Some of YouTube's biggest stars say their work is hurting their health

If you are a creator on YouTube, you live and die according to the algorithm. This is the invisible technology that recommends videos on the trend page or in search results or suggestions on the entire platform. No one, except YouTube, knows exactly how the algorithm decides what to promote or not. The controversial process has sometimes promoted false news and sensational or damaging content. And the creators say it burns them.

Lilly Singh, a popular YouTube comedian, has just announced that she is taking a break from the platform. "The problem with YouTube is, in all its splendor, a kind of machine," she said in a recent video. "The creators are convinced that it is necessary to broadcast content consistently, even at the cost of living our sanity and happiness, because if you do not do it, you lose your relevance." Singh does part of a chain of creators leaving YouTube.

Katherine Lo, a visiting researcher in computer science at the University of California at Irvine, is studying harbadment and mental health in online communities. Molly Wood talked with her about how the YouTube Algorithm affects companies for creators. The following is a transcript of their conversation.

Katherine Lo: So, if you can view a YouTube creator's profile, you can watch his videos in chronological order, and you may notice that you will have 2 million, 3 million, 2 million. [views]. And then, suddenly, it will be like 900,000 and you'll be like, "What happened with this video?" And sometimes, YouTubers can understand it by playing with their badysis or by badyzing what was different from this video. But most of the time, they do not get a definitive answer.

Molly Wood: I guess we should be really explicit here. You say that if your video goes from 2 million to 900,000 [views] you do not necessarily know why. But what you do know is that when you have 900,000, you get less money, less advertising revenue.

Lo: Yes. And sometimes you become less attractive to advertisers for referrals if you can not guarantee the numbers. This is how YouTubers reconciles all these very precarious factors. And then you have these other elements – we call that the emotional or emotional work – where the YouTubers have to somehow change the way they act. And that does not seem to be work or work, but a lot of research has shown that this type of work, in a way, causes a kind of fatigue in the same way as physical work.

Wood: How serious is this problem, this type of mental health problem? I have an 11 year old kid who is dying to become a YouTube star and I feel the idea of ​​YouTube in the same way that if I let him try for football, where I get just say, "I really do not do it." I do not want you to do that. I do not think it's good for you. "

Lo: Yes, I do not think YouTube is good for YouTubers most of the time. And I think it's also important from the perspective of what's happening to viewers because if someone becomes a lot more erratic, it can not be as thoughtful in its content because it has to respond to the request to post frequently and perhaps with not the proper support, then their content changes a lot. And I think that may be less thoughtful or less beneficial to viewers. So I think it does not only affect the creators, but also the whole culture around YouTube.

We looked at YouTube about burnout from creators. He said he wanted creators to produce videos in a "healthy and sustainable" way, and said his algorithm did not give priority to creators who released videos more often than others. The company has also released videos on burnout prevention on its creators channel.