[HN Gopher] How I spend less time on YouTube
___________________________________________________________________
How I spend less time on YouTube
Author : pawurb
Score : 151 points
Date : 2021-12-08 14:27 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (pawelurbanek.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (pawelurbanek.com)
| the_arun wrote:
| Thing is - YouTube has got one of the best recommendation engines
| - much better than Netflix. So I wouldn't blame ourselves but the
| algorithm doing its job.
| [deleted]
| jollybean wrote:
| Youtube's recommendations for some reason are pitiful next to
| TikTok.
|
| It may be an inherent advantage of the super-short format.
| threeaccents wrote:
| I just update my hosts file haha
| [deleted]
| mill wrote:
| A really convenient workaround is the extension called Unhook.
| It's very neat and lets you to control many aspects of your
| Youtube experience. Available both for Chrome/Firefox:
|
| 1)https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/unhook-remove-yout...
|
| 2)https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-recom...
| JasonSage wrote:
| This looks really nice, so I'm going to give it a shot.
|
| Thanks for the recommendation!
| moooo99 wrote:
| Personally I can really recommend the ,,Unhook YouTube"
| extension. It's really customizable and allows you to remove
| autoplay, recommendations and even the homepage. It's really easy
| to configure and really did help me reducing my time spend on
| YouTube without breaking the entire website.
| baal80spam wrote:
| I can vouch for DF Tube (Distraction Free for YouTube(tm)).
| medstrom wrote:
| I also love Clickbait Remover (1) to get rid of the customized
| thumbnail and instead show a random snapshot from the middle of
| the vid. These days the thumbnails are all noise and no signal
| anyway.
|
| 1: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/clickbait-
| rem...
| amlib wrote:
| Same here, extensions such as unhook youtube have helped me
| reduce my youtube addiction. I also unsubbed from some channels
| that released videos a bit too often (like LTT)
| toppy wrote:
| URLs for the spoken extensions:
|
| https://addons.mozilla.org/pl/firefox/addon/youtube-recommen...
|
| https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/unhook-remove-yout...
| sAbakumoff wrote:
| Just use the full screen mode or theatre mode
| teh_klev wrote:
| The way I've done this is to be quite aggressive and only allow
| content from my channel subscriptions appear on my landing page.
| Anything else that shouldn't be there gets a "Don't Recommend
| Channel" ding.
|
| If I'm looking for new material such as tutorials or
| documentaries, that kind of thing then I search in a separate
| non-logged in browser profile so the YT algorithm doesn't try to
| pollute my signed in account with junk. This has mostly worked
| quite well for me.
| crawl_soever wrote:
| I do the same thing for linkedin. Pick and select the "timeline"
| post page or whatever it is called and block it. Completely
| eliminates the social media bloat so I can focus on the only
| reason I still keep a profile on there. Now mostly for just
| chatting anyhow.
| antoineMoPa wrote:
| I think have a basic human need to fill time with video or
| similar content. Before, it was tv, after, it was youtube, now
| it's mostly tik tok for me. The ancestor of all this is probably
| watching the campfire for hours.
| elcapitan wrote:
| It's nice, unfortunately the filters break also playlists, which
| is unfortunate, because those are actually created by me for
| distraction-free watching of stuff that I'm really interested in.
| bellyfullofbac wrote:
| You can do the same with StackOverflow's "Hot Network" questions,
| and "New from our blog"... How is that not a dark pattern, I'm
| trying to find how to do blah in Java, and a question about world
| building would pique my interest...
| GaylordTuring wrote:
| My big problem with YouTube recommendations isn't that they're so
| good that I get sucked in; it's that they're so bad. I would
| happily spend more time on the site watching interesting videos
| if they only would show up in my recommendation feed.
|
| Instead, I get recommended the same old crap, all coming from a
| small set of the same video categories over and over again
| (except for the occasional America's Got Talent or any other clip
| that've reached over 100 million views). It's not like I don't
| like airplane and board repair videos, but it's not the only
| thing that I'm interested in, which YouTube seems to think.
|
| Show me something new! Try recommending a video about how to grow
| flowers or about Titanic rather than thinking that the only thing
| I'm interested in are whatever I've been watching for the last
| couple of months.
| joenot443 wrote:
| I've found the same thing. I like snowmobiling and I like Dota
| 2. Surely in the billions and billions of hours of content on
| YouTube, there's something else I would like as well, but the
| algorithm seems content to only ever serve me up videos from
| two categories.
|
| Some kind of forced flavor in an "I'm Feeling Lucky" or
| "Discover Weekly" format would be a great improvement I think.
| lardolan wrote:
| Thank you for sharing. I use extensions blockers to block feed on
| linkedin and facebook. Will try for youtube too!
| deephdave wrote:
| I prioritise reading, read on Kindle and on Readup
| https://readup.com/
| XCSme wrote:
| I use the browser extension https://unhook.app, it works great
| and you can choose to hide/show specific elements.
| szarnyasg wrote:
| The News Feed Eradicator browser plugin (available for Chrome and
| Firefox) supports hiding the recommended videos on both the
| YouTube home page and in the sidebar next to videos. It did
| wonders for my focus.
| diplodocusaur wrote:
| You can also play faster than the 2x speed limit cap using
|
| document.getElementsByTagName("video")[0].playbackRate=4
|
| is there a way to also make this the default max play speed
| without entering it in console?
| madsohm wrote:
| I find that the audio gets out of sync when playing faster than
| 2x. Have you also noticed that - and perhaps have a solution?
| wjdp wrote:
| I'm using https://github.com/codebicycle/videospeed
|
| This extension adds keyboard shortcuts as well as a UI to all
| <video> elements (YT and other sites). I have 'G' set playback
| rate to 2.2x.
| Aromasin wrote:
| I use the "video speed controller" extension. You can set it to
| whatever speed you like, and it will default videos across all
| websites to that. You can also set exceptions for things like
| Netflix. There is no way to set YouTube default speed
| unfortunately, hence the work around.
| vijaybritto wrote:
| I think I'm inadvertently escaping this by viewing all videos in
| theatre mode! I find it hard to keep my focus on video and
| instead look for long texts that explain them. But nothing beats
| well produced videos. Its the same as well explained topics in
| text with good diagrams.
| alexitosrv wrote:
| I am in a new job as of lately, and found myself wandering a lot
| in youtube, reddit and twitter. I also used ublock for removing
| the recommendation section and it makes my life much simpler. We
| should use an adversarial approach to all those UX hyper
| optimizations from big cos. I also had to install LeechBlock to
| limit my time on time wasting activities, now I sleep better and
| have an easier time focusing on work stuff, even just freeing
| some mind-CPU to accomplish more meaningful tasks. Glad that I am
| not alone in this battle for our own sanity.
