--- title: Five Best: Is YouTube Bad For Us description: Is YouTube bad for us, researchers might be on the trail of drugs to treat obesity and more. canonical: https://time.com/5201077/is-youtube-bad-for-us/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-15T18:00:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:58:00.552Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Is YouTube Bad For Us og:description: And four more of today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/5201077/is-youtube-bad-for-us/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Is YouTube Bad For Us twitter:description: And four more of today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Is YouTube Bad For Us by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Mar 15, 2018 6:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Mar 15, 2018 6:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**Is YouTube bad for us?**](https://slate.com/technology/2018/03/youtube-is-only-just-realizing-that-it-might-be-bad-for-all-of-us.html) By Will Oremus in _Slate_ **2\.** [**By reverse-engineering energy-burning brown fat, researchers might be on the trail of drugs to treat obesity.**](https://www.salk.edu/news-release/molecule-gives-energy-burning-brown-fat-identity-lead-drugs-obesity/) By the _Salk Institute for Biological Studies_ **3\.** [**Smart swarming robots could be our best defense against new weapons from Russia and China.**](http://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2018/03/putin-says-russias-new-weapons-cant-be-beat-ai-and-robotics-they-can/146631/) By August Cole and Amir Husain in _Defense One_ **4\.** [**To fight declining bee (and butterfly) populations, get lazy with your lawn mowing.**](http://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/article/lazy-lawn-mowers-can-help-support-suburban) By Susannah Lerman at the _University of Massachusetts Amherst_ **5\.** [**How fighting corruption can help end conflict across Africa.**](https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/central-african-republic/2018-03-14/key-making-peace-africa) By George Clooney and John Prendergast in _Foreign Affairs_  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5201077/is-youtube-bad-for-us/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5201077/is-youtube-bad-for-us/"},"headline":"Is YouTube Bad For Us","datePublished":"2018-03-15T18:00:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:58:00.552Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/5201077/is-youtube-bad-for-us/","keywords":["Innovation","Environment","Africa","robots","YouTube","Obesity"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5201077/is-youtube-bad-for-us/","name":"Is YouTube Bad For Us"}}]}] ```