The psycho-absurdity on YouTube
As on 2025, content on YouTube has been hitting ever higher levels of bizarre, absurd, revolting.
YouTube started off as a place for amateur video enthusiasts, and moved into production polish, clickbaits, cringe, and now into the bizarre, absurd levels.
Paints a parallel with the archetypal attributes of the macabre, grotesque, carnivals, sideshows, freak shows, exaggerated game shows on TV and so on.
This is not a critique or judgment. I’m just noticing something. Just a point-in-time snapshot of the machinic trajectory.
And once I noticed that, some others too came into notice - some other things that co-exist on YouTube even as the absurd and bizarre lives a life of its own. They are the heartfelt, honest personal channels, people sharing their music, experiences and so on. Sure, the economics of the algorithm do sometimes affect the simple, honest efforts - but they too exist nonetheless.
I can see the bizarre/absurd and the poignant/simple/honest both being present in this machinic snapshot.