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.
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
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.
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!
I feel like I have a very different experience of YouTube than most people on here. UBlock on desktop and Revanced on mobile means no ads / sponsored bits, which is absolutely essential. But I also don’t have a problem with the dreaded ‘algorithm’.
I don’t know if it’s the kinds of videos I watch (nothing political, or popular) or just not being in the US, but I don’t get recommended AI slop or crazy propaganda. I just looked through the Home feed the app, looks like half of it is channels I’ve subscribed to and most of the rest is channels I’ve watched recently but haven’t subscribed to. There’s a couple of videos from channels I don’t reconognise, so they could be weird slop but that’s not the vibe I’m getting at all, and if I clicked and they were I’d just tag it “Don’t Recommend this Channel”.
Disapproving of YouTube because it’s an evil hegemon makes sense. Supporting alternatives is great (I pay for nebula, even though I end up mostly watching the creators’ videos on YouTube). But I’m always curious about why other people seem to have such a terrible experience of the algorithm.
The algorithm recommends things it thinks you’ll like or have watched before. So if its recommending AI slop, it’s because you’re watching AI slop already. People just refuse to take the time to “train” your algorithm (and this isn’t just YouTube, it’s all algorithmic based platforms). You like / dislike stuff, hide things, give feedback, etc, and eventually you only really see the stuff you actually want to see. Sure some things slip through but 🤷♀️ I use YouTube and will continue to only bc the people I watch don’t post anywhere else, unfortunately.
I feel like I have a very different experience of YouTube than most people on here. UBlock on desktop and Revanced on mobile means no ads / sponsored bits, which is absolutely essential. But I also don’t have a problem with the dreaded ‘algorithm’.
i do something similar with the adblocking and it think its the 3rd biggest reason why i haven’t yet completely degoogled myself since youtube is a nice experience without that enshitification.
i also use firefox’s containerization feature and that along with only viewing my subscriptions list seems to help with the algorithmic recommendation creep of fluff & propaganda.
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.
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.
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.
You can use ReVanced to add a block to the android app. It’s as as free as my desktop experience with Firefox+uBlockOrigin.
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.
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.
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.
I use a private invidious instance for the stuff I need to access Youtube for. And peertube for everything else
How is Nebula? It has some creators that I like, but does it have a good mobile app?
I like it a lot. A lot of the YouTubers I watch are in there and I found some other channels I enjoy and their original series jetlag is great.
If you have hoopla with your library you can check if they have binge passes for nebula to check the channels and the app (I only use it on my android phone with mostly no issues). I can also send you a guest pass for a free week if you’d like, just DM me your email
I’ll just try it. I don’t need a guest pass, I can just pay for it.
Nebula is invite only for posting videos.
That’s fine as long as there’s enough content. I prefer long form content which I know they host.
Zionist, unfortunately.
How do I upload video to Lemmy?
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.
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
Revanced has incorporated DeArrow.
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.
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
Been using FreeTube for a bit now w/ GraphineOS, and my Linux Desktop. Runs cookieless embed of YouTube videos and Invidious instances built in. Localized subscriptions and playlists, which can be imported in from Google Takeout; no recommendations page. Occasionally YT will block your IP, which is where a good VPN comes into play so you could switch on the fly, and for overall additional privacy hygiene.
I would love to drop YT all together, but some independent journalists I follow are all there who’s coverage is really on the pulse. It pays to be informed by good journalists these days, and many of them are unfortunately on YT.
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
