YouTube, Algorithms, and Spiritual Formation
The machines are already in charge…
Just wanted to make sure you knew that before we got going. 😁
Over the last week, both my wife and I have finally had to deal with COVID19. We dodged the bullet for nearly two years, but both of us tested positive and have had mild cases. We both spent our time doing different things. While Meredith watched what seemed to be 1683 seasons of Downton Abbey in 48 hours, I turned to YouTube and a bit of reading. Youtube is a funny thing. You stumble across a video and enjoy watching it and a few others from the channel. The next thing you know, your entire channel is repopulated with what the YouTube algorithm seems to think you would enjoy.
And sometimes it is totally right.
And sometimes it isn’t so much.
Just because you enjoyed one piece of content, what YouTube doesn’t know is why. I watched a few videos about a chef on a high-end yacht. I’m sure it initially was suggested because I like to watch cooking videos, and then I watched a few more because I was fascinated with the logistics of ordering enough food for 25 people to last 10 days on an Atlantic crossing. I really don’t care about boats at all.
But YouTube started sending me TONS of videos about yachts. And about being a crew person on a ship.
After dealing with almost constantly refreshing my feed I realized that there are those three vertical dots that allow me to mark “not interested”. So I started going through all of the videos in my feed; ones about music and guitars, ones with weird jazz playlists, woodworking, camping and backpacking, travel, etc…and started marking “not interested”. And you know what, my feed began returning to normal again.
So how does this all line out with spiritual formation?
Many times I think we are conscious about what we decide to do. In all areas of our life. We do this and this. We try to be intentional about some activities. We build habits and we set goals.
But how often do we intentionally select “not interested” in an attempt to gain something back or get to a new place?
While it might not initially seem like the Instagram trendy thing to do, there is as much spiritual growth and development in deciding to not do things or to avoid things as there decide to. In fact, I would argue that our greatest points of learning and growth come from intentional decisions to take things out of our life or not participate in something. At least we have to spend as much energy in both directions. And as we grow in the Christian life my friend Jason Howell’s now 20-year-old question to me “yeah, it’s not bad…but does it make you any more holy?” begins to take on a different level of the process.
It’s these things that sneak in trying to get our attention. Sometimes they might be harmless. We need to avoid them because they cause no real benefit to us. That serves no purpose other than an innocent distraction. But other times they might be an echo of the past. Of spiritual battles once fought and won attempting to regain some ground. Us thinking “yeah, I can handle this now”…but how often does that end well?
The easy side of spiritual formation is the idea of the positive addition of things like scripture, prayer, and other activities. But I don't think it is possible for us to be adding things in without ever being confronted about things we need to take out. I've harped on "positive holiness" over "negative holiness" plenty of times, but it isn't possible for us to live the Jesus life without an awareness of the things we are intentionally losing in order to gain what he offers us.
So this week I am trying to name the things I want out of my algorithm of life. James Clear says "Your behaviors are usually a reflection of your identity. What you do is an indication of the type of person you believe that you are—either consciously or nonconsciously”.
I want to be paying attention to the both/and. The things I need to be intentional about adding and the things I need to be intentional about stopping/taking away/ or avoiding.
Friends, the machines are not always in charge.
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