Hacker News Reader

Comment by mettamage | Hacker News Reader

For what this comment is worth: I'm watching too much YouTube and it's screwing with my life. Underneath it is a desire to have more social relationships I think. My previous "addiction" was Facebook, years ago. Since then it has been YouTube.

View on HN

Here's a few tips to combat this addiction:

- turn off Youtube history, there will be no more suggestions based on your recent viewing activity to keep you engaged. Also, searching for a sink review will not result in Youtube suggesting sink-related videos for the rest of eternity.

- install browser extensions: Clickbait Remover for Youtube (sanitizes video previews to remove clickbaity look from them) and DF Youtube (allows you to disable comments, related and other sections on the page, leaving only the video itself to focus on).

Now you should be able to deal with this addiction in no time.

First one kind of works, kind of doesn't. They still make recommendations based on your "likes" which is enough to fill at least my feed with semi-relevant content.

Yt is ridiculously addictive.

They seem to recommend just the right thing to “okay lets watch this one last video” wasting hours of my day.

Weird, the algorithm usually gives me crap, and I rarely click the recommendations. Perhaps because I didn't 'train' it.

Overall I don't find YT too addicting. - I think several different websites can substitute for "I'm bored, what's in the fridge?".

Though, I did have to manually ignore a bunch of clips-from-tv -shows type channels.

I've trained it for 7 years, it knows me better than my parents.

Worst part, it's actually objectively good content in large part, as far as I am able to tell.

Content addicts need to realize that there is more objectively good content out there than they are physically capable of consuming in one lifetime. Therefore the question to ask is how much of your life do you want to spend on content consumption.

Same, I watch mostly leftist and socialist content and the algorithm suggests utter shit.

Don't worry, as soon as you watch 1 video from an alt-right channel your feed will be inundated with far-right content.

What's stunning to me is the ease with which it gives me fringe content. Example: I searched for a funny 20s clip of our President of the Republic, instantly the recommendations were filled with propaganda from the local right-populist party's yt channel.

The YouTube algorithm is well-known for channeling people towards extremist political content. Mostly far-right-wing, though I imagine you could seed it to throw you down a left-wing rabbit hole.

I've been the same with Twitter and Facebook. I've quit both and sometimes feel at a loss as to what to do, but I'm finding that if I put in the (frankly, herculean) effort I can find groups I like that are less geared towards dominating my attention and more rewarding. One such group has been my trade union, which I hadn't expected.

Clear your watch history and only watch things that are positive or educational. My youtube recommendations are purely music albums and different educational channels.

what are you watching, what’s the point, how is it screwing with your life

That's a shame since I think that Youtube can be really amazing.

My main (practically only) use for it is to watch amateur-produced special interest shows that are done on a regular basis. Usually it seems to involve automotive bodywork or subsurface mining with the occasional computer show.

The channels that move to having sponsors or getting a lot of free stuff are for the high jump (although it's absolutely a riot to watch Heather Heying shill for some sofa company, hating life all the while). I think the best ones are done by pure hobbyists.

Otherwise my current plan is to build a library of worthwhile videos via youtube-dl and DVD transfers. My guess is that the ad environment and much heavier copyright policing on youtube will make much of it unwatchable over time.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com