Series parts:

1. New Series: Why People Everywhere Should Quit YouTube
2. YouTube's New Management: Time's Up, Start Paying and Watch Ads, Don't Use Free Software
3. Why You Should Quit YouTube - Part 3: Google Exploits Creators, It'll Get Even Worse
4. Why You Should Quit YouTube - Part 4: Financial Crunch Time
5. Why You Should Quit YouTube - Part 5: The Real Enemy Has Become Sanity of Users
6. YOU ARE HERE ☞ The 'Audiences' as the Enemies of YouTube

Video download link | md5sum 38189a14267493d9c3e55c568c293c0f What YouTube Really Does Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: 'Audiences' and 'creators' are both harmed by YouTube, more so over time; today we focus on what it means to be a spectator alone (read-only) in the world's largest video hosting platform, which isn't a public service but increasingly a great disservice, extracting "value" out of exploited serfs without compensating them

THE previous part, which the video above covers and describes in passing, spoke about TikTok as an emerging/emergent competitor of YouTube (and its political masters, too). It also spoke of the exploitative relationship between YouTube and "creators", but today we focus on users (viewers) and what they stand to lose by staying on YouTube. 'Audiences' is what Google/Alphabet might call them; the customers/clients are advertisers/governments and what they pay for is indoctrination (changing people's attitude, views, perceived needs or wants). To YouTube, the product on sale is the "audience" or the userbase. That's just how managers view it; remember they don't create videos, they just try to 'monetise' others' hard work. Without bothering to properly compensate the real workers, not those who receive a salary. There's a disproportionate and asymmetric model of rewards.

To users, i.e. people who only ever "consume" videos but never create (or at least never upload) videos, the downsides of YouTube can be summed up as follows:

1. The censorship of topics/channels/videos you like.
2. Lots of unwanted marketing junk, not limited to advertisements (more on that later).
3. YouTube's attacks on third parties, which in turn limits choice. Impending shadowbanning/sabotage of Invidious hosts will reveal the full extent of that.
4. The exploitation of "creators" whom you wish to financially reward.
5. A growing DRM creep (we covered this in previous parts), which will limit what Web browsers you can use. Double standards on uploads and downloads are part of this problem, as noted in the video above. In a nutshell, files ("protected content") need to be decrypted on your own machine, based on the assumption you're a "pirate", and this harms the environment, raises your electricity bills etc.
6. YouTube is owned by questionable company, subservient to an empire or country with imperial ambitions
7. YouTube relies on proprietary code, both at the server side and the client side, and Google is chasing or mowing down Free software alternatives. As of a few years ago, one must run proprietary JavaScript to merely open pages and see comments, not just to play videos or add a comment.
8. With management changes this year, and moreover a more marketing-focused management team, the worst is yet to come and the devil is in the details
9. Lastly (there are more factors for sure but this isn't an exhaustive list), videos are not listed based on one's preferences and subscriptions of choice anymore. Nothing is presented linearly and neutrally but based on what Google is pushing, e.g. arbitrarily choosing to become "viral". You may feel like you're in control, but you're not. You are being covertly controlled. We'll come back to this and elaborate in Part 8.

That's just from the point of view of people who "binge" or watch a lot of videos. The next part will speak about "creators". They too are harmed, even more so.

More people need to abandon and give up on YouTube/Spotify/Netflix (DRM and spying platforms). Social control media needs to die also, but that's another story, albeit YouTube gradually and increasingly resembles social control media, just like TikTok. "Not sure if Netflix has a viable business model," an associate said today, "but YouTube sure seems to lack one." As for Spotify, it is losing a billion dollars a year and it recently announced layoffs, sell-offs, and cancellation of whole services/units. How long for will YouTube be formally 'free'? Well, they already try to push annual subscriptions for over $100. In some countries that's way too high a fee. ⬆