| zczc wrote:
| What helped me was moving channels from YouTube subscriptions to
| RSS feeds. Thus I stopped opening YouTube homepage and play
| videos straight from RSS client.
|
| RSS URLs are
| https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=<chanel_...
| latexr wrote:
| For specific playlists:
| https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?playlist_id=<playli...
| em-bee wrote:
| this is an excellent tip for someone who doesn't want to sign
| up to youtube/google just to be able to follow a channel.
| delecti wrote:
| There's also the youtube subscription page.
| https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions
|
| If you only use youtube to watch videos posted by your
| subscribed channels, then go to the page that youtube fills
| exclusively with all of the videos posted by your subscribed
| channels. It's wild to me how many people use the homepage to
| consume their subscriptions.
| ghostly_s wrote:
| I'm getting a 404.
| neogodless wrote:
| See where the OP put <channel_id>?
|
| You have to copy and paste the YouTube channel ID into that
| space, and then you can use the whole URL in an RSS feed
| reader.
| spcebar wrote:
| I wrote the following CSS for the Stylus extension to keep me
| focused--it blocks out suggested videos at the end of a video,
| the videos in the sidebar, and the comments section:
|
| .style-scope.ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer,.style-
| scope.ytd-comments,.style-scope.ytd-mealbar-promo-
| renderer,.html5-endscreen.ytp-player-content.videowall-endscreen
| { display:none; }
| Demcox wrote:
| YouTube started as such a great way to explore niche interests
| but has, as the author describes well, turned into a large
| hooking mechanism and I hate it for that.
|
| Used to spend a lot of good quality time watching videos on there
| and interacting with like minded people but now YT is blocked on
| my network.
| [deleted]
| scoutt wrote:
| > Am I the only one who launches YouTube just to watch a single
| tutorial and ends up devouring dozens of fine-tuned
| recommendations?
|
| I'm hitting 40 next week, and seeing others asking for
| recommendations of videos on "programming a microcontroller" (or
| programming related) is something I can't understand.
|
| One day I sat and watched some of the videos they were
| recommending, and in most of them there were a person talking for
| 40 minutes while showing the screen.
|
| Also, the video, at least to me, makes the person doing the
| tutorial to be seen as "more authoritative" than through text,
| even if you can tell the person talking has little experience
| with microcontrollers (or whatever, if you have experience in the
| field).
|
| The same applies for "making a gradient in Gimp". I don't want a
| 5 minutes videos. Give me a bullet-point list on text. 20 seconds
| read. I can "rewind" easily and repeat a step I missed.
|
| I will always prefer text for some types of tutorials. I can
| "ctrl + f" and search for the parts I want, and see the code
| examples in peace, without rushing them while someone is talking.
|
| I might watch a video tutorial for, I don't know, fixing a
| dishwater. But I guess I am just getting old.
| allenu wrote:
| I'm old too (43) and I enjoy short videos that get to the point
| as well. If a video is too long or takes too long I'll just
| skip ahead and until I hear them talking about specifics.
|
| There was a point a few years ago where there was this sudden
| shift to longer videos on YouTube. I think part of it was
| greater engagement is seen on such videos, leading to more ad
| time. As a result though, the actual quality of the content is
| down but I would say the "showmanship" is up. In a longer
| video, you have to be good at delivery and keeping people
| interested, so it starts to favor entertaining speakers. So now
| people watch videos for a large part because they want to "hang
| out" with the presenter. Also, Twitch is essentially just
| hanging out with someone. Anyway, now I'm just rambling like an
| old man.
| sys_64738 wrote:
| Agree. If a video on how to tighten a bolt or change gas in a
| mower is 36 mins long then that's a total waste. I don't want
| to hear somebody's rambling life story if I'm trying to
| directly find info. Short and sharp videos get more view from
| me. I agree also that Twitch is a waste of time. Never
| understood the utility of watching somebody doing some task.
| Plasmoid wrote:
| Youtube changed their advertising rules such that videos of
| less than 10 minutes didn't get ads so everyone padded their
| videos to be at least 10 minutes long.
|
| They also prioritize watch time as a metric (and a payout
| stream for Youtube Red)
| jcun4128 wrote:
| What's annoying are those tutorials like on OpenCV that just
| repeat the steps outlined in the manual.
|
| We're going to apply a mask to find the red cup, ball, etc...
|
| I made a personal chrome extension that hides the YT content
| you first see to stop hijacking my original intent of coming to
| YT.
|
| I still like YT though, watching Ben Heck's videos or random
| Japanese fishing/cooking shows.
| bodge5000 wrote:
| I think for me it depends. Video's are better if I'm completely
| out of my depth or its a big project or its something thats new
| to me. Text can skim over small but important details, videos
| usually don't (obviously they can edited out, but thats an
| active process of removing it, rather than a passive process of
| just not adding it). But if its something I know a decent
| amount about, I'll always go with text.
|
| Where it gets a bit more interesting is that middle ground.
| Usually I prefer text in theory, but a lot of the articles
| written about it are filled with as much fluff as videos, but
| then you also have cookie popups, ads, location and
| notification requests, ect... which can make videos sometimes
| faster, sometimes slower.
|
| I'm in my mid 20's so I don't know if its a generational thing,
| I might be just an outlier but I couldn't say for sure.
| titzer wrote:
| This is true for certain kinds of tasks, particularly
| programming or anything very instruction-oriented. However, for
| practical tasks, like installing a bathroom faucet, a short and
| succint video is gold. Now that YouTube has chapter labels,
| it's even better.
|
| That said, YouTube is clearly going downhill for a host of
| other reasons, but hands-on tutorials remain one of its best
| forms of content.
| rjsw wrote:
| I recently watched some good videos on making sushi, wouldn't
| watch any programming ones though.
| [deleted]
| kgwxd wrote:
| There's definitely a ton of low quality videos doing things
| that might be better presented in text, the worst examples
| being videos of text. They're easy to make and YT makes it easy
| to monetize them so people make them without caring how
| practical it is, and people watch them for various reason.
|
| I've utilized a few myself (42, I think), and it's usually
| because it's the first thing I found and I'm a complete
| beginner, so anything will help point me in some reasonable
| direction. I've even specifically watch "programming a
| microcontroller" and "making a gradient in Gimp" videos. I have
| very little experience in those things and, even if the
| presenter is just going through the steps, there's visual hints
| that help me navigate the intimidating interfaces those things
| come with. If I need text for future reference, I can usually
| find it in a matter of seconds. Maybe even easier than before
| if I've learned a few new keywords from the video.
