Default Suggestions
June 4, 2026I'm certain that everyone reading this post is familiar with the idea of enshittification. Even if you're not familiar with the concept, you should know it when you see it. If you don't know what it is, it's the concept of something intentionally lowering it's quality for the sake of reaching a goal that has no benefit to the consumer. Just from hearing that, you can probably think of a lot of examples for things that fall into this category. Some of my go-to examples to point and laugh at are Windows, Corporate artstyles, AI search engines and so on and so fourth.
The reason I'm bringing up enshittification is because of the deterioration of something quite specific, but it's such a downgrade that it single handedly brings an entire ship down with it. (Which is impressive, because in this case the ship is already filled with tons of really deep holes that SOMEHOW don't sink the ship.)
The thing I'm talking about is YouTube's recommended system. I obviously have far more problems with the site which all contributed to my reasoning behind leaving it (including the deterioration of what people find funny but I'll get to that another day) but after looking at everything YouTube does bad in a vacuum I don't think I can name a single thing it does worse than this.
For some context, I don't watch YouTube through the actual site anymore. I do it using a private frontend called Invidious. This frontend (while jank in a few places) is amazing, as not only does it completely remove any ads that YouTube tries to throw at you but it also makes it so that YouTube can't track a single thing about you, keeping you completely anonymous during an era of the internet where every big company wants to know every little thing about you. However, one thing it unfortunately doesn't do on it's default web hosts like Nadeko and NerdVPN (which is why I'm going to switch to dedicated programs that run Invidious after I'm done writing this) is hide the videos you get recommended. This may sound bad, but it gets even worse when you realize that the only thing YouTube can give you is the default suggestions handed out to new users.
This is what I want to dedicate this web post to talking about and it's also the reason why this specific post has a content warning attached to it. The stuff that gets recommended to a new user nowadays genuinely disgusts me. Granted, it's never been good. If you watch the video that Markiplier made about it a couple of years ago you'd know that for a fact. Around 2019 and 2021, YouTube would typically just resort to throwing you the most random crap possible HOPING that one particular topic would land. This was a flawed but ultimately functional system because it (at least to some extent) encourages people to look on their own for a bit until they find something that they like.
But hold on, that sounds almost exactly like what YouTube still does now. Why would I still have something THIS negative to say about a system I think works? That's simple. Even though the system may not have changed from then and now, the stuff that YouTube recommends to a new user has shifted in a way that pisses me off to no end.
Just as a small note, I don't have the data to back up what I'm talking about. But I can say that I've seen it with my own eyes. Because Invidious lets you see the recommended videos for a bone stock YouTube user for every video you watch, you get an almost completely clean look into what YouTube suggests to a new user with the only catch being that it assumes the video you're currently watching is the first video you've seen. Although that arguably makes things even worse because it shows how far YouTube goes to recommend the kind of content I'm about to talk about.
Before I dive into examples, I want to ask you if there's a pattern you can notice with all of the recommended videos I'm going to bring up as there's something blatantly obvious tying them all together.
Example 1: I watched a recent speedrun submitted for Wacky Races PS2 in the Any% category. One of the first three videos suggested to me is a self explanatory video called "Is The Global Right Cooked?". (As a reminder, the site knows LITERALLY NOTHING about me other than the fact that this is the first video I've watched.)
Example 2: I watched an old video from Shinyodd where he corrupts the first Forza Horizon game on a VM running Windows XP. The first video suggested to me is a video fear mongering people into thinking WW3 is happening due to some guy that "predicted" the ongoing war in Iran.
Example 3: I rewatched a video by Noodle where he dives into the time he performed a gaslight edit at a huge convention panel. The second video in the recommended list is a 30 minute video about how much the video maker hates left wing voters DISGUISED as a video about the world losing it's passion for artistry by chasing profits.
Example 4: This is the biggest piss take of the lot. I watched a Twitch clip of Vargskelethor Joel where his stream breaks down in the most spectacular way possible. The FIRST video YouTube recommends to me is a feature length video about how the UK is being torn apart by both political wings, ill found ties with Israel and a policing system that locks you up for trying to speak openly about Palestine all edited together by a guy who can't correctly time his video editing to save his life while also being unable to breathe if his footage isn't sped up by 3 times while being accompanied by a "FAHHHHHHHH" sound effect played over it. Yeah, YouTube thinks THAT is a suitable recommendation for someone that watches ONE Vargskelethor clip.
Do you notice something similar with all of these examples? Every single one of them in some way relates to politics, fear mongering or both. And remember, these are the first videos being showcased to completely new users that YouTube knows nothing about. It genuinely thinks that the first thing people will want to spend their time sitting down and watching is a fear mongering rant or someone's unfiltered political opinions.
