The End of YouTube
How algorithms, reaction culture and AI changed “Broadcast Yourself”.
YouTube promised anyone could be a broadcaster. Then the algorithm started choosing, reaction channels started repackaging, and AI started generating. This book follows how that happened, and what it leaves for the people who make and watch video.
Three forces that changed the video platform a generation grew up on.
The feed decides
How recommendation systems moved power from subscribers to the feed, and taught creators to make what the algorithm rewards.
Watching people watch
Why reacting to other people’s work became one of the platform’s biggest formats, and what that does to originality.
Broadcast nobody
What happens to “Broadcast Yourself” when the video, the voice and the face no longer need a person behind them.
“We were told we were the audience. Then we were told we were the creators. It took years to notice we were the product.” Jo The El
Jo The El
Jo The El writes about social media, technology and the modern world: the platforms we live on, and what they do to us while we're not looking. The End of YouTube is the first book.
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