4 ms·

Some more good advice: Turn off your YouTube watch history. This disables video suggestions when you open the website or the app.

dylan604 1mo ago
Or don't login. It will still learn about you so you don't always receive the blank main page. My browser is set to clear that data, yet with a single video being played the algo is already suggesting more content.
MisterTea 1mo ago
I did similar for my work PC but for the browser: turn off all the conveniences. No history in the bar so there's no way way to lazily navigate to a website, I have to manually type in the URL. Saved passwords and cookies? Nope! closing the browser wipes history.
drivers99 1mo ago
> Turn off your YouTube watch history Just to add to that, it's a two step process: disable saving new history, and then clear all history I estimate my watch time dropped by half per day the first time I did that. Then I started curating my subscriptions better, and watching from that.
burningChrome 1mo ago
On my smartphone I'm not using Google Play Services so when I open the app, all I get is the search box. I told a friend this and told him this flips the script on the Algo. Now instead of YT telling you what to watch, YOU are in control of what YOU want to watch. We have to start breaking this cycle somehow. This is a great way to do it.
- ryandrake 1mo ago
  In general, we need to take back ownership of our computers and be the decision makers about what runs on them, and what we are doing with them. An OS vendor or app developer should not have a say in what gets run on your computer. An OS vendor or app developer should not even be "suggesting" or "notifying" you into their software. You should be the root process.
zdw 1mo ago
Or only use the subscriptions page, and never visit the home page. Getting only the stuff you've curated is way better than the algorithm.
- input_sh 1mo ago
  I'm one of those that instinctively types the letter "y", presses the down arrow, then enter, and goes straight to the subscriptions page. Unfortunately, I now have to scroll through the "most relevant" section, then through shorts, and only then do I reach the videos in the chronological order. What I also hate is how when a channel I usually engage with uploads a video I have no interest in, then it's stuck on top of my subscription page in that "most relevant" section for like a week.
  - t_mahmood 1mo ago
    You can use Firefox plugin "Unhook remove youtube recommended and shorts" I think I also have some ublock filters that blocks those things. So, I only have videos.
  - Bang2Bay 1mo ago
    you can reduce shorts for a period of 3 weeks or so,
ChickeNES 1mo ago
This is so weird to me, I curate my watch history, and the vast majority of suggestions I get are relevant to me. Am I the only one who does this? (I especially make sure to open any unknown or political videos in a private browser as well). And if any garbage appears in my recs, I just tell it "don't recommend this" and it seems to work?
- tonyedgecombe 1mo ago
  Some of us don't want suggestions that are relevant to us. Targeted suggestions are more likely to draw you into the machine.
baron3dl 1mo ago
its suggestions are the best way to get me to leave. not that i find myself there often, or stay long anyway. hn on the other hand...
teddyh 1mo ago
Useful: <https://lawrencehook.com/rys/ https://lawrencehook.com/rys/>
account42 1mo ago
I go even further and don't use the YouTube website much at all. When someone shares a YouTube link it goes straight to mpv which streams the video (and just the video) with the help of yt-dlp. No auto-playing the next video. No suggested videos. No comments. No dark patterns. No distractions.

dylan604 1mo ago

Or don't login. It will still learn about you so you don't always receive the blank main page. My browser is set to clear that data, yet with a single video being played the algo is already suggesting more content.

MisterTea 1mo ago

I did similar for my work PC but for the browser: turn off all the conveniences. No history in the bar so there's no way way to lazily navigate to a website, I have to manually type in the URL. Saved passwords and cookies? Nope! closing the browser wipes history.

drivers99 1mo ago

> Turn off your YouTube watch history Just to add to that, it's a two step process: disable saving new history, and then clear all history I estimate my watch time dropped by half per day the first time I did that. Then I started curating my subscriptions better, and watching from that.

burningChrome 1mo ago

On my smartphone I'm not using Google Play Services so when I open the app, all I get is the search box. I told a friend this and told him this flips the script on the Algo. Now instead of YT telling you what to watch, YOU are in control of what YOU want to watch. We have to start breaking this cycle somehow. This is a great way to do it.

ryandrake 1mo ago
In general, we need to take back ownership of our computers and be the decision makers about what runs on them, and what we are doing with them. An OS vendor or app developer should not have a say in what gets run on your computer. An OS vendor or app developer should not even be "suggesting" or "notifying" you into their software. You should be the root process.

zdw 1mo ago

Or only use the subscriptions page, and never visit the home page. Getting only the stuff you've curated is way better than the algorithm.

input_sh 1mo ago
I'm one of those that instinctively types the letter "y", presses the down arrow, then enter, and goes straight to the subscriptions page. Unfortunately, I now have to scroll through the "most relevant" section, then through shorts, and only then do I reach the videos in the chronological order. What I also hate is how when a channel I usually engage with uploads a video I have no interest in, then it's stuck on top of my subscription page in that "most relevant" section for like a week.
- t_mahmood 1mo ago
  You can use Firefox plugin "Unhook remove youtube recommended and shorts" I think I also have some ublock filters that blocks those things. So, I only have videos.
- Bang2Bay 1mo ago
  you can reduce shorts for a period of 3 weeks or so,

ChickeNES 1mo ago

This is so weird to me, I curate my watch history, and the vast majority of suggestions I get are relevant to me. Am I the only one who does this? (I especially make sure to open any unknown or political videos in a private browser as well). And if any garbage appears in my recs, I just tell it "don't recommend this" and it seems to work?

tonyedgecombe 1mo ago
Some of us don't want suggestions that are relevant to us. Targeted suggestions are more likely to draw you into the machine.

baron3dl 1mo ago

its suggestions are the best way to get me to leave. not that i find myself there often, or stay long anyway. hn on the other hand...

teddyh 1mo ago

Useful: <https://lawrencehook.com/rys/ https://lawrencehook.com/rys/>

account42 1mo ago

I go even further and don't use the YouTube website much at all. When someone shares a YouTube link it goes straight to mpv which streams the video (and just the video) with the help of yt-dlp. No auto-playing the next video. No suggested videos. No comments. No dark patterns. No distractions.