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Comment by quaintdev | Hacker News Reader

YouTube is easy to block. Just clear all your history and disable history. This stops home screen recommendations and also disables YouTube shorts

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I can recommend this. I'm sure it's a bug in the YouTube interface that they recommend literally nothing. My home screen has been completely empty for over a year, just a message saying "Your watch history is off". I have a couple subscriptions, which means a new video every so many days, which appear in the side bar, and they're still two or three clicks away, and that's perfect.

It's not a bug, it's extremely passive aggressive. They couple it with rewriting their browser, working group recommendations, and legal lobbying to make shoving ads down your throat their basic "human" right. When I saw they did it to me, my response was, "great, game on".

Not a bug, it was an explicit change they made about a year ago. I used to enjoy the recommendations based on my likes and they took that away.

I work every day with people addicted to YouTube. A WorkMode client shared this approach; we tested it with a small group. Anecdotal but consistent - it works surprisingly well, cuts usage sharply, and seems to hold up long-term.

Another option is use uBlock filter to hide recommendations while keeping subscription feed:

    youtube.com##:matches-path(/^\/?$/) #page-manager

I did this with both reddit and YouTube on my phone. That's how I beat the doom scrolling loop.

On Android for YT, I've installed the NewPipe app which can be configured to show no suggestions. I just have a list of app level subscribed channels, no yt account required

Yup, this is the way.

Regarding Shorts, I have no YouTube history, but I still get Shorts. I hate them. You must be doing something else to disable them.

Instead of using the YouTube app, I use the website on both my phone and computer. I have userscript setup to hide all shorts and community posts. Can be done easily with a CSS selector which sets it to:

    "display: none !important;"

Install the Freetube client (https://freetubeapp.io), then make the following configuration changes:

  1. In the left navbar, click "Settings > Distraction Free".
  2. Enable the "Subscriptions Page > Hide Subscription Shorts" switch.
  3. Enable the "Channel Page > Hide Channel "Shorts" Tab" switch.

Shorts are hell. I use FF Redirector plugin to gently save myself without restricting content, but there are other ways.

Redirect: *youtube.com/shorts/* to: $1youtube.com/watch?v=$2

You get Shorts shown in search and in your subscriptions, but the "Shorts" tab in the mobile app leads to a black page.

Thank you - did not know this existed.

I'm finding the blank youtube page incredibly soothing already!

highly recommend that as well. Disabling history greatly reduced my time spent in the app. UnTrap plugin for Safari helps as well. Can't say that I feel like I spend a reasonable amount of time on the platform still, but now it's mostly me having an urge to distract myself, opening the website and finding the videos I have seen already then closing the tab.

I also do that; open the site and look for content. I have enough subscriptions to always be able to find something. Yet somehow not falling into the Shorts attention trap is what saves my time.

Yea, I have mine disabled too.

It's also easy to stop smoking. Just avoid anything that looks or feels like smoking. Problem solved! /s

Addiction is like a weed in the ground. Cutting off its head just makes it regrow faster and angrier, with deeper roots to boot.

Addictions love nothing more than superficial attempts to stop them! The only way to _manage_ addictions is to get them at their roots.

And even if you pull out the issue with the whole root, you have to fill it with something worthwhile, nurturing, and sustainable to you. Otherwise the hole will get filled by the next best time-wasting activity.

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