|
| As far as the "more authoritative" thing, that can only be
| solved in the viewers mind. Learning to control that bias is
| good for life in general anyway.
| fikama wrote:
| I am a teen and I feel about it exactly like you, so it's not
| you getting old.
| burnished wrote:
| Video tutorials are great for when the thing being interacted
| with is a user interface. They suck when they are just
| narration. People talk too slow.
|
| They become great again when the video is stuffed with visual
| information and you kick the speed up to 1.5x.
|
| I say this as some one who hates video being the default
| information channel.
|
| Although to be fair I don't think it's just you getting old.
| Maybe the number of examples you need to see to classify
| something new goes down as you get older, but it's not like
| there aren't an endless stream of videos that could be short
| paragraphs of explanatory text (or 30 second clips instead of
| ten minutes of 'hey it's ya booooi SaladStreams here to hit YOU
| with the latest windows 10 tips!!!')
| handrous wrote:
| _Every now and then_ I find a video tutorial for some computer
| thing very helpful--specifically, the kind where someone does
| something beginning to end with a screencast--simply because
| _every single damn text tutorial_ was skipping one or more
| steps or pieces of context that I guess they thought were too
| obvious to mention. This is usually for set-up or config stuff,
| though. For programming I agree that videos are almost
| universally painful to watch and low-value. I can 't begin to
| understand people who head straight for YouTube when picking up
| e.g. a new programming language or library(!).
|
| However, for cooking technique and building/home-repair/car-
| repair, videos are a game changer. Simply amazing. Actually,
| that goes for sports stuff, too. I find reading about all those
| things nearly worthless, and watching someone do it while
| explaining, a much better use of my time.
| NoPicklez wrote:
| For me it depends on my mood. If I am in a rush and I quickly
| need to find how to do something, it can be hard to find
| Youtubers who are concise. But other times I want to hear
| everything there is to know about the process.
|
| As a good example, across the PC building space, there are
| two Youtubers who actually refer to each other both Gamers
| Nexus and JayzTwoCents. In Jayz videos he knows he provides a
| summary so will refer you to GN for more in-depth detailed
| content.
| scrollaway wrote:
| People learn in different ways.
| fer wrote:
| Video is great for many things, but step by step
| instructions/tutorials ain't one of them.
| wingerlang wrote:
| I disagree. It is great because you can actually see where
| the steps are performed. It's sometimes faster than reading
| a bullet point than finding out where on the screen it is.
|
| And I did NOT grow up on videos, I just think they're neat.
|
| Of course, there are times when I dislike them too. It's
| not always black and white.
| KineticLensman wrote:
| > you can actually see where the steps are performed.
| It's sometimes faster than reading a bullet point than
| finding out where on the screen it is
|
| If and only if the steps are performed in the correct
| order without any fluffs. In one particularly bad example
| that I saw someone was showing how to use an updated
| feature in Photoshop. The sequence went something like
|
| * the instructor showed the old way of doing things
|
| * they then did 'undo' a few times to get back to the
| point where the new feature was different
|
| * they started showing the new way
|
| * they then realised they'd made a mistake earlier on -
| missing out a step in the new sequence
|
| * they did undo a few times
|
| * they did the step they'd omitted
|
| * they then carried on from that point
|
| I had to watch several times to work out the actual
| sequence of correct operations. To my mind they should
| have re-recorded from the beginning rather than show
| their disrespect for the viewers.
| wingerlang wrote:
| There are very badly written articles as well though.
| xboxnolifes wrote:
| Yeah, but I can also usually tell an article is bad in a
| 15 second skim. Videos aren't always so generous.
| mavhc wrote:
| The easiest form of media to create is unedited video.
|
| The hardest is edited video
| allenu wrote:
| It's funny that unedited, poorly rehearsed "presenting
| style" has in a way taken on a life of its own. Speaking
| to a director off-camera, quick jump cuts of multiple
| takes, drawing attention to flubbing of lines, are all
| sort of techniques used in YouTube videos to show
| "authenticity" to the viewer (ie, I'm just a regular
| person making these videos). I was listening to a podcast
| recently and noticed they left in some banter before an
| interview started.
|
| The banter added nothing to the discussion since they
| weren't even talking about the topic yet. Its sole
| purpose was to make the chat feel informal and, in my
| opinion, "more real".
| bigfudge wrote:
| This. Although I have discovered why the jump cut is so
| popular! Actually, even inexpert jump-cutting does
| improve things though, so worth doing.
| handrous wrote:
| Extensive use of jump-cuts lets you edit single-camera
| monologues as if they were text. Much easier & cheaper
| than doing re-shoots, using multiple cameras, et c.
|
| I can personally attest that this style was _extremely_
| off-putting to us oldsters (millennial here--yeah, we 're
| getting old) until we'd had a few years to get used to
| it. It's not something you see in traditional video media
| unless a mistake happens, or you're watching some kind of
| weird art thing.
| bena wrote:
| This has been shown to be not true many times over.
|
| Different subjects need to be taught in different ways, but
| there are optimal ways to present information that works for
| everyone.
|
| No one is a "visual learner", there are topics that are best
| presented in a visual format.
| endisneigh wrote:
| Where's this list of the so called optimal ways to present
| information that works for everyone?
| bena wrote:
| Sorry if I was unclear. There is no singular optimal way
| of teaching. But for every subject, there is an optimal
| way to teach it. And usually that optimal way is a
| combination of visuals, auditory, reading, etc.
|
| Way too often, someone achieves understanding when
| information happens to be presented in an optimal way for
| that information and they instead believe that the way
| was optimized for them rather than for the information.
|
| Then they get stuck on "I need to watch videos to truly
| understand it".
| endisneigh wrote:
| Ok, where's the list of the optimal way to teach every
| subject?
| rincewind wrote:
| No, it's not about the "optimal way", it's about the oft-
| cited the factoid "90% of people are haptic learners, 30%
| are visual learners, 15% are auditory learners, 25% are
| text-based learners". Somebody did an experiment and
| found out 90% of subjects remembered something later when
| they had to learn to do it, but only 25% remembered when
| they had to read it. (All numbers made up, does not
| matter in the context of this comment)
|
| Of course, this completely misrepresents the experiment!
| After learning to do something, you are 90% likely to
| retain it for a certain duration, after you read about
| it, you are only 25% likely to retain it, so in aggregate
| you only retain 25% of what you read.
|
| The idea was never to find people who are "visual
| learning type" or the "non-learning-by-doing type".
