In this free-for-all-Friday Trent breaks down his thoughts on declining views on Youtube and changes in the algorithm.
Transcript:
Trent Horn (00:00):
So I got YouTube on my mind. Why? Well, because I’m a YouTuber and it sucks me in and I have to do that. That’s why it’s fun to chat with you guys here on the podcast because I don’t have to listen to YouTube’s rules. I can talk about whatever I want to talk about and some of you might be there to listen to me. Some will remain over time. Welcome to the Council of Trent. Mondays and Wednesdays, we talk apologetics and theology. Friday we talk about whatever I want to talk about. Today I want to talk about YouTube algorithm changing and I’ve just noticed things are a little different. I’ve noticed some large channels, both secular and even Catholic channels just kind of leveling off. There used to be this rocket to the sky, baby. Who knows where we’re going to land? We’re going to ride this rocket to the moon.
(00:43):
And then it comes crashing down. It’s kind of like being investing in the market sort of. I’ve seen other channels that used to be getting two, 300,000 views an episode down to 100,000. And I’m just noticing this across the board and I don’t think it’s only me. I mean, I’ve really been grateful for the support. I think our channel Council of Trent has grown tremendously, but there has been a lot that changed. I mean, I got on YouTube. My first posting for the channel was like back in 2020 on and off. I really didn’t start to see growth until 2022, 2023 when I started scripting episodes, polishing them up, making it more like video essays. Then I started seeing just a lot of tremendous growth in the platform and in the content I was creating. And I noticed something else. I didn’t see a lot of other Catholic creators out there, especially when I was starting like 2020, there were some people out there.
(01:36):
I know Pints was just kind of just giving it its best shot at that point. But I was doing more audio podcasts and just a few YouTube videos here or there. Even when I was regularly doing it in 2022, not as many people. But ever since the pandemic ended, a few years have set in. Even in the past year, I have seen so many Catholic channels launch with professional backgrounds and designs and getting thousands of subscribers and getting thousands of views. And I’m grateful for that. As long as they’re preaching the faith and in an authentic way that isn’t promoting moral or theological error, awesome. Keep up the good work. And so there’s so many people more in the space. I think that views overall are starting to decline on some channels because it’s kind of like with TV, like there used to be … It’s like, what did you watch?
(02:26):
ABC, CBS, NBC. There was like the big three. And then suddenly, so TV was at one time there were seven channels in the ’70s, but by the time you get to the 80s, you’ve got like 59 channels. Then you get to hundreds of channels. And now what do we have today? We have millions of channels, not on cable television, but on YouTube. So everything is diffused and you don’t have … I mean, back in the day, you had shows like the Mash Season Finale, Sopranos season finale. You had a friend’s season finale. You had shows where like hundreds of millions of people were tuning in to watch these things and everybody watched them and talked about them. And now we barely have anything like that. We barely have anything where everybody tunes into the one thing. The closest might be presidential debates, maybe not even the Super Bowl.
(03:20):
People just aren’t as interested in that. It’s just not enjoyable. And so it’s really split people as a result of that. But I was reading an article here dealing with changes in the algorithm and I got to be chasing that algorithm. So I thought I would share it with you and you could see how some of the things change, including about when you browse YouTube, what you end up watching because a lot of times they push you to watch certain things and you don’t even know it. So it says, for much of the 2010s, building a large audience on YouTube seems straightforward. Produce content, gain subscribers, and you would get a good portion of those subscribers would watch your uploads. In fact, I might have to change my strategy. I want to reach as many people as I can with the message of Jesus Christ and his church.
(04:00):
And to do that, I think, “Oh, get subscribers,” and then they’ll watch more likely to watch your episodes. But when it comes to the channels I subscribe to, those don’t show up in my recommends. So the algorithm seems to have changed. It says, “Changes of YouTube’s recommendation algorithm have transformed how viewers discover content contributing to declining viewership for some of the platform’s largest channels.” So it says subscriptions played a major role. If you were subscribing, you’re more likely to see their feed. Beginning in the mid 2010s, YouTube shifted toward a recommendation system focused on viewer behavior rather than subscriptions alone. The platform’s goal was to maximize viewers satisfaction and watch time. So they want you to stay on YouTube as long as posible. How do they do that? What do you like? Well, I just keep giving you what you like so you’ll stay on and you’ll keep watching.
(04:46):
And that’s how it’s shifting more and more than in that direction. Having millions of subscribers no longer guaranteed a videos audience would see it. Even long time subscribers might be shown videos from other creators if the algorithm predicted they would be more engaging. The rise of personalized recommendations created challenges for many established channels. Some of them who built audiences around a specific topic found that viewers interest gradually shifted because the algorithm responds to viewing habits. So sometimes they would just shift their topics and subject matter and that leads to your channel doing weird things. And you’re like, “Hey, what happened to the channel?” It’s sort of like how the learning channel, the learning channel, TLC. I remember when it was documentaries in the early ’90s, I enjoyed them and then it became Honey Booboo, 90 Day Fiance, then all other kinds of weirdness. That’s for another free for all Friday.
(05:35):
The introduction of YouTube shorts accelerated these changes. The platform sought to compete with short form video services. So long form creators who built audiences through traditional videos found themselves competing for attention against an entirely different style of content. I mean, our staff is doing a really great job at turning our long form content into shorts. Very grateful for that. But I think coming up in the next year or so, I’m going to have to really focus on more dedicated short content in order to help people just see the stuff that I really want to show them because I think it would really help them. Today, millions of videos are uploaded every day. The recommendation system must choose from an enormous pool of content making it more difficult for even established channels to consistently capture viewer attention. So creators have argued algorithm changes favor highly clickable content, frequent uploads or trending topics.
(06:25):
So you also have to have regular publishing schedules. So there’s a lot that has changed in the algorithm, but I think it’s especially, it’s finding a way to use … They’re probably using AI to track viewers habits and they recommend just based on those habits. So if you want to get people to watch those videos, you got to be as smart as them and think, “Okay, what do people want to go out and watch?” And I will tell you this though, I am not trying to maximize views for view’s sake, so I’m not going to turn into Catholic Mr. Beast. I got a hundred third grade Catholic students to debate James White. Whoever makes it to the end gets a million dollars worth of Mr. Trent chocolate bars. I’m not going to do that. Though the hundred third graders debating James White, I mean, that is something that I might try.
(07:06):
You never know. But yeah, I’m not going to just do that, but I am going to try to figure out, okay, what will help? I want to share the gospel. I want to share the Catholic faith. What is the best way for people who are out there in the digital marketplace to want to click on something that intersects with that content? Jesus said, “Be as wise as serpents and gentle as doves. I want my content to be gentle, but I want to be huffle puff on the screen, slytherin in the recommendations and the algorithms. I want to be focusing on that. I want to be shrewd.” So I’ll be working on that and just pray for our channel that we can reach people with the gospel and reach people and build up their faith in that way while being mindful of this algorithm without going to the dark side.
(07:48):
So although it was helpful for you all and I hope you have a very blessed weekend.