>No, it is because that is the content that people want to watch.

No, that's not a given. It would be more accurate to say it is content people will watch, and not necessarily want to watch. I mean people will watch porn, I'm not sure they want to watch porn.

If you asked someone before vine or tiktok whether you wanted to watch an unending carousel of thirty second videos from nobodies for four hours straight I'm not sure a lot of people would say yes.

Am I the only one who sees ragebait titles to youtube videos that do not contain a modicrum of the rage that is advertised in the title?

I don't think we need to conflate algorithmic nudging with the conscience preference of the user frankly.