A woman living with her fiancé learned the hard way how easy it is for your YouTube algorithm to end up "all over the place" if your partner has some niche tastes.
Sarah Hau, 32, lives in Texas with her fiancé Donovan Brill, 32, and, like many couples, they share a YouTube account.
But Brill's "eclectic" choices in what he watches means their suggested videos are now "haywire," Hau told Newsweek.
A video Hau shared on her TikTok account @sarahhauareyou on April 2 has racked up close to 150,000 views as thousands related to her caption: "Why you should never share a YouTube account."
In the video, which you can watch here, Hau approaches her fiancé, who is sitting on the sofa watching a video, and asks: "What are you watching?"
Brill, grinning, tells her: "The Microsoft Excel World Championships 2023," and sure enough, the screen is filled with an Excel spreadsheet.
While many people won't have heard of it, the Microsoft Excel World Championship is a real thing, as part of the Financial Modeling World Cup (FMWC)—also a real thing.
Described by the FMWC as a "chance to prove your Microsoft Excel mastery," competitors in the Excel Championships are "given instructions, rules for the game and questions to answer at an increasing level of difficulty."
Launched in 2020 and based in Latvia, the championships draw challengers and audiences from around the world.
Hau, who works in sales, told Newsweek that she discovered him watching the event after he told her he was going to "relax".
"His version of relaxation has always astonished me," she said. "He has always preferred to consume educational content i.e. YouTube videos learning about the Venezuelan economy or how a pacemaker works."
She added that their shared YouTube account is "absolutely haywire and the most eclectic home page you've ever seen".
Hau's video resonated with a lot of people, with dozens taking to the comments to share their own algorithm woes—and others declaring they needed to start watching the Excel Championships.
One user wrote: "My kids and husband would always hijack my account on the TV and screw up my algorithm. It took me a loooong time to fix it."
"Things like this is exactly why even our kids have separate accounts," another said, while one recalled how a friend showed them a My Little Pony song on YouTube more than a decade ago, "and I STILL get some of that stuff recommended."
Hau said she thought her video "could be somewhat relatable, especially to people with nerdy partners. But I didn't expect it to have such a resonance and for it to take off the way it did."
The effect on their shared YouTube account doesn't bother her, however.
Speaking about her finance worker fiancé, Hau admitted she would "prefer a partner that watches videos like the Excel World Championships videos over one that plays video games."
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