|
| That's what became of this idea in education through the
| game of telephone that mangles experimental results on
| their way from developmental psychology and cognitive
| science into education departments, and then into future
| high school teachers during undergrad lectures. Even my
| own high school teachers in Germany talked about learning
| types as if there was such a thing.
| mkaic wrote:
| Anecdotal counterargument: I am a visual learner. For
| almost all topics I learn about, watching a video is by far
| the most effective, fastest, and most impactful way for me
| to grasp and remember new concepts. A very large part of my
| education in math, science, machine learning, music theory,
| filmmaking, screenwriting, visual effects, history, and
| chemistry was video lectures/essays/content.
|
| I agree that the famous "three/four types of learners,
| everyone belongs to one of them" factoid isn't true, but
| disagree that "No one is a 'visual learner.'" I am a visual
| learner.
| bena wrote:
| This is a self report of a self assessment. So the most
| unreliable form of reporting coupled with the most
| unreliable form of assessment.
|
| I believe you believe all of that, but I don't believe it
| is true. Even in your case.
| DavidCole1 wrote:
| It's not only you. I feel the same. Whenever I stumble upon a
| video for a programming related tutorial ( mostly AWS ), I want
| a text copy by the side so that I can get what I want and move
| on.
|
| Maybe Youtube should give ability to "seek to" on its
| autogenerated subtitles in the sidebar. I would find it useful
| at least.
| lifeplusplus wrote:
| for many things i prefer <2 min videos over text. I.e. how to
| create a graph in excel. Video would go like click here, here
| and then here. Article would go like first press ctrl+L then
| next to this, below that, your version may be different, click
| the button, then you will see xyz, on bottom right select this,
| .......
| polishdude20 wrote:
| I'm in my late 20's and practically grew up with YouTube. I
| can't stand watching tutorial videos for anything technical.
| The content is not searchable and not even close to as fast as
| text.
| kurthr wrote:
| For mechanical stuff (dis/reasembling equipment) it makes some
| sense, because diagrams are never as good as an HD video at
| showing where that screw hole is or how to pop off a clip. At
| the same time, I can't watch most of those videos at less than
| 1.5x!
|
| Often, the first google hit on "how to do X" is a video when,
| as you say, a bulleted list would be easier to follow. Maybe
| ads are better monetized on video so the incentive is only to
| create that content?
| aulin wrote:
| I believe it's a generational thing. We, in our late thirties,
| didn't have so much video content, we studied from books,
| learned from written content. Younger generations adapted to
| use videos as a learning aid, sometimes as the main learning
| platform. We won't ever be able to understand how they work.
| Their brain just adapted to this kind of learning medium.
|
| For me video talking about code is slow, unsearchable,
| unskimmable. I cannot easily go back to more difficult parts
| and reread (watch) them at my own pace. I cannot use them as a
| quick reference. Even my photographic memory doesn't work with
| videos, there's just something more powerful with black on
| white words and formulas.
|
| Also completely agree about youtuber credibility. Being easy
| going, with good lighting, nice looks and neat surroundings
| makes them sound authoritative on the subject they talk about,
| especially to the newcomer ears, without any real backing.
| globular-toast wrote:
| I'm in my mid-30s. Certainly didn't grow up with video
| content. I have a shelf full of books which I've learnt a lot
| from. But I've also learnt an enormous amount from videos.
| They are good for different things.
|
| Take food, for example. I have books that go into great
| detail about how to make bread. Each ingredient (of which
| there are only four) are discussed in detail. The history of
| bread and its influence on culture is covered. But when it
| comes to kneading dough, nothing beats watching someone do
| it. Even the best book in the world can't replace that.
|
| I learn a lot from watching others work. When I watch videos
| I'm learning more from what they don't talk about than what
| they do talk about. I think it requires being selective.
| There are some videos of really talented and skilled people
| out there who might not be great communicators. These are
| treasure. On the other hand, there are shiny videos with
| attractive presenters filled with trivial fluff you could
| have gleaned from one page of a text book. Like with
| anything, you just have to learn what's worth your time and
| what isn't.
| treacle wrote:
| Remembering lectures, I used to sit in them, watch and take
| notes. It was only after when reading back through the notes
| and looking into the problem area I could hear and make out
| what I didn't really catch first time.
|
| So videos with slides, and notes, and tutorials/practice all
| can help. It does for me anyway.
| throw10920 wrote:
| I'm in my early 20's, grew up watching YouTube, and still
| find textual documents superior for learning in almost all
| cases (with the exceptions being _concise_ and intrinsically-
| animated things, like a lot of 3b1b 's videos).
|
| I don't think that there's nearly as much adaptation as there
| is just people getting used to watching video content and
| liking it more. That is, greater enjoyment, but not greater
| comprehension.
|
| I suspect that nearly everyone who thinks that they "learn
| better from videos" just enjoys the videos more (which
| affects how well they perceive their own learning efficiency
| - humans are notoriously bad at self-assessment _especially_
| in the cognitive realm) and /or has attention issues that are
| mitigated by the more engaging nature of a video.
| asdff wrote:
| But its a learning medium that's fundamentally terrible.
| Seriously, pull a transcript of any 15 minute youtube video.
| It will take you a few minutes to read. Why waste your
| limited time to extract the same exact information waiting
| for someone to gesticulate on a video, young or old? It's
| like sitting through a college lecture where the professor
| dryly reads directly out of the textbook and you wonder why
| you are even paying tuition.
| Zababa wrote:
| 24 years old here, I think videos are great for an overview
| of a topic, but that's it. Most of the time when I'm
| relatively comfortable with a subject I want either an "how
| to" or a "reference", and for these I think written content
| is way better.
|
| > For me video talking about code is slow, unsearchable,
| unskimmable. I cannot easily go back to more difficult parts
| and reread (watch) them at my own pace. I cannot use them as
| a quick reference. Even my photographic memory doesn't work
| with videos, there's just something more powerful with black
| on white words and formulas.
|
| You also can't copy/paste code, and if your vision isn't
| perfect/the code isn't zoomed enough, you have to use a whole
| screen for the video.
| bigfudge wrote:
| I have just added video tutorials to all my R workshops and
| have had a _huge_ boost in satisfaction among students
| (mostly < 30). I can't understand it -- the videos are slow,
| inexpertly produced and have nothing that is not in the text.
| The students love it though and there is no way I'll be able
| to run the sister course next semester without also adding
| videos.
| typicalbender wrote:
| Easier to multi-task maybe? Its really easy to do other
| things while listening to a video and then jumping into the
| parts that sound interesting as compared to reading where
| its necessarily a very active experience.
