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It feels like I haven't logged onto it in ages... Chrome pushed an update that made me have to log in and do TFA each time I opened the browser, and that was a nail in the coffin.

The best content on YouTube is berried behind a wall of Mr Beast and Pewdie Pie style fluffery that I can't find any real value in most of the time. They dictate what is favorable, and that ruins the entire experience for me. The search has been flooded with SEO title spam, which makes finding specific content damn near impossible and/or very tedious.

I don't think you can be addicted to a hammer if it's a highly functional tool in getting work done. I don't think you can get addicted to a television if it's a tool used for relaxation or entertainment. I think we need to stop considering that apps become addictive, and really speak on if they manage to deliver on their promises and functional purposes.... Just my opinion.

Most apps become extremely annoying after years of being highly functional, and that represents corporate corruption more so than having an addictive product. It's not addicting if it does not fulfill a valid purpose when it begins to charge money for ad laced content or repeatedly waste people's time, apps cease to be useful after that point.




>The best content on YouTube is berried behind a wall of Mr Beast and Pewdie Pie style fluffery that I can't find any real value in most of the time. They dictate what is favorable, and that ruins the entire experience for me. The search has been flooded with SEO title spam, which makes finding specific content damn near impossible and/or very tedious.

This is not my experience at all. The recommendations engine is what keeps Youtube as my #1 entertainment platform. My Youtube Recommendations ebb and flow, sometimes are better than others, but my feed absolutely never devolves into lowest-common-denominator super popular content, and is mostly dominated by small-to-medium sized channels in the categories that interest me.


Yes, literally every time this comes up, people who never click "don't show this" keep posting "recommendations don't work", which does nothing more than reveal that they actually DO watch really basic videos.

Even if you would watch things like that, you can STILL just say "never show this channel". You should review your feed periodically, imagining you are at a trial, being asked "why didn't you eliminate this feed from your life? was it really helping you?" If not, just nuke it by banning that source. You won't regret it.

Shorts are another story - the org behind that does NOT care about letting you keep yourself clean from memetic trash, and has been given the right to pollute the YT feed. My policy there is "not even once; resist watching them and definitely never let a short automatically transition you to the next video; have some self-respect."


As someone who had that policy and broke it...you are on the right path. Stay there.


Seriously, those shorts are the closest thing to crack (which I've never had) I can imagine. One evening after work I clicked on one and before I knew it 3.5 hours had passed.

Shorts and the like should be regulated as a controlled substance.


You're better than that, I believe in you. Cultivate a deep sense of resistance which can wake you out of sensory takeovers. Shame is powerful, what have you shipped this week?


My experience is that I first search for content I'm interested in. Then YouTube keeps recommending things that are related (in the same domain, or on the same channel).

I haven't seen any PewDiePie recommendation in years (to the point I even forgot him).

I don't really know what's actually popular on YouTube. All recommendations seem very personalized.


I use the "don't recommend channel" a lot with youtube if i see stuff I don't like.


OP was watching YouTube 8 to 10 hours a day. That is not simple relaxation.




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