YOU Are Now Part of the Algorithm

Here’s a dumb and obvious statement: Over the last year I’ve seen something on social media that’s disturbing.

Well, okay, more disturbing than usual social media in the Collapsing West when everyone has lost their minds.

It’s a comment I see often, especially on YouTube. It’s always this:

Whenever I see a video with XXXXX, I click.

XXXXX is always the name of someone. It could be anyone. Alex Hormozi, Matthew McConaughey, Scott Galloway; the names are always different, and the name doesn’t matter.

The sad part is that I believe these people. I think these people actually do automatically click the video any time a particular person is in it like a dumb robot.

I also think that only a very tiny percentage of people like this are actually brave or stupid enough to make a public comment that says, “Any time I see a video with XXXXX, I click.”

As a matter of fact, it’s very likely that YOU are in this category and you don’t even realize it.

The point is that these poor bastards have literally wired their brains to robotically and automatically click certain videos when they see certain things in that video.

It’s not just clicking videos either. Most modern-day humans check their phones as soon as they wake up in the morning. The exact app on their phone may differ; maybe it’s Instagram, Twitter/X, WhatsApp, their SMS texts, or something else. But the point is they robotically, unconsciously do this like drones.

Everyone, myself included, has bitched and moaned about “the algorithm” that social media platforms use. How it warps our views of the world. How it’s used to make us think certain things. How it’s used to manipulate us.

But now, humans have become a part of the algorithm. If you automatically click a video every time you see someone’s name, you aren’t affected by the algo; you ARE the algo. You’re just another link in that chain.

And sadly, the odds are that this is going to get worse.

With AI in the near future, you likely won’t even have YouTube videos anymore. YouTube (or whatever it’s called by then) will already know what you like and instantly create videos on the fly that suck you in.

This is depressing, terrifying shit.

And I say all this as someone who uses social media to make money in one of his companies. But I’ve been very clear and on the record that I hate that I have to use social media, and I wish there was some other viable organic alternative (which there is not, at least not yet).

Every time I see one of these “whenever I see X I do Y” comments, and I see them all the time now, I get just a little sad at where humanity in the Collapse West has ended up.

The good news is that you can choose not to be a part of the algo. As just one example, a while back I disabled YouTube’s ability to show me any videos in my feed, forcing me to go seek out videos I want to watch. I can still use social media while minimizing its effect on my brain.

I will never be a human component of the algo.

Hopefully you won’t either.