| voidskull wrote:
| I'm around 20 and I prefer text over videos. I find videos
| too long, sometimes exaggerated. Even if I have to watch a
| video, that has some "content" I'd increase the playback
| speed to have it done faster. In my opinion, visual
| instructions give in a lot of unnecessary information than
| textual instructions. This makes it harder to imagine when
| watching a video than reading a, say blog.
| fartcannon wrote:
| I'm also middle aged and I've started to kind of like video
| tutorials for totally new subjects. There's often little
| things that the web tutorials miss that I catch when
| watching. That said having both is optimal, in my opinion.
|
| For things I'm already familiar with, usually calling the man
| page is enough.
| mkaic wrote:
| Gen Z programmer here. Can confirm that video content is by
| far the best way I learn new information and skills. I think
| having grown up with the modern internet has shaped my brain
| in a way that makes it so video feels more natural than it
| might for folks even 10 years older than me. It's definitely
| fascinating to look at the effects the internet is having on
| society over longer time periods.
| gowld wrote:
| Are you sure it's not just that video content "feels" like
| you are leaerning even when you aren't? This is a
| documented phenomenon that underlies "infotainment".
| asdff wrote:
| It just seems so slow to me. Here's another 15 minute video
| of what could be a three minute blog post. Be sure like
| comment subscribe!
| jen729w wrote:
| As always, 'it depends'. I know he's not YT strictly
| speaking but I love learning from Wes Bos. But the
| _first_ time I watched him I was like holy shit boy, slow
| down! I thought it was terrible.
|
| Then I learned some more, which got me to the stage where
| I knew what the hell he was on about, and _now_ I love
| him. Information at its maximum density.
| rtsil wrote:
| It depends on the type of activity for me. For maths or
| computing, I prefer a text by far, video is too slow and
| doesn't allow me to go to the essential. For jazz guitar and
| bike repairs, video is where I learn the most.
| typicalbender wrote:
| Early 30s here. Possibly to your point and completely
| anecdotally, I generally have a much harder time learning via
| text than I do from a more kinetic learning environment or
| watching a video... but I wish it was the other way around.
| All of the benefits described above for why text is better I
| totally agree and I get generally frustrated trying to find
| the relevant part of the video but for whatever reason seeing
| the thing I am trying to learn visually demonstrated is
| immensely more powerful that reading it.
|
| I actually have a pet hypothesis that it has something to do
| with imagination. I'd be curious if anyone has studied the
| effects of visual media on imagination and how it impacts
| kids ability to take written content and understanding it
| versus the same with visual content. I have a suspicion that
| before the prevalence of visual media it was even more
| critical to have an active imagination to be able to
| synthesis written content and that we've lost a bit of that
| in younger generations as we've moved toward a reliance on
| visual learning. I have nothing to back any of this up of
| course just something i've thought about when reflecting on
| myself.
| yonaguska wrote:
| I've recently tried to get back into making art. I had a
| very active imagination as a child and would draw for hours
| on end. Now the inspiration isn't there and I have a hard
| time just visualizing scenes or landscapes.
| dncornholio wrote:
| Always text over video. When people say they prefer video, they
| don't know better, haven't actually been learning anything or
| are extremely lazy.
|
| For example, to do a gradient in Gimp, you should know a few
| shortcode keys. Now how do I look up which key to use again?
| Load the video and keep fiddling with the player until I hit
| the right moment where he explains this little detail? It's
| extremely annoying to look up anything in a video.
|
| You also waste a shitload of time because you can't just skim
| through all the stuff you already know.
|
| Video tutorials are only popular because Google boosts Youtube
| videos over text in search. The creators don't care that it's a
| bad medium for you, because it's an excellent medium for them.
| Way more revenue to gain from a Youtube video then some
| blogpost
| outside1234 wrote:
| I think it is an "AND" vs. "OR" thing. Your examples are
| great for those use cases, but there are others where having
| the long form is really good.
|
| For example, Jon Gjengset's Rust series:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O0Nt9qY_vo
| dncornholio wrote:
| You are right, a tutorial is even better if it has text AND
| a video :) laracasts does this extremely well.
| [deleted]
| aeternum wrote:
| For things like fixing a car part or home repair video is
| much better than text. There's nothing like watching someone
| do it, quickly seeing the exact location of things and how
| they should be moved.
| avgDev wrote:
| This isn't true. Once you know cars enough, the same thing
| applies to car repair.
|
| I just need the torque specs for the bolts, I don't need or
| want to watch a whole video.
| aeternum wrote:
| Most people aren't car experts
| dncornholio wrote:
| There is immense value in seeing someone doing something.
| The thing is, there is 0 value in seeing someone type in
| some lines of codes when you can just copy and paste and
| run it yourself in seconds.
| criddell wrote:
| Always text over video? I disagree. Things like Khan Academy
| work much better than reading a textbook for a lot of people.
|
| Also, video guitar tutorials (Justin Sandercoe's are great)
| are wonderful because it gives you something to play along
| to.
| dncornholio wrote:
| Agree. I was exclusively talking about programming /
| computer things tutorials. And from my memory, Khan Acadamy
| always has had a video and a text version, which is even
| better.
| slig wrote:
| Have you seen Ben Eater's videos?
| bittercynic wrote:
| I love his videos, but not because they efficiently present
| tutorial content. He's an amazing teacher because he
| demonstrates an attitude/approach to learning that would be
| difficult to convey through text.
| thorin wrote:
| Wow, this guy makes me a bit sad, because I did a 4 year Elec
| Eng degree and the guy that taught semi conductors was so
| bad. Almost everyone failed the exam because they had no idea
| what he was talking about (lots of the other modules were
| good). I (re)learnt more from watching a few of these videos
| than I did in a semester at university.
| thorin wrote:
| I looked at my department website, it's 25+ years since I
| started uni and the 2 lecturers I had the most trouble
| learning from are still there. One is had of department! He
| was a good guy, I just didn't "get it", but the other one
| was awful at teaching. He did have amazing credentials from
| Stanford and another top tier uni in the States before
| coming over to the UK. Teaching was never a priority at
| that uni!
| Tempest1981 wrote:
| Are there any websites/services that curate the best videos
| on specific school topics? With broader coverage than Khan
| Academy?
|
| Searching on YouTube find thousands of matches, and I am
| exhausted after 20 minutes of previewing search results.
| anthony_romeo wrote:
| Video tutorials for great for introductions to new subjects of
| study (at least for me) -- they can help provide a good
| intuition for complicated subjects. At the very least, there
| are plenty of lectures one can watch and follow along with a
| textbook. It's never a replacement for reading a great manual
| for getting into the details or real one-on-one training or
| real documentation, but [good quality] video is still a great
| supplemental tool for learning.
