this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2024
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Today in a Privacy community a post about YouTube. No word about privacy but all about which software or settings are needed to watch videos and the money needed to host videos. It made me wonder whether some of you can lead a meaningful life without YouTube. Or will a cold turkey bring the worst out of you ?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

Why would you want to live without the biggest video platform? I learn so so so much there. Wish there was berry decentralized options as the current ones are all very thin on content.

Why would leaving YouTube bring out the worst in anyone? Is this what the OP fears of the self? I don’t get it. The entire Internet has many issues and one could hair avoid entirely and live just fine, but the trade offs are just not worth it even with the privacy concerns.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

I could, but why would I? That makes no sense from a social perspective, if someone links me a video and we want to talk about it, I'll watch it. If a person whose content I want to see happens to release that on YouTube, I'll watch it.

Unless you meant it another way?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

I guess yes. I use it from time to time via NewPipe to look up some bike repair stuff but I guess I could easily find that somewhere else in the web. But I think this could be a generation thing, I know many people only a few years younger who absolutely depend on random internet people explaining the news to them in video format or stuff like that.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

It would be tough in the beginning but sure. I’ve watched everything interesting anyw… oh what’s that? Another rabbit hole!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I've been paying for Nebula account for a while now. It's got high quality stuff and it's owned by creators making the content.

There's also peertube and other fedi variants.

Works great for me, I don't feel like I need YouTube or I'm missing out on important stuff.

NewPipe/Piped to watch occasional video linked from an article.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

I probably could if i had to, that’s what i tell myself at least. For now though it’s my primary source of entertainment.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

I don’t use YouTube at all.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

i dunno, especially the music is really vast availability of full albums etc. Youtube + ublock is kinda my go to music. Used to search and store gigabytes, but it's just not the same, not as easy. If youtube dies (ergo: it succeeds in blocking adblocking and third party such as newpipe), i'll have a hard time finding alternatives tbh, that are just as user friendly.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 8 months ago (4 children)

The majority of the online entertainment for me is YouTube, so I probably couldn't just quit it. I bailed on reddit to come here, but reddit was only 2-3 hours a day, YouTube is like 10+ hours a day for me.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

YouTube is perfect for me for music videos and educational stuff. Medium format stuff. Too long for TikTok, too short for TV.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 8 months ago

No, i'll die. What a question

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

I sometimes take music from there to add to my offline collection, other than that I very rarely use it.

Everything I need can be found somewhere else

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

The only thing I use it for is Dreaming Spanish, and it's months since I've watched any of that content, so I'll say yeah, I think I'll be ok in a world without Youtube

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Especially with the Premium algorithm, it's just so good at finding super niche stuff that's pretty interesting. Been watching some Netflix shaming levels of documentaries made by super passionate people.

I kind of hate the privacy nightmare but it actually delivers really well for me.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Does Premium actually use a different recommendation algorithm?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

I've been on it for way too long to know, but when I added my wife to my family plan she commented on the immediate increase in suggestion quality. Although it could also just be less junk/ads in the front page, I don't think it's advertised as a feature.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

I wouldn't really miss it all that much. I've always treated YouTube as a fun novelty where I can watch people's homemade videos, but it's almost all polished commercial grade content now, with some exceptions.

Those software and settings that make it tolerable, such as Tubular and using uBO/Sponsorblock/Firefox, are extremely easy to find and use. But I wouldn't miss it all that much if it became unusable.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 months ago

Yes/no.

I lived without YouTube / a Google account for years.

But I still use YouTube through a privacy respecting frontend:
https://www.privacyguides.org/en/frontends/#youtube

I usually go for:

  • On desktop: Invidious or Piped
  • On Android: Tubular or NewPipe
[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

Yeah it’s undeniable that YouTube is getting difficult to get rid of. There do exist some alternatives like Vimeo or peertube, but as others say, lack of content is their biggest problem. Using alternative frontend is relying on YouTube after all, so there’s no way we can live without it, unless they do something very horrible, like what Reddit did to us.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

Vimeo is explicitly not competing with youtube

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Not really. Most of the content I watch is from there, from tech stuff to history and current news

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

I only really use Youtube to watch like a couple specific channels and sometimes to look up music. I could easily fill that space with something else.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago

lack of content from other competitors

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