They're pushing Shorts so fucking hard it makes me sick.
Even worse is that we're banning TikTok because it's bad for the kids (short form algorithmic content), Snapchat (similar thing + strangers creeping) and Instagram Stories (algorithm again).
BUT there is NO WAY for a parent to allow their kid to use Youtube AND block Shorts. (yes there are browser plugins etc, but how do you enforce them on a child?)
And from what I've seen the AI slop on Shorts is so fucking bad that it seems we just collectively forgot about Elsagate...
A few days ago I definitely got into an A/B test where the search results were:
- 5 shorts one under another
- new section with one or two videos and one or two shorts
- new section with five or more shorts in a horizontal layout
- new section with videos of which 20-30% were shorts
It's insane