| FearlessNebula wrote:
| Once I got a job as a software dev I quickly started preferring
| text based tutorials and docs. As a student I would always hunt
| down the "best" tutorial video for a given topic.
| lambic wrote:
| I'm older than you and I definitely prefer text for programming
| related tutorials but I'll jump straight to videos for more
| practical things.
|
| Reading a recipe is fine for a lot of cooking, but some things
| like "How to spatchcock a chicken" benefit greatly from a video
| demonstration.
|
| Similarly I took up knitting a while ago, and watching videos
| was the only way I could learn the techniques, trying to do it
| from written instructions was impossible.
| abacadaba wrote:
| really annoying, pretty sure because they incentivize watch
| time
| yelling_cat wrote:
| > Also, the video, at least to me, makes the person doing the
| tutorial to be seen as "more authoritative" than through text,
| even if you can tell the person talking has little experience
| with microcontrollers (or whatever, if you have experience in
| the field).
|
| And with the dislike count gone we've lost the only way to tell
| at a glance if a tutorial is worth spending time on. Good luck
| finding a thoughtful critique in the comments.
| spaceisballer wrote:
| I'm in the same boat as you but I just don't consume YouTube at
| all. Sure I've looked up repair things or a tutorial if it's
| less than 10 minutes. I have to have something specific to
| watch I don't just keep watching related videos. Watch a movie
| trailer I wanted to see, then peace out. Maybe it's partially
| an age thing or perhaps just some people get that dopamine
| release easier from YouTube. I will say the exception is that I
| have spent time watching videos of people building things as
| long as it doesn't have narration or hot takes from the people.
| I guess in general I can't get behind any of the standard issue
| YouTuber speak and mannerisms, it's all very similar (at least
| that's how I feel with the popular videos).
| eloisius wrote:
| I feel the same logically. I'll be 35 in a couple weeks and I'm
| also an avid text fan, but lately I've noticed that I shift to
| video searches for things a lot faster. I thought about it a
| little, and I think that maybe I've started doing that because
| text search is a mess today. SEO has won on text search, but it
| takes a lot of effort to produce a good video. I can often find
| a good video for some things faster than I can hunt down a good
| text overview or tutorial. Then of course, I'm often more
| interested in the text included in the description because it
| will point to what I need in more detail.
| bighoss97 wrote:
| I'm 19 and I agree with you. For most things, text content is
| the best way to learn.
| nathias wrote:
| text is for learning, video is for entertainment, the problem
| is that people are confused about what they are doing
| psychomugs wrote:
| This statement is reductive - either medium can be for
| learning or entertainment, it's a matter of content and
| audience.
| throwaway946513 wrote:
| Yet I've found video lectures and documentaries enlightening
| as well as a method to teach me something I did not know.
|
| I'd also think that fiction novels are more entertaining than
| 'educational'.
| throw8932894 wrote:
| On Android there is Kiwi browser with desktop uBlock extension
| can do this blocking.
| ballenf wrote:
| What I really want is all my subscriptions to get auto-downloaded
| into Plex. And for Plex to have better library management tools
| from the player, so I can delete after watching or move to a
| category.
|
| Then show me all the algorithmic stuff when I'm on the website so
| I can find better stuff to subscribe to.
| nirav72 wrote:
| I've been using TubeArchivist for grabbing newly posted videos
| in my subscriptions. It will grab the meta info and thumbnails
| as well. Has a built in video player, so you can watch the
| videos directly within the web app.
|
| https://github.com/bbilly1/tubearchivist
|
| Another one I've used before is Tubesync- although it doesn't
| have a built-in player. But it has the ability to integrate
| with Plex.
|
| https://github.com/meeb/tubesync
| Nextgrid wrote:
| The algorithmic stuff could actually be good if you could use
| it on demand and control its parameters, like a supercharged
| search page.
|
| There are times I want to discover new content, it would be
| nice to be able to set the algorithm's parameters just right
| for a particular topic and see what it has to offer, then rinse
| and repeat for other topics.
| bobmagoo wrote:
| I was actually looking at building a script like this. Have you
| found anything that does it already? If not, I was just going
| to make a small python script with readonly access to my
| Youtube account that pulls down my Watch Later video IDs and
| feeds them to youtube-dl on my NAS. Sounds like a fun Christmas
| vacation project.
| enzoaguado wrote:
| There are multiple articles automating this task using
| youtube-dl. There's also a recent project called tubesync[0]
| that provides a GUI and advertises itself as the
| sonarr/radarr for Youtube
|
| [0] https://github.com/meeb/tubesync
| josteink wrote:
| From a user-perspective that would be a great user experience,
| but would remove any possible way for YouTube to show you ads
| and pay the bills (and keep you "engaged").
|
| Could be a premium-only feature, I guess?
| toastal wrote:
| I don't know who asked for it to be like a social network, but I
| did similar thing with GitHub removing the social sidebar and
| reactions on the home screen making it less distracting with
| github.com##aside[aria-label="Explore"], #dashboard.dashboard
| .reactions-with-gap
| godshatter wrote:
| I reduce my time on YouTube by going there with a specific
| subject in mind, search on it, and use yt-dlp to download the
| likely candidates and watch them offline. It has the added bonus
| of being able to re-watch them offline without going back to YT.
|
| It's similar, now that I think about it, to my shopping routine.
| Research what I want, go in, grab it, and get the heck out.
|
| I've learned over the years that if I don't want to buy too much
| or spend a few hours watching videos I could do without, I limit
| my interactions voluntarily.
| blueflow wrote:
| The official UI has some weird bugs. Like, when i listen to a
| long video, and then seek back to some position near the
| beginning, it gets stuck loading forever.
|
| At this point, running youtube-dl via mpv on it is faster than
| the official UI for me. I set ytdl-
| format=bestvideo[height<=480]+bestaudio/best[height<=480] in the
| mpv config so i dont use up more bandwith than my eyes can
| consume. Youtube-dl is somewhat wonky some days, tho.
| titzer wrote:
| In the past few weeks the homepage changed radically and
| basically broke recommendations for me, even when signed in. TBH
| I was kind of bothered how quickly it would adapt to what I was
| watching, pushing me quickly down rabbit holes. However, with the
| new change it does not seem to learn very quickly at all, and
| every time I go there the same dozen videos or so that I probably
| don't want to see (but don't want to mark "Not Interested") are
| there. It really can't take a hint.
|
| That, and it keeps finding away around my ad blocker. I used to
| use YouTube for jam/backing tracks to play guitar along to.
| That's completely broken if an ad interrupts it! Talking about
| dang frustrating.
