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.
Mozilla + UBlock means ad free YouTube.
I don’t have the app on any device because I don’t do ads. If you go ad free, then you will start to notice significant changes in you mental wellbeing inside of -10min of ad hits. I wish that was hyperbole, but it is not.
There is good content on YT, but it’s stuff you’ve already discovered. The algorithm and thumbnails are trash. And it’s rarely in the shorts section.
You can use ReVanced to add a block to the android app. It’s as as free as my desktop experience with Firefox+uBlockOrigin.
YouTube still isn’t ad-free like that. They devote SO much of the screen to advertisements for other YouTube videos.
I have an browser extension to remove those and haven’t seen ANY ads on YouTube in years.
I’m working on moving to brave or ddg, but rn on google chrome :( but I use stands, just btw
I agree, no ads is so much better for my wellbeing too. Stands says ‘48 mins total’ (it’s total is for how long the window’s open, iirc)
As much as I would like to ditch it, there really isn’t a good equivalent. Peertube and Nebula don’t have the amount of content I’m intetested in.
On any social media platform, subjecting yourself to their algorithm is a really bad idea anyway. I treat YouTube like Imgur, I don’t browse the site unless some interesting content link sends me there. Suggestions and auto play are off in my Newpipe with Sponsorblock. I stick to handpicked videos or my curated subscriptions only.
I really hope Peertube becomes more popular amongst content creators.
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
English is my native language and I rely a lot on spell check.
Same here. Why do bologna and pony rhyme, but though and through don’t? And yacht has a ch and so on and so forth.
I before e, except after c, or when it says “ay” like in neighbours and weigh. Weird.
Try reading the poem “The Chaos” by Gerard Nolst Trenité
I’m sending this to my English teacher
No
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 use a private invidious instance for the stuff I need to access Youtube for. And peertube for everything else
Peertube has no content whatsoever. The current best option for privacy is using invidious mirrors.
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!”).
Using apps like Grayjay or Newpipe allow you to just subscribe to certain channels and don’t see any recommendations at all. I haven’t used the YT algorithm in years and also don’t get any ads. Instead, I just watch the content creators I like and nothing else. On grayjay you can also add other services like Nebula, so the variety is even higher. I really don’t get how people can watch YT with the algorithm and with ads, but it seems too much effort for most people to look for alternatives.
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.
Ublock on Firefox = the same results
with a much higher pool of good content.Honestly, if all you’re seeing is click bait that’s a You issue
uBlock or Brave blocks normal ads, including the banners and injected commercials.
SponsorBlock blocks in-video sponsor mentions.
DeArrow removes clickbait thumbnails and replaces them with random frames from the video, and switches clickbait titles to crowdsourced descriptive titles.
I’d leave too if those stopped working, but they work for now.
Edit: And if you are on android, revanced does all of the above. Thanks for reminding us, StarlingUK
I’m amazed dearrow is so aggressive with their attempt at monetization. Usually these addon devs ask for donations rather than trying to squeeze you for a buck or playing waiting games.
It is a bit unusual.
How do I upload video to Lemmy?
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
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.
