After a dad claimed that a YouTube dance videos damaged his daughter’s mind, the phenomenon “Falling down the YouTube rabbit hole” came to a heavy discussion . This phenomenon is referred to when users are redirected to potentially dangerous and controversial content that they would otherwise never stumbled upon.  According to the parent, his 10-year-old daughter innocently browsed for ‘tap dance videos’ on YouTube. At one point, she has been redirected to videos that were giving her advice on body-harming and starvation. Even though the dad has put in parental controls into all her devices, she keeps finding new ways to watch these harmful videos.

YouTube’s recommendation algorithms has been a topic of discussion many times before. 70% of the total viewing time on YouTube is powered by its recommendation engine. BBC investigations claim that YouTube’s algorithms, aids misinformation such as flat earth conspiracy theorists and  videos on fake cancer cures. People that get obsessive in watching such videos are generally more vulnerable to believing untrustworthy information. Before these videos, often ads of major consumer good brands are run (e.g. Samsung, Clinique and Heinz). This means that YouTube, the video makers and these big brands are making money out of vulnerable people by promoting misleading videos.

In reaction to this, a YouTube spokesperson responded that in the beginning of 2019, multiple changes to its recommendation engine has been made to prevent misleading content. This resulted in 50% drop in watch time of harmful and misleading content in the United States. Although YouTube claims to have made progressions in tackling harmful misinformation and conspiracy theories, it refuses to share the logic behind its recommendation algorithms.

To better understand YouTube’s recommendation engine, researchers of Mozilla openly asked people to share personal experiences in getting redirected  to a harmful YouTube recommendation. They successfully promoted this stunt as “Tell us your YouTube Regret”, receiving more than 2,000 responses. This shows a recognizable pattern that it is hard to fight against YouTube’s  recommendation algorithms. Despite the fact that loved ones are doing everything in their power to manually delete the YouTube recommendation histories or to control the YouTube account, victims of the YouTube rabbit hole keep finding new ways to obsessively watch harmful videos.

Have you guys every experienced a “YouTube regret”? And, what is your opinion on the claim that YouTube is misusing its platform to make money out of vulnerable people? Please share your comments below!

BBC (2019) YouTube aids flat earth conspiracy theorists, research suggests. Available at:  https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47279253

Carmichael, F. (2019) Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50045919

Geurkink, B (2019) Available at: https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/youtube-regrets/

Gragnani, J. (2019) YouTube advertises big brands alongside fake cancer cure videos. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-49483681

Mozilla (2019) Available at: https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/campaigns/youtube-regrets/

The current trend shows that Facebook continues to lose its younger social network users while becoming increasingly popular among elderly.  The younger consumers under age 24 are switching to newer social platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat. This demonstrates the necessity for Facebook to find and create new ways for its younger users to interact and socialize with each other.

In an attempt to persuade its younger users,  Facebook has announced its VR massive-multiplayer world called Horizon. This is a virtual reality universe where users can build their own games and environments to play and socialize with friends. Through an AR headset you are able to step into Horizon’s world and designed your own cartoon avatar. You start at a vibrant town square where all people meet and where you can teleport to worlds and experiences built by Facebook.  After that you are exposed to endless possibilities of creating your own worlds and activities within Horizon by using World Builder. This can be done without any coding knowledge. For instance, you can built your own movie theater to watch movies with your friends, you can relax on your own built vacation island or you can create a laser tag competition on the moon. All of this while physically staying at your own home.

The real question is: how would such a VR world impact our society? Horizon aims to let users create their own adventures, experience new places and make new social connections with people all over the world. In the first instance this sounds as great effort in making people socially develop. However as Horizon tries to substitute the social interaction in our physical world with its virtual world, it could ultimately lead to the habit of hiding from your real life. People can become addicted to socializing in the virtual world and this can lead to the reversed effect of becoming less sociable in the real world. Next to that, if users are addicted, other physical risks such as nauseous, eye sourness and seizures could occur, when violating the recommended minimum of a 10 minute break that is needed every 30 minutes.

An even bigger concern is that Facebook is able to freely integrate sponsored advertisements and messages into its Horizon world. This could be done by putting up billboards in its virtual world which influences the content that is exposure to its users. When a larger user base is established and infatuated with Horizon’s VR world, it could give Facebook a vast power in what the users see, feel and think.

Do the benefits of a VR world such as Horizon outweigh the possible risks? And how can we ensure that Facebook is not able to manipulate its users? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Sources:
BBC (2019) Facebook to create VR world called Horizon. Available at:  https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-49851798

Constine, J. (2019) Facebook announces Horizon, a VR massive multiplayer world. Available at: https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/25/facebook-horizon/

Fagan, K. (2018) Here’s what happens to your body when you’ve been in virtual reality for too long. Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/virtual-reality-vr-side-effects-2018-3?international=true&r=US&IR=T

Oculus (2019) Introduction ‘Facebook Horizon’, a New Social VR World, Coming to Oculus Quest and the Rift Platform 2020. Available at: https://www.oculus.com/blog/introducing-facebook-horizon-a-new-social-vr-world-coming-to-oculus-quest-and-the-rift-platform-in-2020/

Sulleyman, A. (2018) Facebook losing its grip on young people, who are quitting the site in their millions. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/facebook-quit-young-people-social-media-snapchat-instagram-emarketer-a8206486.html