| psacawa wrote:
| I use this technique of DOM filtering with uBlock to defeat
| "engagement" features and improve site experience a lot. My
| problem comes with pages where the HTML element classes are not
| semantic, but compiled by a tool like tailwind, e.g.
| <div class="erslblw0"> ... </div>
|
| For example, if you go to nytimes.com and use uBlock's 'zapper'
| to select an element to hide, you'll get a query selector like
| this: .erslblw0.css-163q563 > .css-13dv6mc
|
| These are dependent on the build, and can change day to day. Has
| any one come up with a solution for this situation, beyond
| painstakingly manually constructing positional CSS selectors
| (nth-of-type, etc..)?
| DeathArrow wrote:
| My problem is that I spend too much time on HN. :)
| j7ake wrote:
| I recently found a distraction-free youtube client which works
| very well:
|
| http://yt.dudzik.co/
|
| Problem is sometimes if you click on a generic youtube link, it
| won't automatically open up the link in the distraction-free
| client.
| reayn wrote:
| I personally find IdiotBox[1] to be better than this as it
| opens links in ad free youtube embeds and also links channel
| and other information alongside the video itself.
|
| P.S. you can replace the "watch?=" part of a youtube url with
| "/embed/" and get a distraction free view of the video.
|
| Or you could just open it in mpv or something.
|
| 1. https://codemadness.org/idiotbox
| mavhc wrote:
| So the recommendations are useless crap, but also the author
| keeps clicking on them? After the 10th time doing that didn't
| they learn better?
| johnsimer wrote:
| I simply installed a browser extension to block YouTube
| recommendations. Haven't surfed YouTube on my laptop since
|
| Phone is a different story tho
| [deleted]
| ochronus wrote:
| I was expecting a /etc/hosts entry :D
| octatrack wrote:
| Is there something that we can use on iOS to hide
| recommendations?
| matthewmueller wrote:
| Thanks for sharing this! I just implemented this.
|
| I didn't realize uBlock had this capability. It runs faster than
| other extensions I've tried. Cheers!
| pjc50 wrote:
| Android users may enjoy NewPipe: just lets you watch the video,
| no ads, no suggestions.
| loloquwowndueo wrote:
| The best way I've found to spend less time on YouTube is
| realizing that the vast majority of content is pure garbage and
| just stay the hell away from it. These days I only visit it when
| I need something specific (a tutorial on how to do a particular
| thing, a video the kid wants to watch, etc). And of course uBlock
| origin is enabled to spare me from the "unskippable ads that are
| longer than the video itself" experience.
| Enginerrrd wrote:
| Yeah it's exceedingly rare that better, more parseable
| information isn't available in text somewhere. Unfortunately
| though, it is becoming more common for people to make a video
| instead of a well written tutorial or guide or better
| documentation.
| Nextgrid wrote:
| My strategy is to have a curated list of subscriptions (in an
| RSS reader - I don't have a Google account) and just stick to
| those. I very rarely explore outside of that exactly for the
| reason you mention.
| sabjut wrote:
| While I agree that "the vast majority of content is pure
| garbage", I have to make an argument that a non-negligible
| portion of the site delivers high-quality educational videos
| with excellent research. The curiosity-seeking part of my brain
| is subject to being very easy to get hooked on this.
| scrollaway wrote:
| YouTube has some of the best, highest quality free content
| available on the internet today.
|
| Stay away from the crap, remove it from your recommendations,
| subscribe to some good channels. It's that simple.
|
| Don't if that's not your thing but you're missing out. If you
| change your mind here are a few exceptional channels to get you
| started, they should cater well to a HN style audience:
|
| Technology Connections (misc tech)
|
| Wendover Productions (Logistics)
|
| DefunctLand (Documentaries on old defunct stuff)
|
| Not Just Bikes (Cycling, public transport, urban design,
| walkability)
|
| Practical Engineering (civil engineering)
|
| 3Blue1Brown (Math)
| krallja wrote:
| Some of my highly recommended uncommon subscriptions:
|
| Cathode Ray Dude (really obscure 90s tech nostalgia)
|
| Techmoan (obscure old tech nostalgia)
|
| Jeremy Fielding (engineering)
|
| Hand Tool Rescue (antique restoration)
|
| Machine Thinking (history of technology/industry, especially
| pre-1900)
|
| Usagi Electric (vacuum tubes, minicomputers, etc.)
| MrGilbert wrote:
| +1 on Techmoan and Hand Tool Rescue
|
| I'd also like to throw
|
| - My Mate Vince (Tries to fix electronics, older toys etc)
|
| - Wristwatch Revival (Very long, very well narrated watch
| repair videos)
|
| in the ring.
| SenHeng wrote:
| Jeremy Fielding has a video series showing how he built an
| 6 motor Industrial Robot Arm from scratch. Includes welding
| and machining aluminum, electrical wiring and programming
| the controls for the motors.
|
| Definitely worth a watch.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4njCTv7IRbyf3XfhUcp
| _...
| cwkoss wrote:
| Kirsten Dirksen (tiny houses and alternative architecture)
| https://www.youtube.com/user/kirstendirksen/videos
|
| Matthias Wandel (wookworking)
| https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCckETVOT59aYw80B36aP9vw
| xondono wrote:
| Sabine Hossenfelder (physics and science) is now publishing
| quite regularly on youtube.
|
| Patrick Boyle (markets) is criminally undersubscribed IMO.
| mkaic wrote:
| I'd also add:
|
| Tom Scott (basically the human version of Atlas Obscura)
|
| SmarterEveryDay (Former missile flight test engineer who does
| deep dives into science topics he's curious about)
|
| ThinMatrix (indie game developer who's building a custom game
| engine and game from the ground up)
|
| Adam Neely (music theory)
|
| Jan Misali (linguistics and obscura)
|
| Numberphile (math)
|
| PBS SpaceTime (physics)
|
| Simone Giertz (engineering)
|
| Journey to the Microcosmos (microbiology)
|
| Cody's Lab (all sorts of stuff, but he's currently in the
| multi-year process of building his own freaking Mars habitat)
|
| Ian Hubert (indie filmmaker who creates better work than most
| of hollywood, including absolutely massive CGI projects)
| TheRealNGenius wrote:
| I personally disagree with the Wendover rec. Sure, they talk
| about logistics, but I find that they offer little to no new
| information that you couldn't glean from a cursory Google
| search. Sure it might not be something I knew about, and I
| might be interested in it every so often, but they clearly
| prioritize quantity of quality. Since they often cover random
| topics, I find myself questioning why I should even care.
| whalesalad wrote:
| The bar is certainly lower. Lots of stuff that amounts to a
| PowerPoint presentation full of stock art/video with poor
| narration.
