
Raised by YouTube - myinnerbanjo
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/11/raised-by-youtube/570838/?single_page=true
======
CalRobert
I generally decry the filter bubble, but every time I open Youtube in an
incognito tab I am utterly appalled at what merits being top of the list. I
wonder in what other areas of life I'm not realizing that what's presented to
me as "popular" is only "popular" for a small set of people.

~~~
kitd
_what 's presented to me as "popular" is only "popular" for a small set of
people._

... or maybe "popular for a set of small people" :)

Many folk trashed shows like Teletubbies or In The Night Garden for being
banal, and thus 'damaging' young minds. But those shows were informed by child
psychologists who, unlike the detractors, understand that child brains work
differently to adult ones.

I suspect ChuChu hits the same buttons.

~~~
screye
That being said, there are some pretty creepy or generally dislikeable people
whose YouTube channels are very popular among children.

There are YouTubers whose whole bit is insulting people, having a short
temper, inconviniencing people and playing it all off as jokes. However, I
have seen my younger cousins directly adopt behaviors from these YouTubers and
try to solve their problems by shouting, insulting and throwing a tantrum.
Ofc, throwing tantrums is something all kids do, but the manner in which they
do it closely resembles these channels.

Then there are straight up creepy and unnerving channels with millions of
views and that show at the top of queries searched by children.

I feel YouTube should provide parents with a more granular control over the
filtering process. Preteens can be very impressionable.

~~~
CalRobert
They destroy lives with their pranks (even if you don't click - never, ever,
ever blow an air horn near someone's head)
[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/17/a-yout...](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/17/a-youtube-
inspired-prank-ruined-my-daughters-life)

~~~
KozmoNau7
If someone did that to me, my reaction would probably end rather badly. I
value my hearing very much. The sheer idiocy of not even giving the slightest
thought to the consequences is extremely disturbing.

It's terrifyingly easy to permanently wreck someone's eyesight or hearing with
a high power laser pointer or an airhorn.

"It's just a prank, bro!"

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analogmemory
I recently re-watched some episodes of Transformers and GI Joe that I LOVED as
a little twerp. Total garbage writing and animation, which makes me think
anyone can make children's shows with some colorful animation and catchy
words/songs. This Chu Chu looks like I'm waiting for the acid to kick in.

~~~
dagw
_Total garbage writing and animation, which makes me think anyone can make
children 's shows_

However there where also a 100 shows kind of like GI Joe and Transformers at
same time that all died after a season or two and no one remembers. It would
be interesting to see if anybody has done any analysis as to what made the
successful bad show more successful than the unsuccessful bad show.

~~~
ztjio
It was the toys. It's not rocket science. The show + toys had to be appealing
and the vast majority of competing shows had no toys or terrible ones.

~~~
air7
It was one of my welcome-to-the-real-world moments growing up when I learned
that the Transformers were initally toys and that the animation series was
created later to increase sales.

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ur-whale
We raise our kids in a YT and TV free environment.

Oddly enough, they seem to be doing fine.

~~~
zazen
I really like this idea, but there's one question that I always wonder how
people doing this handle.

If your kids are not yet school age, and you plan to send them to school
rather than home-school when the time comes: what's your plan for when your
children and the other children realise this stark difference between their
home environments? Your children will feel they're being denied wonderful
entertainment that the other children are getting. Other children will mark
out your children as outsiders. Based on my own childhood, I'm afraid I find
it easy to imagine your children being ostracised and bullied over a thing
like this. But even if they're not, won't they be screaming for TV every
night?

(No children myself, I could easily be wrong about everything, honest
question.)

~~~
ur-whale
I grew up experiencing the exact thing you describe: we didn't have a TV at
home and there was a number of times where I was entirely left out of
conversations in the schoolyard about the cool movie on TV the previous night.

When I _truly_ wanted to watch a movie that was going to be on, I had to plan
a sleep-over at my cousin's.

It honestly never bothered me, nor did I particularly feel ostracized in any
way by my schoolmates.

Neither did I feel slighted by my parents: I grew in the kind of family where
when you're a kid, things are what your parent tell you they are are and
that's that. You get to argue the rules when you become financially
independent.

On the flipside, for me, entertainment became synonymous with reading books
and doing stuff outside, something I consider to have had a very positive
impact on my life.

Specifically, IMO, reading for entertainment has a huge advantage over
watching stuff: your brain has to _work_ to build the picture from the text
and connect the dots of the story. First, it is a very useful skill. Second,
if the book isn't good, you walk away from it quick because it's not worth the
effort.

With TV and YT ... it's much more about passively gobbling up whatever the
thing feeds you.

That said, in 2018, with the importance social networks seem to have in
teenager's lives, things might different.

We're not at that stage yet, my kids are toddlers. Once they get closer to
pre-teen years, we might have to revisit.

I might have to cobble up a device that restricts internet browsing to hacker
news :)

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unicornporn
If you're interested in YouTube success stories, Swedish Babblarna[1] makes
children's videos and their most popular video has 64 million views. Many of
their popular videos have over 10 million views (about the population of
Sweden). The difference is that they're only in Swedish.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/user/FilmHatten/videos](https://www.youtube.com/user/FilmHatten/videos)

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CitizenTekk
Children always depends learning on what they see. They have little known of
recognition on how they will interpret it as whether it's a good thing or a
bad thing. If children saw something funny and people often try to just laugh
it off, they will saw it as a good thing, even though it has a visible thing
of hurting someone. You can't control on what they see on youtube. Of course,
it all depends on the parent or responsible adult to control and limit on what
they saw. There are still good and learning videos on youtube that children
must see. Have them limit watching youtube and as much as possible refrain on
teaching them on how to navigate on youtube. Always make sure that the
autoplay is off so that videos would point to other topic.

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skrebbel
Hahaah my youngest watches these. I really hadn't imagined the videos were
made by middle-aged men with mustaches :-)

Well, thanks! It's absolutely braindead stuff but braindead in a lovely way.
Perfectly great for half an hour of powering down.

~~~
unicornporn
> Perfectly great for half an hour of powering down.

Perfect for you or your child? :)

~~~
skrebbel
For him.

~~~
unicornporn
Seems like a questionable way of learning how to power down.

> […] I sought out Colleen Russo Johnson, a co-director of UCLA’s Center for
> Scholars & Storytellers. Johnson did her doctoral work on kids’ media and
> serves as a consultant to studios that produce children’s programming. […]
> even in relatively limited doses, these videos can affect young toddlers’
> development. If kids watch a lot of fast-paced videos, they come to expect
> that that is how videos should work, which could make other educational
> videos less compelling and effective. “If kids get used to all the crazy,
> distracting, superfluous visual movement, then they may start requiring that
> to hold their attention,” Johnson said.

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kanwisher
My son loves this youtube channel, super good startup success story

~~~
unicornporn
Kids love sugar too. That doesn't mean it's good for them though.

