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.
  • guymontag@lemmy.ml
    1·
    4 days ago

    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.

  • Crozekiel@lemmy.zipEnglish
    2·
    1 month ago

    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!”).

  • Zephorah@discuss.online
    2·
    1 month ago

    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.

    • Creat@discuss.tchncs.de
      2·
      1 month ago

      You can use ReVanced to add a block to the android app. It’s as as free as my desktop experience with Firefox+uBlockOrigin.

      • starlinguk@lemmy.world
        2·
        1 month ago

        Revanced is the best. I don’t get why people keep recommending Peertube, Revanced is vastly superior and you can also use it to nerf other apps.

    • Fuck u/spez@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      1 month ago

      Plus, SponsorBlock takes care of baked-in ads, DeArrow gets rid of those thumbnails, and just blocking the “Home” feed with any number of other extensions and using only the subscriptions tab gets rid of all the algorithmic content once you also block suggestions.

      OP, YouTube is shit but they still mostly let you de-shittify. Enjoy it while it lasts.

    • Camille_Jamal@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      27 days ago

      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)

    • FoundFootFootage78@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      1 month ago

      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.

  • sakuraba@lemmy.ml
    2·
    1 month ago

    OP, be frank, did ChatGPT wrote this? Or am I being just paranoid of em dashes and that format?

  • Ada@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    1·
    1 month ago

    I use a private invidious instance for the stuff I need to access Youtube for. And peertube for everything else

  • cRazi_man@europe.pub
    1·
    1 month ago

    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.

  • Hikermick@lemmy.world
    0·
    1 month ago

    For some reason i haven’t seen an ad on YouTube since April. I didn’t sign up and still get an occasional pop up about a free trial. Not sure what happened