This isn't me saying that those videos don't have any right existing. Everyone has a right to say their thoughts about things and trying to regulate what they can say so much that people can't speak their opinions doesn't make any sense. But that's also not what concerns me. What concerns me is how adamant YouTube is with pushing THESE kinds of videos to new users to give them the biggest spotlight possible. In my opinion, this is worse than being recommended videos that are so obviously bad that you can spot their flaws from 20 miles away.
Let me put it this way: Would you rather be suggested a wall of videos that don't interest you at all or a wall of videos intended to fear monger you and change the way that you think to mirror the way the video's uploader thinks? I'd take the latter any day of the week.
It goes a lot deeper than that, though. With how volatile and vocal politics get nowadays, it'll naturally lead to people trying to take any shortcut possible to have their voice heard, so what are people going to do when they see these random echo chamber videos getting recommended to the YouTube account equivalent of fetuses? Easy. Just do what they do. Imitation may be the highest form of flattery, but it also spreads quicker than a disease if you happen to be particularly successful. As a result, the platform is CONSTANTLY barraged with these loud and obnoxious videos that only exist to make you fear for the state of the world on top of trying to convert you to whatever political cult they may be a part of. I mean, if they can't convince someone with a simple conversation, why not take the easy route by trying to debate with someone that physically can't talk back?
And the cherry on top? These videos are being recommended to EVERYONE. Yes, they may be suggesting them to a nauseating degree to new users (which is already disgusting on it's own) but from my experience with using the site just before I switched to Invidious, it doesn't matter if you have years of suggested patterns that YouTube can read into and make judgements from because they will STILL try and worm one of these loud political one sided shouting matches into EVERY video you watch.
Lets not forget the fact that YouTube KNOWS that the most interaction comes from videos that make people angry. That's where the most engagement comes from, that's where the most comments come from and that's what they are weaponising to keep their platform addicting.
Why did I make this post? Simple. I'm fucking tired of this. I hate politics to a degree that I can't even describe. Over the past few years, the topic of politics has found a way to worm itself into EVERY possible conversation and almost EVERY platform is not only encouraging that but is also giving a BIGGER platform to whoever the loudest voice in the room is. It's nauseating to hear how loud people get whenever they talk about ANYTHING related to politics and almost none of it impacts my own life.
This is precisely why YouTube's recent push to put politics first gets under my skin as much as it does, because now you don't even have to say anything related to politics to get bombarded with someone's opinions. Hell, you don't even have to consent to having it shoved into your face. No matter where you are, YOU AREN'T SAFE. And like I said before, the current state of Politics will always lead you into a never ending shouting match no matter what you try to do and YouTube pushing the videos that scream these points the loudest to everyone they can makes it feel like trying to run away from the shouting match is truly pointless. It'll find a way to bring you into SOME kind of echo chamber whether you like it or not.
You may be wondering with all of this shouting about politics why I haven't brought up my own political opinions. If you want to know why, it's because I not only don't care about Politics to begin with, but I also don't want to bombard you with a discussion that you didn't ask for and I also don't want to end up in the same corner of the internet that these videos try to expand the reach of. The ONLY somewhat political thing you'll get out of me (which is literally impossible to talk about without bringing up the party that started it) is my utter distain for the Online Safety Act thanks to the unholy ripple effect that's had on the internet. That's all you'll get out of me. Ever.
One last thing before I wrap up this post. There are a couple of things I've been meaning to talk about that anger me to an unreasonable degree where I feel like the only way to get them off my chest is to release a web post about them, but I know that's probably not what you're here for. You went onto this site to get an escape from these mainstream sites. (Which is especially true with all the new positive messages I've been getting in the guestbook)
Don't worry, I'm not going to turn this website into a rant corner. Nobody wants that, and to make sure that nobody has to deal with a downer topic they don't want anything to do with, all future posts I upload that delve into these more unfiltered topics will have a content warning before they load in. You probably saw it when loading this particular post, and it's not going to be the last time you'll see it. Unlike a lot of these """content creators""" that only care about increasing their reach, I care a lot about the user experience for whoever takes the time to look at what I make. If you don't want to read this stuff, you'll get a heads up before you load into them. Also, I'm not going to make a push to have most of my posts be rants. The site's regular output will ALWAYS consist of whatever I feel inclined to talk about in the moment. I'd never use it as recklessly as YouTube uses their recommended videos. In conclusion, Fuck politics and fuck YouTube for trying to make me think about them too much.
(I couldn't find a good photo for this post nor did i want to make one.)
(Oh, and there was also the time where YouTube's recommended saw me looking at a movie clip for A New Hope and thought I would be interested in knowing how inbred King Charles is, but it doesn't really work as an example for what I was proving in the moment so I left it out.)
(That was the first video in the list.)