Unsubscribed from all clickbait YouTube channels and mental health has improved 😌

Off Topic
1

A while back I deleted all my social media accounts… except for YouTube. So I did a thing the other day and unsubscribed from every YouTube channel with click-bait titles and thumbnails.

The core pattern is promising value while withholding specifics, forcing a watch to fill the information gap… and then delivering very little or nothing of value.

I can tell you now that just in the last few days since what I call the “Big Channel Purge,” my mental health has improved significantly. It’s like a cloud has lifted and I’m starting to think more clearly and positively.

I use and pay to support Futo’s Grayjay app and have disabled the Home tab. I also have DeArrow enabled. Besides the comedy channels I subscribe to :upside_down_face:, my Subscriptions tab now only contains a feed from curated channels that use short and honest descriptive titles so I can easily tell whether something is relevant to me or not. No more fake suspense.

I know there is a filter to hide YouTube Shorts (which I also already have enabled), but it’s got me thinking of writing a script or creating a filter to block content with click-bait titles. Is there anything like this that already exists?

Anyone else done something similar and purged click-bait content? What strategies have you used? Have you noticed an improvement in your overall mental health?

15 Likes
“Thank You” Privacy Guide Heroes
2

I am only following some Japanese walking channels, plus 1-2 language channels. For the rest I am doing manual search when I need to watch something. I am not liking or subscribing to anything else. My history is also purged regularly.

1 Like
3

I haven’t had ‘social’ media for nearly a decade now. There is nothing social about it. I also don’t have YouTube and have blocked it entirely.

I guess so, from memory. I’m not interested in ‘social’ media because humans are meant to be social and ‘social’ media isn’t social. I socialise with real people, maintain my privacy and don’t have to listen to people with blue hair preach to all and sundry about how everyone should be living their lives or updating us on how they find everything offensive.

So: yes. I guess. Ignorance is bliss.

1 Like
4

Youtube, instagram, reddit… are source of anxiety and depression for many people.

That’s why I prefer to collaborate on this forum, where there less toxicity.

8 Likes
5

I would not call it ignorance. It more about choosing to listen-watch people with signifiance.

Not ignorance, for but rather resistance to algorigthm and stupid influencers trying to brainwash me :grinning_face:

3 Likes
6

It’s crazy the quality difference in comments on mainstream sites vs forums like this and HN.

I am almost always disappointed with comments on YouTube or Reddit. I don’t think the people commenting are somehow less smart, it’s just that the platforms influence effort, manners, and what gets rewarded heavily.

3 Likes
7

This also extends to comments online in other factions. Even the national and local newspapers. They aren’t necessary and should be turned off for all, not just selectively. Of course, they won’t, because it creates clickbait.

If anyone wants to live a normal life, do not use ‘social’ media. This includes the likes of YouTube. I’d like to say “pick up a newspaper” (in the traditional sense), but when you come to learn the level of political slant and outright false information, you’re better off getting your ‘news’ from non mainstream, foreign outlets.

4 Likes
8

Solid move

The only ‘influencer’ I’m watching on YT is that guy with 200 views in 8 years, showing me where the damn secret screw holding my cabin air filter in place under the dash is, saving me 20 more minutes and further leg cramps trying to contort into that position. THAT guy is the one who deserves to make a few bucks off his YouTube

For those big ‘influencers’ I only know thru references elsewhere & here like PuttyPie or whoever, who needs them. IMHO, they contribute nothing worthwhile to society. Myself not feeding them with views & subscription? Priceless

3 Likes
9

My history

I have made similar experiences as you. I used to spend far too much time on random YouTube videos or channels that I followed. It wasted so much of my time and in hindsight didn’t give me any value. I would say my time spent there was approaching a concerning/problematic level. That said, I have never really watched or used any other streaming services, TV or social media.

Still, at some point I wanted to reduce my time on YouTube and started to make multiple “channel purges”, where I would review and clean up my subscriptions. I noticed small improvements, similar to those you described, but honestly after a few weeks I was back at the point where I started.

I have thought about quitting YouTube completely, and I admire people who have the willpower and discipline to follow this through. However, unlike seemingly many people here, I think that it is okay to keep it. To me there are definitely some channels and videos that bring me real value.

So, after a lot of experimenting I have found a strategy that works well for me:

My strategy

  • Most important: Keep the UI minimal. Hide all kinds of YouTube recommendations (this includes shorts page). Only watch subscribed channels or “on-demand”, where you explicitly have to search for a specific video or channel when you have actually have the need or time for it.
  • Subscribe only to channels that bring real value, i.e. quality channels that teach you something you want to learn, broaden your horizon, news channels, introduce you to a hobby you want to start, or motivate you. All comedy, entertainment, gaming, clickbait channels or channels that uploaded too often, with too low quality or with to many ads were purged from my subscription list. Sometimes you have to really differentiate and be strict, because on the surface some channels/videos look and feel like they are educational, but when think about it, it’s actually just entertainment.
  • Continue to regularly clean your subscriptions list and keep overall subscription count low.

