 Oh boy, the New York Times just messed with our favorite throat punching YouTuber, Philip DeFranco, and we definitely need to talk about it. What is up, everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul, where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. And if you're new to my channel, what I like to do is take a look at what's going on in the YouTube community, the news, pop culture, movie, TV shows, try to see what lessons we can learn from them. So if you're into that, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And if you're not yet, make sure you're following me over on Instagram and Twitter at the Rewired Soul, because Twitter was popping off this morning about the New York Times article and Philip DeFranco being in their thumbnail. All right, but anyways, I love engaging with all of you beautiful people out there on social media. All right, so let's discuss the story real quick about what happened, what this article is about, how Philip DeFranco is involved, but make sure you stay tuned because I'm going to be touching on a few different topics. First, what's going on with Philip DeFranco and how he's involved, but also what this New York Times article discussed as far as it goes when it comes to YouTube. All right, so anyways, a lot of major media outlets out there right now are discussing a couple things. One of them being the Vox adpocalypse, which began between Stephen Crowder and Carlos Mazza. But the other thing is a lot of people are trying to demonize YouTube. All right, and we need to discuss this. Okay, so anyways, the New York Times just came out with an article discussing how YouTube kind of fosters this breeding ground of alt-right people and radicalizing people based on the way their algorithm works. All right, and we're going to touch on that in a minute. But Philip DeFranco got involved because on Twitter, the way this thumbnail looks, like you can see Philip DeFranco in this article, like in the picture. So as you scroll down and Philip DeFranco actually tweeted about this, like as you scroll down, like you see like alt-right and Philip DeFranco's face, and Philip DeFranco is like, yo, what the heck is going on? Right? So anyways, the first thing let's talk about, and it's something that I actually remember Philip DeFranco discussing as well in a situation with Jordan Peele, how people were labeling Jordan Peele as some kind of racist against white people or whatever, and Philip DeFranco touched on kind of like these outrage headlines that people create, right? So one of the larger issues that we need to recognize, all right, is that when it comes to news articles, when it comes to YouTube and everything like that, like based on what we know about human nature and psychology, all of these things are trying to invoke some type of emotion, all right? This is the reason for titles, this is the reason for thumbnails, all sorts of things. They're trying to make you feel something. And at the end of the day, most articles aren't even read, okay? A lot of people just see it, they share it, all right? If this article plays into our confirmation bias, there's a good chance that we're going to share it without even looking at what the content of that is. Now, this is something too that people like Philip DeFranco or myself do as well, too lesser extents than what just happened to him. But whenever us YouTubers are creating titles and thumbnails, we're asking ourselves, how can we invoke an emotion in somebody to get them to click on this, to get them to share on it? Like the title of this video, I just sit there and ask myself like, okay, how do I title this thumbnail or how do I title this video? How do I create this thumbnail? How do I do this without people just reading the headline? And that is something that a lot of us have to take responsibility for. We have to realize that the world is a certain way and it isn't the way we want it to be. Because for me in a perfect world, people would click on a video, watch the content in its entirety, and then form an opinion. But there's a few things. One is people are just headline readers. Two, the attention span of people is very, very short. Like on average, my videos are between like 10 and 12 minutes. And my average watch time is about three and a half to four minutes. All right. So this means that most people watching my videos or only watching one third of my video, you see what I mean? So we have to think about this. So what the New York Times just did to Philip DeFranco can be very damaging. All right. Because if you actually click on this article and go through this article, like it does not mention Philip DeFranco one single time in that article. All right. Now, the article is actually about the YouTube algorithm and how it can create this kind of like rabbit hole of, you know, far right or all right opinions and videos and conspiracy theories and all these other things, which is very true. But the article actually starts to talk a little bit about, you know, liberal media and everything like that on YouTube. Now, one of the reasons Philip DeFranco is the guy is because he tries to show you both sides of situations. He tosses in his opinion minimally. He usually asks you what your thoughts are on it as well. But at the end of the day, he was lumped in to this thumbnail with people like Alex Jones, Paul Joseph Walker. I think Milo Yeanopoulos was in there. Philip DeFranco's picture was right below Ben Shapiro. And anybody who knows Philip DeFranco knows that Philip DeFranco, if anything, is more liberal leaning. All right. But at the end of the day, New York Times did their job because checking out like all of us YouTubers were talking about it. We're tweeting about it. We're retweeting it. That article is probably getting way more exposure than it would have. Had they not used Philip DeFranco in it, you see what I mean? But anyways, now let's talk about the YouTube algorithm and how it keeps people in a bubble, throws them down a rabbit hole. So I've talked about this before. I made a video about this a while back, like maybe a month ago, barely got any views. So let's talk about it again. The way YouTube is designed is to keep you in a bubble, all right? Because YouTube wants to keep you on its platform as long as possible. This is the way every single social media platform is designed. