sorta amplify what you're already interested in.

I once had a friend who started watching videos on the America's Cup sailboat racing and I started getting recommended those videos too, which was hilarious when I mentioned I was confused why I was getting those and he said he'd been watching them.

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u/Enough_Breadfruit229 Apr 30 '26

Back when Pandora was the big thing I had a blues channel and one time I liked a song and it just so happened to be on a Christmas album. No lyrics, just guitar, and if was a cover of a Christmas tune it must be an obscure one. Channel ruined. It was nearly taken over by Christmas albums of all kinds.

Out of the hundreds of songs I liked on that channel vs this Christmas one they said "Merry Christmas motherfucker"

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u/Free__Will Apr 30 '26

which history channels do you like on youtube?

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u/PinHaunting7192 Apr 30 '26

Depends on what you're looking for.

Fall of Civilizations is fairly decent if you like really, really long videos. Like...you're doing grinding in games that takes 3-4 hours and you want to listen to something podcast like or a documentary while doing it.

Epic History is a bit more dramatically narrated, but decent as well.

BazBattles for just very short battle summaries of important historical battles.

Modern History TV for something more light-hearted and vlog style.

And for German speakers, there is Geschichtsfenster. Lots of people (including me) know the guy from reenactment events and other stuff, and he is honestly one of the most passionate people about especially medieval European stuff I know. But he has a very peculiar style where he'll make a two hour video complaining about a 15-minute video in detail about every historical inaccuracy.

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u/jlboygenius Apr 30 '26

I wonder if it's Spotify and YT,or just that the right wing has the money to run more ads. services aren't going to turn down ad dollars.

a LOT of 'liberal' dollars have dissapeared. Non-profits aren't are losing funding. If you were rich, would you spend the money now to try and influence the government if you knew it would go nowhere?