By Imme van Oudheusden
Imme van Oudheusden is a graduation student the Creative Business program (BA) at the University of Applied Sciences in Utrecht. Her graduation project focuses on users awareness for algorithmic manipulation of content recommendations in popular online platforms such as YouTube. Read more about her work below:
From deciding what you see once you open YouTube to recommending new songs to put in your Spotify playlists, algorithms have engrained their way in most aspects of people’s lives.
It’s no surprise then that our younger generation has been influenced by what they see through these algorithms. Nowadays, YouTube has stated that algorithms determine up to 70% of what we see on their platform and that’s not all, most of us really enjoy the online “comfort-zones” we’ve set up for ourselves. Because who doesn’t love getting videos recommended that we know we will enjoy?
However, it’s important in this technical day and age to stay critical of what we see online. To help young adults learn more about algorithms and misinformation in an engaging and exciting way, YouMind was created.
While playing YouMind, you will be led through a variety of videos, as you usually would encounter on YouTube. You will also receive helpful tips, tricks and questions about both YouTube and misinformation. Afterwards, you’ll get a better insight into what your pitfalls are and how you can get back out of them.
Curious? Check YouMind here: https://www.you-mind.info/
