Comment by Insanity

20 days ago

I stopped watching short form content last year. I’m not on instagram/X etc, only on YouTube.

My only annoyance is that YouTube still insists on shoving them in my face on the app homepage even though I don’t watch them. It just requires a modicum of willpower now not to click and go down the rabbit hole, which I’ll occasionally fail at.

I blocked them from my suggestions page with ublock origin

  • Yeah but that doesn’t work in the app, or does it?

    • I'm on Android and I use "one sec" with "In app distractions" enabled for YouTube. no idea how it works but when I click on the shorts tab or any shorts in my feed (in the app, not website), it immediately gets blocked by a heroic looking polar bear saying "No shorts for you!". I believe it can block some other in app stuff like reels in instagram as well

    • It doesn't. I "worked around" that by setting a 5 minute daily timer for youtube on my phone - just enough to mark a few regular videos as "Watch Later". Gives me an incentive to scroll past the shorts.

I suggest to use the browser even on phones and tablets. Once you get used to YouTube with extensions you realise how aggressive and enshittified the app is