Hey Lemmy fam,
After years of wading through endless crap—click‑bait thumbnails, algorithmic rabbit holes, and non‑stop ads—I finally stopped using YouTube. Below are the main reasons I walked away and a handful of privacy‑friendly alternatives that let you keep the content you love without the garbage.
YouTube’s recommendation engine throws endless crap at you, turning a 5‑minute tutorial into a 2‑hour binge you never signed up for.
What I do instead:
- Lemmy – I follow specific communities (
r/technology,c/firefox,c/degoogle ``) and browse chronologically or by “Hot”. No hidden agenda, just the posts I chose. - RSS feeds – Subscribe to the channels I actually care about via an RSS reader (Feedly, Newsboat, or Lemmy’s built‑in RSS). New videos appear as they’re posted, no surprise junk.
Every view, pause, and hover is logged and sold to advertisers. Even with an ad‑blocker, YouTube still harvests data through its API calls and cookies.
What I do instead:
- PeerTube – Decentralized, ad‑free video hosting. Each instance runs its own moderation and privacy policies. You can even self‑host a node if you want full control.
I use a private invidious instance for the stuff I need to access Youtube for. And peertube for everything else
OP, be frank, did ChatGPT wrote this? Or am I being just paranoid of em dashes and that format?
Actually, it’s not chat GPT it lumo by proton i used to write this. The reason why I used an AI chatbot to write this is because I’m so bad at spellings i recommend you try it. Here is the link https://lumo.proton.me/ yes I actually stop watching youtube
Fair, English is not my native language so I understand being worried about bad spelling but I think there’s more charm to it than anything AI can generate
I limit myself to the old reliable spell checking included on Firefox
If you’re worried about spelling, you can use autocorrect, if it helps, or you can search, ask others, look in a dictionary based on how you think it’s spelled, etc
I feel like I have a very different experience of YouTube than most people on here. UBlock on desktop and Revanced on mobile means no ads / sponsored bits, which is absolutely essential. But I also don’t have a problem with the dreaded ‘algorithm’.
I don’t know if it’s the kinds of videos I watch (nothing political, or popular) or just not being in the US, but I don’t get recommended AI slop or crazy propaganda. I just looked through the Home feed the app, looks like half of it is channels I’ve subscribed to and most of the rest is channels I’ve watched recently but haven’t subscribed to. There’s a couple of videos from channels I don’t reconognise, so they could be weird slop but that’s not the vibe I’m getting at all, and if I clicked and they were I’d just tag it “Don’t Recommend this Channel”.
Disapproving of YouTube because it’s an evil hegemon makes sense. Supporting alternatives is great (I pay for nebula, even though I end up mostly watching the creators’ videos on YouTube). But I’m always curious about why other people seem to have such a terrible experience of the algorithm.
The algorithm recommends things it thinks you’ll like or have watched before. So if its recommending AI slop, it’s because you’re watching AI slop already. People just refuse to take the time to “train” your algorithm (and this isn’t just YouTube, it’s all algorithmic based platforms). You like / dislike stuff, hide things, give feedback, etc, and eventually you only really see the stuff you actually want to see. Sure some things slip through but 🤷♀️ I use YouTube and will continue to only bc the people I watch don’t post anywhere else, unfortunately.
How is Nebula? It has some creators that I like, but does it have a good mobile app?
Zionist, unfortunately.
I stopped using youtube completely back when Trump was elected. I was never a big user anyway, I prefer reading. Its not something I grew up with so I don’t miss it. I got a used Pixel for GrapheneOS shortly after that. I got a Proton account a few years ago, and stopped using google search back in 2008, when I started using Linux and duckduckgo was the default search in Firefox. I think I’m pretty degoogled now. Hope Graphene can find an OEM supplier, having this Pixel gives me some strong dissonance. Its just a temporary fix, it was cheap tho.
This reads like a click-bait youtube video’s script… Soulless Chatbot-like language, no real information offered at all, and the content is a huge letdown (“here’s my recommendation on how to ‘walk away and keep the content you love’ - just walk away and forget all about the content you love! It’s that simple!”).
Been using FreeTube for a bit now w/ GraphineOS, and my Linux Desktop. Runs cookieless embed of YouTube videos and Invidious instances built in. Localized subscriptions and playlists, which can be imported in from Google Takeout; no recommendations page. Occasionally YT will block your IP, which is where a good VPN comes into play so you could switch on the fly, and for overall additional privacy hygiene.
I would love to drop YT all together, but some independent journalists I follow are all there who’s coverage is really on the pulse. It pays to be informed by good journalists these days, and many of them are unfortunately on YT.
the five minute tutorial then turns into two hour binge you never signed up for is youtube’s fault! it’s youtube’s fault I waste two hours watching bullshit videos!! we need to fight back!
Subscribing to channels with RSS and using third-party YouTube clients is still using YouTube for content.
The suggestion you gave about using peer tube is fantastic, but the content does need to increase some.
I use NewPipe on mobile and freetube on desktop, although you probably considered them since they’re often recommended first when you just start looking into youtube alternatives
fully agreed, however check out invidious.io or freetube if you want to degoogle but if theres still anything your missing
Thanks, I’m fully degoogled now
While my algorithm feed is still pretty clean, I only use it to find new people to subscribe to if I’m not getting enough good videos to satisfy the time I want to spend. Otherwise I do the new videos on my subscriber feed first, and only go to the rest if I want to after.
But alternate options are fine too, just, youtube can still be made to work for you if you control it, rather than letting it feed you.
I use a chrome extension to disable my home feed, so I can freely watch my subscribed channels. I agree, fuck the home feed. It only wastes time.
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I have cut down watching youtube so much. Occasionally there will still be something I want to watch, but I just go through freetube for that. Definitely watching 95% less content though.
