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
“I write about what we see, what we miss, and what may be coming.”
Jo The El is an independent author exploring the questions behind technology, society, human behaviour and the future. The writing starts with things we meet every day but rarely stop to examine: why platforms built for creativity fill up with repetition, and how much of what we choose is really our own.
The End of YouTube is the first book, with more on the way. Rather than telling readers what to think, each one asks them to look again.
Questions about the book, or want to hear when the next one is out?
Write to Jo The El directly. Every email is read.
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