Youtube does get it done

I keep getting sucked into reading books about the future, and they're always blathering on about algorithms will run our lives because they know more about us than we know about ourselves, but I really can't see it happening when Twitter keep serving me up shit I really don't want, no mater how many times I tell it to stop doing that.

Twitter is a great source for breaking news and the #1 outlet for smug, high-horsed gits in the known universe, but the things it keeps recommending to me are way off. I have no interest in the endless boring jokes about the new Spider-Man movie that everyone keeps making, or Tucker fuckin' Carlson, or the Zack Snyder Justice League or the intricacies of K-Pop.

It's not that there's anything wrong with any of that stuff, everybody can like what they want. There are plenty of people who get genuine enjoyment out of all these things, and I'm not shitting in their soup. (Well, except for the Tucker Carlson fans. They can fuck right off.)

But they're not for me. And I keep muting and blocking this shit for literally years now and it keeps serving it up, straight into the fucking timeline, like a turd sandwich.

Facebook isn't even better, and the righteous disuse of that platform has been easy when it doesn't give me anything I'm remotely interested in. But if there is one that has worked for me, it's the YouTube. 

It's a hellsite that is directly responsible for real harm in the real world, but it never shows me that horrible stuff. Instead, it's delivering me up all sorts of happy nonsense that I'm genuinely interested in - deep dives on Tolkien or old documentaries about silent movies or sweet cooking videos or or every single music video I've ever liked ever. I had to stay up till midnight to record the Iron Maiden video for Holy Smoke on videotape when it played on Radio With Pictures in 1990, now it's delivered to me right fucking there:

(The best thing about Iron Maiden isn't the art or their thundering music, it's that they're total fucking dorks.)

I know there is a shit-tone of nonsense on Youtube, but I just never see it. It took a day of blocking every CinemaSins video it kept trying to feed me, and a few more days to block, report and ignore the shit out of any Nazi bullshit, before YouTube stopped giving that to me.

I'm not ignoring the horror, and I recognise that I came from a place of ultra-privilege, just being able to block it out. But I'm not giving it any clicks, and hope my silent disdain helps rob it of any power it has. Maybe the future isn't really in the Britpop and comic book analysis YouTube keeps feeding me, but it's better than a tomorrow full of fear and loathing.