# Who are my YouTube doppelgangers By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2022-08-27 I regularly watch YouTube videos that alternate between learning and [[entertainment]]. There is always more content to consume, so when I need a 20-40 minute break YouTube almost always delivers some [[information]] of interest. But, I rarely search for videos to watch on YouTube anymore. Instead, I just see what the algorithm recommends and then select one. This often takes me down a rabbit hole that eventually I get tired of because the content just ends up repeating itself. For example, there is only so much one can say about no-code software before every channel just keeps saying the same things. So, when the end has been reached, I just go down another rabbit hole based on the algorithm's recommendation. Over the past few months, I've been curious about the apparently random topic recommendations YouTube will throw my way. I know behind-the-scenes YouTube has a collaborative filtering algorithm that makes these recommendations to they can keep me watching. Collaborative filtering is a fancy way of saying "people like you also like this." This is the essence of nearly all online recommendation systems you see. It works by taking content that you watched, finding other people who also watched it, and then looking for videos that these people have but you haven't watched. In other words, it's like asking your friend what shows they are watching to figure out what you should watch next. The difference between asking for your friend's recommendation and YouTube's recommendation engine is that we have no clue who these other people are. How similar are they to you? Would you be happy or sad to learn about them? Are you normal or weird? What would this group of people tell you about yourself? This last question is intriguing and potentially in the category of being careful what you wish for. All this said, it feels like a miss by the likes of YouTube and other online platforms. If the algorithm is worth anything, then a large community of people like you passively exist in the world but we'll never really be able to find each other. Sure you can make comments in the videos as a call to action to join some sort of virtual club, but there are many groups who like otter videos but only a few who like otter videos, day trading, puzzles, world war 2, [[woodworking]], and ridiculous video games. You'll likely never find your true doppelganger community today even though we are closer to having one than ever before. Instead, you'll just join one or two clubs and attempt to fit in. I got to believe that this is the next step of the internet: the self-organized discovery of hyper-localized communities inadvertently powered by [[capitalism]] and advertising. This is far beyond your Facebook community group that likes cats and this isn't the exploitative Twitter culture war we see today. This is where genuine and authentic discoveries of others like us are made and then these communities collectively migrate to new platforms of human-centered solidarity. #### Related Items [[Collaborative Filtering]] [[Collaboration]] [[Community]] [[Self-organization]] [[The Human Condition]] [[Hyper-localization]] [[Solidarity]]