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, whatever it is. This is why it will recommend things that you like. So I was actually just talking with a friend about this. Like, for example, when I've been researching this, Steven Crowder, Carlos Mazza situation with the Vox Apocalypse, like YouTube is just recommending me so much stuff that I have no interest in. And my YouTube recommended gets messed up just because I'm a YouTuber and I do research on stuff. So sometimes I start researching something that doesn't agree with my personal views or opinions or whatever. But that is the way YouTube is designed, all right? And that's not going to change. That is not changing at any time. So what I try to do with my channel is when I'm explaining these stories and explaining these things, I'm trying to pass the responsibility off to you, the viewer, like, you need to recognize that this is happening. You need to recognize that social media platforms are trying to recommend you more things that you're going to watch that agree with your opinion. So when you combine your interest with confirmation bias, you're going to keep finding people that confirm your opinion. Now, what this article was talking about is the kind of unknowing brainwashing that happens. And it's dangerous. And I'm going to talk about why that's dangerous and what we can do about it. But at the same time, like I look at it in a much lesser extent. I've talked about this before, especially like during the James Charles situation, like with myself being a commentary channel, then you got like drama channels and news channels and everything like that. The more we all report on a story, the more YouTube is going to recommend it. I would love to collect the data sometime on how many videos on average you the viewer watch based on a certain story like the James Charles situation when that was going down, like how many videos did you watch that were reporting on that story? You see what I mean? Because the more we watch those, the more that message can be put into our brain. And that's where I think we as YouTubers have a responsibility to do our research, to try to come at these stories from an objective point of view. Because if we play into a narrative, like something that happened with James Charles and some of the serious allegations against him, like it is affecting you as the viewer. But there's responsibility on our end, as well as on your end, to recognize what's happening. Like if you see 20 videos on a subject and they're all agreeing with one another, like ask yourself for one second, like is this accurate? Where's the proof? Is this one providing accurate sources? Is this one showing where this information came from? And is it credible? You see what I mean? Because all of us need to work on being independent thinkers and not just following the leader and believing everything that we hear. So the last thing I want to talk about with the way the YouTube algorithm is working and the rabbit hole people can get into, when I look at this stuff, like it worries me on a bigger level in a different way than most people. Like obviously I'm worried about people becoming radicalized and doing, you know, egregious things and everything like that. But I always try to get down to the root of the problem, right? The root, like what is happening, right? Like for example, I'm somebody who's fascinated with like cults and things like that. And something that you recognize with cults is they find people who are the most vulnerable, people who feel like society has let them down, people who are, you know, loners, people who come from a broken home. You see what I mean? So when I look at these situations and I see the people who are falling into this, what I think we all need to do is start asking the question like, why are so many people hurting? Why are so many people feeling alone, unheard, isolated and all of that? Because what happens is when you put people into this place where they feel as though they're the victim, you play into their fears, you play into their anger because fear and anger are so closely related and it can lead to terrible things. So like even though I'm more liberal leaning and everything like that, like I respect people's right to have different opinions than myself when it comes to political things, right? And this is where it becomes an issue because you have people who are vocalizing their political views, their political opinions, but if it touches the wrong ears, people can twist that into a narrative that isn't even being said, all right? So there is a massive issue, but I don't think the issue is YouTube. I don't think the issue is necessarily, you know, just anybody on the opposite side of the aisle than like my political views. I believe the root cause of the issue is that we have a lot of people who are in a lot of pain and we need to start figuring out why, all right? So if you're somebody, if you're somebody and you're in pain, like do not be afraid to reach out and ask for help. There are so, so, so many resources, all right? What I always recommend is the following steps. Like if you think that your mental health is messed up, like talk to your doctor, see if they can recommend the therapist. If you have insurance, talk to your insurance company, see which therapists are in your network. Like if you're somebody who's dealing with depression, anxiety, trauma, whatever it is, there are therapists who specialize in that. Talk to friends and family members, see if they know a therapist who you can work with. If it's more extreme, go to treatment for a little while, all right? I personally use BetterHelp Online Therapy. I have a phenomenal therapist who's actually based here in Nevada as well, but anyways if you would like to try BetterHelp Online Therapy, there's an affiliate link down below. What that means is that you get cheap online therapy with a license therapist and a little bit of it goes back and helps support the channel. But anyways, I would love to know your thoughts on this subject. Everything from using Philip DeFranco in the thumbnail for this thing, what you think about the YouTube algorithm, keeping people in a bubble, throwing them down a rabbit hole, and what are your thoughts on like, why do you think so many people are in pain and hurting in this country, all right? But anyways, that's all I got for this video. If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell because I make a ton of videos. And a huge, huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on Patreon. You are all amazing. And if you would like to help support what I'm doing here and get access to our monthly Q&A, some other perks and benefits, click a tab on that Patreon icon right there, all right? Thanks again so, so much for watching. I'll see you next time.