| redthrow wrote:
| I find that uBlock Origin (or Brave) isn't enough for YouTube.
|
| If you use Piped [0] you can only watch the updates from
| channels you are subscribed to without ads, intro,
| sponsors/promo etc.
|
| [0] https://piped.kavin.rocks
| celsoazevedo wrote:
| That site is using Sponsor Block:
|
| https://sponsor.ajay.app/
| avhon1 wrote:
| ...which, for those not familiar, is available as a browser
| extension. It crowdsources timestamps for non-necessary
| parts of youtube videos, and can automatically fetch those
| timestamps and skip over them in videos you're watching.
| redthrow wrote:
| ...and since Piped a webapp with account signups, it
| works on mobile browser as well without any extensions
| and you can manage channel subscriptions as well.
| tomkat0789 wrote:
| Just implemented this! Thanks for posting! For those who don't
| click, he suggests some uBlock Origin filters to remove the
| suggestion lists from YouTube. For example, currently I'm
| watching a video and all I see is THE VIDEO - no list of
| suggestions off to the side.
|
| I guess we can say YouTube's suggestions are "too good"! I might
| just apply this to my work computer. I'll probably keep them
| around for my casual viewing on personal machines since I find
| some new stuff with them.
|
| It'll be interesting to see how this changes my browsing!
| pawurb wrote:
| Glad to hear you find it useful!
| proxygeek wrote:
| Can confirm this approach works, based on my experience over
| just year or so. Have not blocked the landing page
| recommendations but I'm never logged in. And so they default
| videos are so outside of my taste, it's easy to ignore.
|
| Still, sometimes i actively go on actively binging one video
| after another (from Veritassium, for example). But that's on
| me :)
| [deleted]
| mediocregopher wrote:
| PSA for all, you can go into your YouTube settings and disable
| Search History (and a bunch of other things? It's been a while),
| and surprisingly the algorithm more or less respects that. It
| completely neuters the algorithm, it won't target you worth a
| damn, and YouTube becomes a lot less engaging overall. Highly
| recommend for everyone.
| gpvos wrote:
| I only get the option to disable that when I've completely
| deleted my (Youtube/Google) cookies. If later I go to the
| Settings, it wants me to log in (which I am not going to do).
| Does anyone here known which button lets me revisit these
| settings without logging in?
| tryauuum wrote:
| Pretty much. My life went downhill after I discovered that I
| had disabled search history and re-enabled it
| funOtter wrote:
| I turn off "viewing history" and then only subscribe to the
| channels I am interested in, and ONLY visit
| https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions
| asdff wrote:
| Take it a step even further and just follow these channels via
| RSS and watch with mpv. Don't even point the browser to the
| site at all.
| 1121redblackgo wrote:
| I appreciate the post. Implemented it and immediately I feel like
| I am off the attention treadmill that youtube puts me on. Thanks
| PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
| Are there any tools that will download either the metadata or
| even the entire video from my YT subscriptions, and that just
| runs natively on my Linux system (i.e. no Docker/container stuff)
| ? Something I could look at that isn't YT but would show me the
| latest (if any) stuff from channel's I've expressed interest in?
|
| I've seen tubearchivist and tubesync, mentioned below, and these
| just don't operate with the sort of technology I'm comfortable
| with.
| treacle wrote:
| Never managed to get stuck in a Youtube rabbit hole, as my
| hardware has been so utterly useless.
| kgwxd wrote:
| I "subscribe" to any channel I think is decent, supposedly it
| helps their numbers, but I rarely use the YouTube interface to
| figure out what to watch next. My real subscription list is my
| RSS reader and I'm highly selective about what goes in there.
| When I do watch something on the site, I habitually put it in
| theater mode right away, which hides the suggestions. I'm sure
| lots of people would set theater mode as the default if it were
| an option. I'm sure it's not on purpose.
| tomlue wrote:
| I got off yt after seeing how much time I was losing with a time
| tracking app.
| gpvos wrote:
| I've found that recently, when I disable search customization and
| video history, Youtube indeed appears to not remember previous
| videos I've seen and to recommend only videos related to the one
| that just ended, and I'm fine with that.
| treacle wrote:
| In the article there is mention of using ublock to block
| elements. I didn't even know this was a thing. I zapped the
| recommendations block on home as suggested in the article.
|
| How do you review what you have blocked/removed and re-add it?
| ask_b123 wrote:
| Go to the settings and the My Filters tab. Your latest added
| filter should be at the bottom.
| MeinBlutIstBlau wrote:
| What I do to minimize the trash heap of sponsored content on the
| homepage is I have a youtube bookmark to my channel. It's empty
| and has no videos. Then if I wanna see something, I just type it
| in. I don't have to see a single piece of content I'm not
| interested in at that moment.
|
| Also you could just use enhancer for youtube to hide sidebar
| content.
| alvarlagerlof wrote:
| This is the way. Only subscriptions.
| mlboss wrote:
| I use chrome plugins that hide recommendations.
| sixothree wrote:
| I am going to be the voice of dissent here. In September my OTA
| antenna fell and I never put it back up. I have Netflix but I
| usually don't watch it.
|
| What I spend most of my time on is YouTube and I consider that
| time to be quality time. I like falling asleep to Adrian's
| Digital Basement.
| marbu wrote:
| The main problem with youtube is lack of control. I would pay
| youtube if it allowed me to fully control and monitor how it
| works so that I can fine tune it's behaviour to fit _my_ needs.
|
| For example I would like to:
|
| - disable recommendations in some contexts (similar to how OP
| does it)
|
| - label videos and let youtube to classify videos into these set
| of labels, so that I can either block of filter videos
| accordingly (eg. I could label certain videos as "junk" and would
| keep those hidden unless I really want to see such videos)
|
| - search by video length, eg. show me only talks which takes
| about an hour
|
| - say, show me something I found entertaining, but I have just
| half an hour, so that after the time is up, it no longer shows
| such stuff
|
| - setup a "watch budget time" to spend or disable service during
| certain time periods
|
| - see metrics about my watch behaviour, so that I can fine tune
| youtube options accordingly
|
| I would be even ok for youtube to show me some ads based on my
| behaviour, if I have some control over it. Eg. disable ads with
| too small target group or ads I find annoying.
|
| And while there could be some monetization options (eg. you
| configure your account not to show you something or don't provide
| service in given timerange - but you would be able to cancel that
| for a fee :-)) I doubt that it would make sense for them from
| business perspective: it would decrease the value of the
| advertising they are selling while it would cost a lot. So in the
| end I'm not sure if I would be able the real price of all this.
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