3 ms·

I don’t think this idea is that controversial? Most (?) people would agree watching YouTube 16 hrs a day is bad, but agree there is also a benefit to some of th

by mikeodds 10mo ago

I don’t think this idea is that controversial? Most (?) people would agree watching YouTube 16 hrs a day is bad, but agree there is also a benefit to some of the content available.

dredmorbius 10mo ago
It's almost as if ... being able to download specific content for offline viewing ... might be a far preferable option in terms of selection, control, and not getting sucked into an algorithmic wormhole.
- Nasrudith 10mo ago
  Or perhaps that algorithms are just a scapegoat for the ignorant and superstitious and yet another example of the oh so trendy serf mentality that takes no responsibility for their own life and its progreession.
  - dredmorbius 10mo ago
    1. Being able to specifically curate and manage content, by downloading it, is precisely the user-centric self-sovereignty which counters that serf mentality. And Google (and numerous other algorithmically-driven services) explicitly target and disable such tools where and when they can. See the ongoing war against yt-dlp, extensively discussed on HN: <https://hn.algolia.com/?q=yt%2Ddlp https://hn.algolia.com/?q=yt%2Ddlp>. Not to mention the earlier youtube-dl: <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=youtube-dl&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...>. Another was mps-youtube, a CLI client which was hands-down the best interface YouTube ever had. Search (videos, channels), list-creation, download, and playback preferences (audio-only, which I largely prefer, full video, specified video resolution and/or audio quality, etc.), all locally managed without any obligation for a YouTube account. Of course Google killed it by way of its API key. See <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36149183 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36149183> and generally <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=mps-youtube%20&sort=byPopularity&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...>. 2. Just how much autonomy, wisdom, and ability to counter teams of highly-paid and highly-qualified attention engineers do you expect children and infants to possess? Or even their harried and distracted parents? Arguments for self-restraint against commercial addiction merchants have played poorly for well over 150 years, going back to the unregulated hawking of morphine- and cocaine-laced products, amongst others.

I don’t think this idea is that controversial? Most (?) people would agree watching YouTube 16 hrs a day is bad, but agree there is also a benefit to some of the content available.

dredmorbius 10mo ago

It's almost as if ... being able to download specific content for offline viewing ... might be a far preferable option in terms of selection, control, and not getting sucked into an algorithmic wormhole.

Nasrudith 10mo ago
Or perhaps that algorithms are just a scapegoat for the ignorant and superstitious and yet another example of the oh so trendy serf mentality that takes no responsibility for their own life and its progreession.
- dredmorbius 10mo ago
  1. Being able to specifically curate and manage content, by downloading it, is precisely the user-centric self-sovereignty which counters that serf mentality. And Google (and numerous other algorithmically-driven services) explicitly target and disable such tools where and when they can. See the ongoing war against yt-dlp, extensively discussed on HN: <https://hn.algolia.com/?q=yt%2Ddlp https://hn.algolia.com/?q=yt%2Ddlp>. Not to mention the earlier youtube-dl: <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=youtube-dl&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...>. Another was mps-youtube, a CLI client which was hands-down the best interface YouTube ever had. Search (videos, channels), list-creation, download, and playback preferences (audio-only, which I largely prefer, full video, specified video resolution and/or audio quality, etc.), all locally managed without any obligation for a YouTube account. Of course Google killed it by way of its API key. See <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36149183 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36149183> and generally <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=mps-youtube%20&sort=byPopularity&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...>. 2. Just how much autonomy, wisdom, and ability to counter teams of highly-paid and highly-qualified attention engineers do you expect children and infants to possess? Or even their harried and distracted parents? Arguments for self-restraint against commercial addiction merchants have played poorly for well over 150 years, going back to the unregulated hawking of morphine- and cocaine-laced products, amongst others.