The YouTube Effect (2023) Documentary Review: A Reiteration of Common Knowledge to Reveal Sign of the Times

The YouTube Effect (2023) Documentary Review: Dialectical materialism, developed on the foundation of Hegelian dialectics by Karl Marx, emphasizes the functional contradictions inherent to social relations and phenomena. In simpler terms, all social phenomena carry their own critique, which is revealed in the structure of the phenomena. In order to synthesize a solution, the contradiction has to be addressed, and thereafter, rearrangements have to be made to the systems of social organization.

This eventually leads to the resolution of the contradiction and causes the emergence of a greater, refined phenomenon. For anything to become a better version of itself, it has to essentially recognize its inherent contradictions and internalize them through synthesis. Technology, today, is at a stage where it’s become imperative to address its inherent lethality to our social as well as individualistic existence.

Technology has evolved from its nascent stage, where it was an agglomeration of tangible mechanisms creating power for humankind to exploit and aid themselves in their day-to-day functions. It has become omnipresent and omniscient. It has adopted intangible manifestations and has become interactive. Earlier, humans had a command-and-cause relationship with technology. We did what we wanted to do using technology, we made it do what was needed and/or desired by us. Today, technology shapes our choices. We do not simply command it to cause something. We interact with it and trade morsels of our life in exchange for utility. All of us are data points, and we can be interpreted from our activities, personal or professional.

The aforementioned isn’t meant to sermonize the reader. It is merely a reiteration of common knowledge. We are aware of how we exist, and we have embraced our role as data. Similarly, Alex Winter’s The Youtube Effect (2023) is a reiteration of common knowledge not meant to sermonize the viewers but to collate cautionary information and encourage us to protest against technology’s crypto-omnipotence. And it does so by taking a close look at YouTube’s life history.

Started by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim in 2005 as a video-sharing website, YouTube grew to become the second most visited website after Google in less than 20 years. As much as 30% of the entire world exists on YouTube as users, creating, sharing, consuming, and curating videos. Interestingly, the advent of YouTube made knowledge a collective property and democratized the power derived from knowledge by allowing individuals to become part of a community. And for the longest time that it was confined by user discretion, it also mimicked a neo-commune catalyzing discourse, facilitating the creation, ensuring accountability, and allowing expression.

It was one of the earliest tools of empowerment. And in many ways, it continues to be all the things it started out to be. But as it happens with every product of capitalism, profit-interest takes over, and choice is rendered illusionary. The YouTube Effect (2023) takes us through the early days of YouTube via testimonials of its early users and “content” creators who joined the website when there were no rules to the game. We see YouTube, from the eyes of its creators and nurturers, as a tool of emancipation, liberation, and revolution. We see how immediate its effect was in changing the world. And gradually, we see the genesis of corruption in the womb of absolute power. 

Big Tech loves to claim value neutrality on its part. But given our actions colored by bias and the actions of the machines programmed by a “biased” human in favor of profit maximization, value neutrality is lost even before it is established. The documentary asserts that the website’s sole motive of engaging its users made it susceptible to weaponization and aided harmful individual and social actions. While it doesn’t break any new ground, what it does is make a coherent, effective argument against the growing power of YouTube.

It is quite apparent that nothing stands as a wall between technology and omnipotence. A collective action to push stringent regulation is the need of the hour if we are to prevent ourselves from becoming citizens of technology itself. The possible reality is dreadful because, in a fundamental sense, any state is dependent and/or driven by its subjects. However, if technology is to become the state, it will be the only state on which subjects will be dependent. 

The film makes a strong double bill with Jeff Orlowski’s 2020 documentary The Social Dilemma. Both documentaries and all associated media critical of the power and possibilities of technology are themselves products of technology. And therefore, they reflect dialectical materialism that must pave the way to a more secure and agency-driven future where humanity is retained.

The YouTube Effect must be watched for the recognition, organization, and reaffirmation of our thoughts that have been the outcome of the sparse knowledge we procured existing on the internet. Once the thoughts are organized, they will lead us to a reasoned argument. And the argument will protect not only our agency but also our individuality. 

Read More: Not Okay (2022) Review – A Dark Comedy on the Social Media Fame Trap

The YouTube Effect (2023) Movie Links: IMDb

Where to watch The YouTube Effect