I can sure talk about why people should leave YouTube but maybe I should explain my personal problems with it, and a lot of these sentiments seem shared. Might make slightly more sense.
YouTube is a dumping ground for videos. Because it’s a dumping ground, about anything goes there, and people seem to get the mentality that they should just put any garbage they come up with or find somewhere. A lot of the content probably actually tries at whatever it is, it just can’t escape obscurity. Maybe just a small circle of friends reviewing or playing or whatever. Some of it is “shitposting” which just means it’s a small dumb video of some kind which is somehow funny. Despite the name, it’s not the worst that’s on there. Then you have people who are trying so hard to get views that they just throw quality as a last consideration because they need to crank out content now so they don’t risk any drop in viewership, so they think. Outside of total screwups, it more just exchanges one type of viewer for another.
I’m not saying the worst people on YouTube are impressionable little kids, but they definitely have to be considered, because often times they’re there because the parents aren’t doing as much parenting as they should. Or they’re doing too much and the kids just want to get away from that. So there are these weird videos which are bootlegs of random licensed characters shoved into situations. I’m pretty sure these are made in China and some kind of automated bot is involved somewhere in the process. They’re there to somehow make money off of each other and also kids who just somehow find the videos yet have utterly bizarre content like murdering people in as violent ways as YouTube lets them get away with, essentially short of actual murder footage. Also there’s weird sexual perverted tension in other scenarios. At some point it may have gone from attempted parody to bootlegs attempting to undermine Western development and maybe somehow generate sleeper agents to welcome the new age of the Red Menace or something utterly insane like that.
I mean, there are definitely worse viewers who comment and all that stuff. But the worst are brought on because of the cheap entertainment which is catered to the worst people and simplified to very simple levels. And often put giant boobs in the thumbnails as well as other misleading things which is apparently pretty okay to do online as well as in mobile ads, showing totally fake footage and then it’s just a minimal effort Facebook game. And those producers of that content blindly are also among the worst because they’re just giving in to that. Even if they’re normally good people, that just breeds badness. But nobody’s really patient among those crowds. I wouldn’t mind a lot of content to check out, but on a weekly basis, I can be fairly covered on an average week regarding things like streams and such if I must rely solely on video content. I don’t want to demand everything ever all at once.
I personally believe human nature is often more leaning toward selfishness and eagerness to see train wrecks and possibly also cause said train wrecks with or without literal trains so of course people will resort to doing just that and calling it harmless pranks. There’s a difference between harmless pranks and property damage, essentially. While I’m also of the mindset that people should learn to deal with jerks being all in their face and trying to make their life miserable by not letting it get to them, the people being jerks in the first place is just plain bad as it is, no matter how well someone can put up with it. It does take time and experience to deal with things, but at the same time, it shouldn’t be the first thing you have to do ever because people can be terrible. I mean, some things that happen, sometimes people do need to be set straight. The cases can get really weird here.
Anyway, related to YouTube, it’s also a popularity contest, as are many things in human nature, and as a natural introvert, I may have a bias against such things and might just highlight bad outcomes from such things related to things like market saturation and elected officials to prove my points. Everyone there just wants to be popular because popularity is rewarded and obscurity is generally ignored since it’s obscure. People can get physical rewards even for being so popular. Sponsorships and all, too. Sponsorships which are plastered all over the video and make me just want to skip over a few significant parts, typically the start and end.
Like with any type of celebrity though, there’s also the desperate grasps at the spotlight to try to keep relevant even though they’re still decently popular, essentially they either crack from the pressure or just slip up either accidentally or conveniently so to draw in a new and possibly even worse crowd. And some lack the potential to own up to their mistake or for damage control from their… producers? If they even have those. A lot are their own producer. With as crazy as online gets, sometimes things just slip through that people often wouldn’t say to each other in person because it would just look completely insane, yet I’ve seen people do just that, take certain protests for example. I’ve witnessed some crazy stuff. I don’t think it will get any less crazy.
On top of everything, YouTube is bad at handling itself. It’s too big for even Google. There are complex issues regarding outdated precedents related to things like the law and copyright where two similar cases with two different companies can have completely different outcomes. As well companies tend to want to place gag orders in the guise of copyright-related takedowns if they just somehow disagree with what they’re up to, if it’s a negative review or just general bad behavior with the content in the background, which drifts into the free speech zone, a hotly contested area of just about any medium. People are entitled to opinions, yet also must be able to face punishment for bad actions, so context could be anything and everything. As well, people who are consistently making a bad example might not be allowed in places trying to maintain a good image as well as their userbase.
Essentially, I want people to leave YouTube to give power to its competitors so it doesn’t just stagnate and do nothing but make its UI gradually worse, essentially give it a reason to try to exist better or to just totally stop existing. People might be forced to use other services anyway given the whole copyright vs. fair use thing. And they have been. It’s not uncommon to see an alternate upload somewhere else which leaves in certain content or is just the video in full because they don’t compromise their video’s content to appease some automated system. That’s just it. Monopolies are bad. The game Monopoly is okay I guess. But a single entity with too much control generally just starts riots or wars or the destruction of entire planets.