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I would be more sympathetic to YouTube's plight here if they weren't aggressively pushing addictive features like "Shorts" with no option to disable them.

izacus 1y ago
Yeah, this seems like a clear FAFO situation.
lm28469 1y ago
Disable your yt history, it disables pretty much everything yt wants to push. When I open yt I get an empty page with a search box, even clicking on the Shorts page it just says "Recommendations are off Your watch history is off, and we rely on watch history to tailor your Shorts feed. You can change your setting at any time, or try searching for Shorts instead. Learn more."
- barkerja 1y ago
  But that is unfortunately a nuclear option that should not need to be taken to perform such a thing. Like the op, I have no interest in Shorts, especially considering the type of content that seems to proliferate that format. However, I feel like YouTube does a genuinely good job — at least for me personally — of curating my feed with videos I have genuine interest in; mostly being tech talks and home DIY. I'd hate to lose the discoverability I currently have for the sake of having to disable a feature like Shorts.
  - lupusreal 1y ago
    I use youtube without an account, only a cookie which I can nuke anytime. My experience with this is as you describe; it does a great job of giving me videos relevant to my interests. If it ever goes off the rails, I nuke the cookie and start over; reseeding the recommendations by watching a few videos from high-brow channels like Applied Science. It recommends no shorts to me.
flumpcakes 1y ago
The amount of adult content creators using YouTube as soft advertising has exploded too. I only subscribe to tech/gaming/etc. channels and my feed is filled with this content. They use services like linktree to add one hop to obfuscate their channels from the 'adult' (pornography) content they have on other platforms.
VWWHFSfQ 1y ago
YouTube is such an invaluable learning resource that I would have serious qualms about denying a school-age child access to it. You're right that I wish it was possible to turn off the predatory features, though. But ultimately I can't see how a blanket law banning kids makes sense instead of a law banning the platform from targeting kids.
- lm28469 1y ago
  > YouTube is such an invaluable learning resource that I would have serious qualms about denying a school-age child access to it. Give a 5 years old unlimited access to youtube and witness the cesspool it is. Nobody is saying youtube is 100% bad, but people who don't know better (kids for example) are easily manipulated in watching the most brain rot content you can imagine, for hours and hours. It's an ocean of shit within which you might find a few gems if you know what you want or if you get extremely lucky. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9EKV2nSU8w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9EKV2nSU8w
  - VWWHFSfQ 1y ago
    You're describing the whole internet, and also most of society. Maybe children should be banned from everywhere.
    - lm28469 1y ago
      > Maybe children should be banned from everywhere. Content wise they used to be until very recently, what did I have access to as a kid before internet ? Some books from my parents, some booked from school, whatever was allowed on public TV when my parents allowed me to watch it, maybe the odd porn mag from the older brother of a friend of a friend. That's very tame compared to what you have access to from even heavily censored search engines like google
thinkingtoilet 1y ago
Or the algorithm focusing on engagement over everything else, instead of actual good, related videos. I've said this here before, I'm a huge Phish fan and I listen to old concerts on youtube. I will literally get far right-wing videos as a recommendation after a Phish concert video. I have watch history off. I don't watch political videos on youtube, right or left. And Phish's fan base would lean hard left. Why am I seeing Candace Owens after a 94 Phish show? With actions like that, I understand the ban.
intothemild 1y ago
All the government really needs to do here is ban YT shorts for kids under 16 or whatever age. Watch YT finally give us parents the ability to block YT shorts for our kids. Every time I hear some AI video my kids watching, it's a short.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- lupusreal 1y ago
  I wish they'd ban it for baby boomers too. That crap glues my dad to the couch, meanwhile his poor dog is bouncing off the walls desperate for a walk. 99% of it seems to be AI voiceover slop. Probably all stolen videos with faked context. Ban it for everybody, nothing of value will be lost.

izacus 1y ago

Yeah, this seems like a clear FAFO situation.

lm28469 1y ago

Disable your yt history, it disables pretty much everything yt wants to push. When I open yt I get an empty page with a search box, even clicking on the Shorts page it just says "Recommendations are off Your watch history is off, and we rely on watch history to tailor your Shorts feed. You can change your setting at any time, or try searching for Shorts instead. Learn more."

barkerja 1y ago
But that is unfortunately a nuclear option that should not need to be taken to perform such a thing. Like the op, I have no interest in Shorts, especially considering the type of content that seems to proliferate that format. However, I feel like YouTube does a genuinely good job — at least for me personally — of curating my feed with videos I have genuine interest in; mostly being tech talks and home DIY. I'd hate to lose the discoverability I currently have for the sake of having to disable a feature like Shorts.
- lupusreal 1y ago
  I use youtube without an account, only a cookie which I can nuke anytime. My experience with this is as you describe; it does a great job of giving me videos relevant to my interests. If it ever goes off the rails, I nuke the cookie and start over; reseeding the recommendations by watching a few videos from high-brow channels like Applied Science. It recommends no shorts to me.

flumpcakes 1y ago

The amount of adult content creators using YouTube as soft advertising has exploded too. I only subscribe to tech/gaming/etc. channels and my feed is filled with this content. They use services like linktree to add one hop to obfuscate their channels from the 'adult' (pornography) content they have on other platforms.

VWWHFSfQ 1y ago

YouTube is such an invaluable learning resource that I would have serious qualms about denying a school-age child access to it. You're right that I wish it was possible to turn off the predatory features, though. But ultimately I can't see how a blanket law banning kids makes sense instead of a law banning the platform from targeting kids.

lm28469 1y ago
> YouTube is such an invaluable learning resource that I would have serious qualms about denying a school-age child access to it. Give a 5 years old unlimited access to youtube and witness the cesspool it is. Nobody is saying youtube is 100% bad, but people who don't know better (kids for example) are easily manipulated in watching the most brain rot content you can imagine, for hours and hours. It's an ocean of shit within which you might find a few gems if you know what you want or if you get extremely lucky. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9EKV2nSU8w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9EKV2nSU8w
- VWWHFSfQ 1y ago
  You're describing the whole internet, and also most of society. Maybe children should be banned from everywhere.
  - lm28469 1y ago
    > Maybe children should be banned from everywhere. Content wise they used to be until very recently, what did I have access to as a kid before internet ? Some books from my parents, some booked from school, whatever was allowed on public TV when my parents allowed me to watch it, maybe the odd porn mag from the older brother of a friend of a friend. That's very tame compared to what you have access to from even heavily censored search engines like google

thinkingtoilet 1y ago

Or the algorithm focusing on engagement over everything else, instead of actual good, related videos. I've said this here before, I'm a huge Phish fan and I listen to old concerts on youtube. I will literally get far right-wing videos as a recommendation after a Phish concert video. I have watch history off. I don't watch political videos on youtube, right or left. And Phish's fan base would lean hard left. Why am I seeing Candace Owens after a 94 Phish show? With actions like that, I understand the ban.

intothemild 1y ago

All the government really needs to do here is ban YT shorts for kids under 16 or whatever age. Watch YT finally give us parents the ability to block YT shorts for our kids. Every time I hear some AI video my kids watching, it's a short.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
lupusreal 1y ago
I wish they'd ban it for baby boomers too. That crap glues my dad to the couch, meanwhile his poor dog is bouncing off the walls desperate for a walk. 99% of it seems to be AI voiceover slop. Probably all stolen videos with faked context. Ban it for everybody, nothing of value will be lost.