What's really happening on YouTube
+ Apple Watch ankle monitors, Power Rangers fanfic, a Shopify for filmmakers, Kai Cenat's 'streamer university,' and how Club Shay Shay took over the airwaves
A fascinating peek inside YouTube’s ecosystem
A few years ago, Ethan Zuckerman, director of the Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and a team of researchers came up with a new way to reliably survey trends on YouTube. They designed a computer program that pulls up YouTube videos at random, trying billions of URLs at a time, and scrapes publicly available information about them.
“The scraper's findings are giving us a first-time perspective on what's actually happening on YouTube,” Zuckerman told the BBC.
The BBC reports: “YouTube is the most popular social media site in the US by far, with 83% of adults and 93% of teenagers among its patrons. It's the second-most-visited website on Earth by most estimates, topped only by Google.com itself. But as the platform enters its third decade, the most basic facts about YouTube are still a closely guarded secret.”
The researchers found that much of the content on YouTube is not the work of professional content creators. The site is also vast video library for millions of people, organizations, and local governments. They were able to dig out some interesting stats that challenge many people’s perceptions about how the platform is used.
“Most of us imagine YouTube as this place where millionaires give away prizes in a Squid-Game-style contest," said Ryan McGrady, the senior researcher in Zuckerman's lab. "But when you want to have a conversation about YouTube and its place in our society, we need to look at the ways it's used, not just the ways it's consumed."
Some stats gleaned from Zuckerman’s research:
The median number of views for a YouTube videos is just 41 views.
4% of YouTube videos haven't been watched a single time.
74% of YouTube videos have 0 comments.
Around 89% of YouTube videos have 0 likes.
The median YouTube video is only 64 seconds long
More than a third of YouTube videos are less than 33 seconds long.
Only 38% of YouTube videos were edited before uploaded.
What I’m reading
Stephen A. Smith for President
If the Democratic Party has a problem drawing young men who believe that the excesses of wokeness have left them behind, could there be a more appealing figure than the guy they’ve been watching argue about sports for the past decade? - New Yorker
Long COVID is solvable, but we need more clinical trials
COVID has substantially increased the incidence of serious conditions such as neurological disease, heart attacks and strokes. Approximately 20% of U.S. adults suffer from long COVID or have permanent bodily damage from COVID (yes, even if they’re vaccinated). People unable to work due to COVID is costing our economy estimated at $3.7 trillion a year. We must address this problem, which is leading to skyrocketing disability. — LA Times
Trials of the Witchy Women
Across seven centuries, women have been accused of witchcraft—but what that means often differs wildly, revealing the anxieties of each particular society. - New Yorker
After Lorne
The ringmaster of Saturday Night Live is 80 years old. What happens to the show, not to mention American comedy, when he retires? - Vulture
Three Super Bowl Titles, Two Podcasts and One Explosive Interview
“Club Shay Shay” became a must-stop destination for Hollywood after Katt Williams aired his grievances. “This was our ‘Thriller’ album,” said the host Shannon Sharpe. - New York Times
Growing Up Murdoch
James Murdoch on mind games, sibling rivalry, and the war for the family media empire. - The Atlantic
The Incredible Shrinking Dating App
Common wisdom is that dating apps are over. But while millennials are tired of Tinder and upsells, swiping is alive and well. - WIRED
What Comes After OnlyFans?
Fandom revolutionized sex work and remapped the parameters of connection across social media. The question now is, how real are you willing to get? - WIRED
Seeking God, or Peter Thiel, in Silicon Valley
When tech luminaries talk about their Christian faith, people listen. - New York Times
ACTS 17, which is nondenominational, aims to give people an easy, approachable introduction to religious belief. Its website deploys the hallmarks of millennial direct-to-consumer branding, featuring pretty people in puffy jackets talking and smiling alongside floating sans serif promises about “redefining success for those who define culture.”
More fun stuff
The hot new way to wear your Apple Watch is on your ankle.
An analysis of credit and debit card data shows TikTok Shop passed Shein and Temu in US sales in January.
Meta’s new ad for Horizon Worlds is “proof positive that private enterprise is vastly more wasteful than the US government,” one user commented.
Olyn, which bills itself as a “Shopify for filmmakers” lets people sell their films to viewers directly, offering 90% of revenue to creators.
Junior developers are relying so heavily on AI tools, a lot of them can’t actually code very well.
Dog grooming videos are some of the most popular content on YouTube right now. Last year alone there were over 400M views of videos related to dog grooming.
Tom Does Disney, a Disney content creator, was arrested after a domestic dispute with his wife, mid livestream.
US immigration is gaming Google to create a mirage of mass deportations. Thousands of press releases about decade-old enforcement actions topped search results, all updated with a timestamp from after Trump’s inauguration
Kai Cenat said he wants to set up a “streamer university” by renting out a college, putting creators up in the dorms, and bringing in big shots like MrBeast and Mark Rober to teach classes.
Elon Musk killed a program for disabled kids because it included the word “transition.” It helps them to transition from high school to work.
Why are we doing these stupid “self-recorded” job interviews?
Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel says he is "ride or die" for Blake Lively in her legal battle against 'It Ends With Us' director Justin Baldoni.
Russ Vought, Trump’s OMB director, who’s also the architect of Project 2025 which calls for banning porn, deleted his IG account after it was revealed that he was following a slew of OnlyFans creators.
An Instagram account that surfaces old Flickr photos. (h/t )
Indian matchmakers are embracing AI.
Sales of wide-leg jeans will decline 3% over the next year, while slim and straight-leg jeans are expected to grow 2% and 4%, respectively, according to analytics platform Heuritech.
No one really knows what anyone is watching anymore.
Both Puma and Adidas are getting in on the ballerina sneaker trend.
The Washington Post cancelled an ad that was supposed to run that read “Fire Elon Musk,” even after the advertiser signed a $115,000 agreement with the Post to run the ad.
The White House has banned the AP indefinitely because they wouldn’t say “Gulf of America.”
Wendy Williams might be getting out of her conservatorship.
One writer watched Rotten Tomatoes’ 40 lowest-rated films to find out which was worst. (Spoiler: it was National Lampoon’s Gold Diggers. “It is hard to compete with a comedy that lands no jokes.”)
X is now blocking links to secure messaging app Signal in tweets and DMs.
I love a reply-all fiasco!
Instagram is testing a dislike button for comments.
The Substance lookbook is a work of art.
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Reading that reply-all fiasco article was pure joy. Leave it to SNL writers to pour gas on the fire!
Thanks for sharing/amplifying that LAT piece about Long Covid.