By now, I am at about 30 subscriptions from which about half are only bookmarks of inactive channels I want to “save for later”.

Tool recommendations

Disclaimer: The tools I am about to recommend might not necessarily always be the best option privacy-/security-wise (especially the browser extensions). Use at your own risk, according to your threat model.

On android, the app that I can recommend most for this is LibreTube. It lets you hide everything except the subscription page and even includes Sponsorblock, optionally DeArrow. You can choose if you want to connect to official YouTube servers or specify a Piped instance. Also, it has an integrated video/audio downloader, but you can also change it to an external downloader like YTDLnis (which I can also recommend).

On the desktop, I don’t have found a “perfect” solution for me yet. A good tool is, FreeTube. I think it has similar features to LibreTube, however the UI feels a bit clunky for me. Additionally, there are terminal UIs, like YouTube TUI, which I think are very interesting but I haven’t really tried them out yet.

For watching videos in the browser on the official YouTube website, I can recommend the following extensions:

  • uBlock Origin (obviously, blocks youtube ads)
  • RYS - Remove YouTube Suggestions (to customize UI and hide all recommendations) (note: recently it introduced some non-free features, might need to look for replacement)
  • Sponsorblock (blocks sponsor, intro, outro, filler video segments based on crowdsourced time-stamps)

Personally I don’t have a need for DeArrow, since I already cleaned my subscription list accordingly. In the past, I have also experimented with creating filters or blocking of channels with BlockTube, but I realized that it is nothing for me. The tool works fine, but I think it is too time consuming to maintain your lists and it will still always be prone to errors, it reduces load speed and it’s simply not necessary, if you just hide everything you don’t subscribed to.

4 Likes
10

A low-tech thing that helps is separating “subscriptions” from “recommendations”. I like keeping a small list of channels I deliberately chose, then opening YouTube only from that list or from search. It is less clever than a filter, but for a household it is easier to maintain: if the home feed and Shorts are not part of the routine, there is much less to fight against.

1 Like
11

Yes, that’s good, I used to have my self hosted RSS reader track my YouTube subscriptions. Nice to have all sources of news delivered into one central place.

1 Like
12

Maybe I should unsubscribe too a few channels. :melting_face: nah I’m not addicted.

Screenshot_20260628-222651_1
Screenshot_20260628-222651_1549×345 1.96 KB

1 Like
13

What I do is apply filters based on known patterns at different levels. For example: if I’m reading something I already know, I read it fast or skip it, saving time without it affecting my mindset. If I enter unknown territory and it catches my attention, I start thinking and make a decision based on the context, the situation, the time, and what’s involved. If it’s viable, I go in; if not, I just keep moving, depending on the situation.

This applies to YouTube, Reddit, etc.

How does it help you? It saves time—you no longer read or listen to the same stuff because you know it by heart (unless you want to read or listen through those moments since sometimes you might overlook something, no matter how small). You skip the noise, you go straight to what you’re looking for or want (if applicable), you don’t stress out or get nervous, and overall, it doesn’t take a toll on your health.

Here are two examples:

1. In real life: They’re watching you with street cameras, I just act normal and don’t stress about it.
2. On the internet: There’s a lot of noise on Reddit, I look for what catches my eye and observe. If there’s something valuable to take, I take it; if not, I walk away empty-handed. No problem.

1 Like
14

I used to watch a lot of videos, but recently I find that they’re so long to get to the point when an article lets you determine its quality faster.

It’s still good for entertainment, just not the best for information.

1 Like
15

Not creating any YouTube account to begin with.

The existence of YouTube does not change my state of mental health, regardless of whether I and/or others use it or not. It carries very little weight, so there is little weight dropping it entirely as well.

16

I experimented with FreeTube, LibreTube, NewPipe, Invidious accounts, DFtube (Firefox extension). I like the local subscription model as opposed to a YT account, and alternative frontends to filter out the clickbait and unnecessary recommendations. But I found that still I ended up wasting too much time on YT.

I just got rid of subscriptions completely. I figure if a channel is important enough for me, I will remember about it and look it up when I want to do that. Then I use one of those alternatives frontends/extensions when I do want to access YT.

Same with RSS, I like the model but ultimately it turns into a list of stuff I feel compelled to review and/or a distraction.

1 Like
17

Since I mostly watch YT on the phone in the browser, could someone tell me if its possible to block certain channels or types of content there?

1 Like
18

This sounds like a great idea!

1 Like
19

I have a similar problem. Right now, I have 357 items to read/watch and 311 of them are from lobste.rs.

1 Like
20

The good thing about YouTube is that it has an inbuilt consumer protection for us. The one time I tried to create a YouTube account, it wouldn’t let me because the way I tried it revealed to less PII so YouTube asked me to verify via their stupid SMS QR code verification. Of course, I refused to do that.

1 Like