Probably true from about 10 years ago.
Really? It feels like theres a lot less diversity of thought on the internet now. I used to be able to jump on stumbleupon and find a website about psilocybin, or someone’s insane ramblings about the new world order. Now its all just crap. Used to be the world was too far away, used to be the stars didn’t have much to say.
The internet was best when noone could see qhat you looked like, or your name. Pure thought
On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog
looks around
like… here?
I think that’s what they mean, but it’s not a well written headline.
On Apple: safari + AdGuard
Or: Orion browser
Thanks for Orion tip, didn’t know that
People use the youtube app?
Yeah people use all sorts of stuff that you don’t. Wild, isn’t it?
Lol haven’t used the app for like at least 7 years? Maybe even 10 years. Haven’t used the app as soon as I learned what an adblocker is, using uBlock Origin on Firefox.
I don’t “subscribe” to anyone either, I just keep a list of everyone who I wanna watch and check everyone channel like once every 3 days. Takes like 3 minutes to go through the list of like around 20 channels. No accounts, all done over a no-log VPN to a privacy-friendly country.
keep showing viewers the videos that we think they’ll love
We’ll keep profiling you and target you with videos that drive engagement, so largely things that inspire rage or conflict between you and others. Extra points if we drive your political and social views further to the right.
I got rid of YT and replaced it with PeerTube and Nebula. Am I a bit less entertained? Sure. Am I a lot less angry? Yup.
I’m also learning a lot more because I was forced to find new content and new creators which was actually really fun.
Nebula has certainly improved but I still think they need to put more effort into getting new creators that aren’t political or news. I just did a skim through their uploads lists for various topics and news and/or political (or political ish) content is still the most active. Topics like technology and gaming see far less uploads.
It’s a side effect of the “no algorithm” philosophy. Without anything to suggest what you might like generating high amounts of new content let’s you dominate the feed. News is easy to generate on a daily basis.
The thoughtful channel that puts out a video once every two weeks gets on the feed once every two weeks. Then low effort garbage like man carrying things gets on the feed every day.
They need to at least let users block channels from their feed.
i’ve got a yt channel i woulda loved to get on nebula, but it’s some kinda invite only system and i didn’t get an invite.
i’m super over yt and the $130 a month i get from them…. $130(ish) for a 50 hour a week job.
Why did YT make you angry? I haven’t experienced it yet. I block content I’m not interested in and it goes away.
taking a guess but I already saw some other comments on another thread mention this: The chart boys in any corps will see Engagement == Profit. Thus they will tune their recommendations solely for that. And if you aren’t bothered about properly policing your video upload platform the end result is highly divisive content thats “not boring”.
Divisive content makes people angry so they engage in comments.
i used to be on reddit. And I used to get into “debates” that devolved into a slap fight and make me angry about the people who intentionally or unintentionally riled me up with outrageous (real or my own perception) opinions.
While lemmy also has slap fights, I feel like the lack of an “algorithm” tuned for engagement prevents continuous fueling of the fire, metaphorically speaking.
sounds like you made some big progress in life
it may not seem like it but… being offline is the best thing you can do to your mental health. No need to overwhelm your brain with stuff happening elsewhere when you already have to deal with stuff closer to home. Being aware is generally better than being ignorant but it shouldn’t disable your daily life.
I block content I’m not interested in and it goes away.
I agree with this idea, but unfortunately YT and other engagement social media sites don’t want that to happen. For me, I’m almost never shown videos I hate, but when I say “not interested/don’t show me this channel” it USUALLY works. Not at the time though. I’ve definitely gotten channels recommended to me that I already said I don’t want to see.
This is especially true for my mom, who is frequently getting upset by the fact that YT keeps showing her Fox News and Asmongold clips in her recommendations. I think changing the VPN to Canada helped to reduce the Fox News recommendations, but the Asmongold clips can’t be escaped.
It’s so weird. 6 months ago I hadn’t heard of that guy, but suddenly in the last month he’s showing up in my feed.
That’s so interesting re your mother. I wonder if her beliefs closely align to fox and asmongold (never heard of that one), but are different enough for her to not be interested in that content. Ie: ven diagram between the belief systems, except the differences are big enough for her to not to like fox content but for the algorithm the commonalities are good enough to keep suggesting the content.
No, she absolutely hates right-wing content and is definitely left. Asmongold is a grifter piece of shit human being who attracts alt-right viewers. It’s not about her not being interested, she quite literally gets upset at the awful ideas and hate that those channels spread and doesn’t want to see them. She never watches their videos on purpose, she’s only ever clicked on them by accident, she always either clicks away immediately or dislikes the video, and never comments on them. She has repeatedly tried to block those channels. YT continues to show them.
Disliking the video is engagement, that’s probably why they show up every so often. It’s basically the algorithm saying “hey, can I suck you into an anger spiral today? No? Ok, I’ll try again later.”
YT, really Google, is just not a company I want to support. YT as a platform is not something I want to support by using. Also, data reasons.
What is Nebula? Is it literally just a YouTube alternative, or is there more to it? I did some googling and couldn’t find much. But they do seem to have a few creators I like.
its a paid platform where engagement (i.e bickering in the comments section) is near absent. And the content is allowed to address themes that make main stream media blush.
Youtube alternative with focus on educational creators. It doesn’t have an engagement algorithm and it claims to compensate creators better.
any peertube creators you can recommend that make long form highly edited content?
I mostly watch folks like the Linux Experiment and Veronica Explains and Oh the Urbanity. I’ve had more luck on Nebula but I am trying to sort of “put up or shut up” by interacting with the platforms that I want to succeed. Ya know? So I just browse peer tube a lot and give random videos a shot.
They’ve removed down notes, date posted in placeholders, and the ability to properly alter monetization the way you want to…seems like a competitive product could pop in at any time. Sadly, the only competition would have to come from another equally shitty company with a massive infrastructure footprint.
Any iOS alternatives? The ad experience is not great.
Firefox focus, it’s a browser with only 1 tab and built in Adblock.
AltStore + YTLitePlus
Andy Warhol was so close, in the future everyone won’t be famous for 15 minutes. Instead everyone will be famous to 15 people.
Huzzah!
