Effective ways to block short-form content?

Question

When TikTok first came out, I tried it and unambiguously thought "I am too old for this, this is not good for me, I don't like this"Fast forward to today and Facebook, Youtube, and Instagram have all effectively become TikTok. If I have some downtime to watch a youtube video or check what my friends are up to on instagram, I inevitably get sucked into forever-scrolling short-form video content.I realize there is a will-power component to this, but I'm losing the war. I don't want to give up Youtube completely just to avoid the scrolling.I have tried a few Chrome extensions but have not found any that reliably work. I also use an iPhone.Looking for tools or tips/tricks to avoid the rabbit hole.

threecheese · Accepted Answer

With YouTube, I&rsquo;m right there with ya. I intentionally have zero engagement with YT shorts, and if given the chance I will opt to &ldquo;not recommend&rdquo;. I am not sure if this has done anything to reduce the amount of Shorts I&rsquo;m shown, but I can say that they haven&rsquo;t pushed them any harder.I&rsquo;ve purchased a subscription for the &ldquo;Play&rdquo; app, which can ingest channels and playlists. I use this for dedicated/planned watching (learning stuff) and am hoping to expand that: Shorts aren&rsquo;t the only addicting feature imo. Indie developer, he is active on Mastodon (and very friendly). Heck, I might have come across the app here.

undopamine · Answer

Did you try the UnTrap extension for Youtube? It can block shorts, infinite feed, related videos, even comments if you wanna go extreme.

bloomingkales · Answer

You need to reframe what&rsquo;s going on man. I have a really negative take on social media that you can use if it helps you. I believe social media is basically children&rsquo;s TV programming that dysfunctional adults don&rsquo;t grow out of. It&rsquo;s literally the same as being stunted in growth.

solardev · Answer

On the desktop, I use uBlacklist to completely block YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, videos, and AI crap from Google. It makes the results a lot more usable.

Alex-Programs · Answer

Look up filters for ublock origin.https://github.com/gijsdev/ublock-hide-yt-shortsGood luck!

Effective ways to block short-form content?

Did you try the UnTrap extension for Youtube? It can block shorts, infinite feed, related videos, even comments if you wanna go extreme.

You need to reframe what’s going on man. I have a really negative take on social media that you can use if it helps you. I believe social media is basically children’s TV programming that dysfunctional adults don’t grow out of. It’s literally the same as being stunted in growth.

On the desktop, I use uBlacklist to completely block YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, videos, and AI crap from Google. It makes the results a lot more usable.

Look up filters for ublock origin.
https://github.com/gijsdev/ublock-hide-yt-shorts
Good luck!