You might enjoy opening YouTube to listen to music or watch a show while working. Yet, often, recommendations, autoplay, or Shorts can distract you, leading you to get lost in the depths.
Know that those times are now over! We've found THE effective solution (free and simple) to avoid falling for all of YouTube's traps.
The Problem with YouTube
YouTube is a fantastic platform that continues to evolve year after year. The issue lies in our current society, where everyone competes for users' attention, leading to the development of overly optimized, addictive features.
Take, for example, the autoplay of videos, Shorts, or the recommendation system. Before you know it, you're endlessly scrolling through a varied and extensive catalog of content. What was intended to be a video playing in the background ends up consuming two hours of your time.
Blocking or deleting YouTube from your computer is too drastic and not our goal. Fortunately, we've found something much better! A straightforward way to streamline your YouTube experience and prevent hours of scrolling.
Remove Recommendations, Shorts & Autoplay
YouTube relies on your watch history to present recommendations on your homepage or in the Shorts section. It considers what you've watched, including the duration and frequency, whether you've viewed similar content before (niche), and if you generally enjoy this type of content (based on likes, watch time, etc.). By cutting off this history, you can achieve a clear homepage and even disable Shorts altogether. Let's get practical!
☀️ Clear Your Home Page
Open YouTube. On the left, in the menu bar, expand the "You" section and click on "History". On the right, click on the option "Turn Off Watch History". Confirm, and that's it!
Ta-da! Your homepage will now be empty, with no more recommendations!
🎰 Disable Shorts
To disable Shorts, you will need to go a step further and clear your browsing history on YouTube. Click on your profile picture, then go to "Your data in YouTube." There, you have a whole area to purge your history; just follow the instructions.
Now, if you visit the "Shorts" section, you'll notice that no more content of this type will be recommended to you. That's it! (And it does feel good).
By the way, clearing your watch history doesn't affect your subscriptions.
▶️ Removing Auto-Play
This one's easy. Simply launch a video of your choice. At the bottom of the video, you'll find a very discreet "Play-Pause" icon acting as a toggle; just switch it off. This is the autoplay feature that automatically launches a new video 6 seconds after your current video finishes.
Force Yourself To Watch a SINGLE Video
If you're a seasoned YouTube user, you might have noticed that disabling your watch history doesn't prevent you from lingering over the side recommendations and navigating from video to video.
For this issue, we have a solution for you. First, you can watch or listen to your video in "Picture in Picture" mode. This feature is available on Safari and other popular browsers.
🖼️ Picture In Picture
To switch to PiP mode on Safari, select a video and play it. Then, in the search bar at the top of your browser, click on the speaker icon. After that, click on "Activate Picture in Picture mode". The same thing is possible on Chrome and other browsers.
🔒️ Block YouTube
Once your video is launched in PiP mode, minimize the browser window. The next steps take place on the Jomo app, available for free on Mac and iPhone.
In the "Sessions" section, create a new blocking session. Choose the duration you prefer (ideally the period during which you want to work or concentrate), and give it a name and an icon you like.
Then, in the "Apps & Websites" section, select the website "youtube.com". Remember to add breaks and set the minimum duration (5 minutes). Finally, confirm your session. This won't block PiP; however, if you return to YouTube, you'll receive an annoying alert that will prevent you from using YouTube.
Selecting "Leave the page" will instantly block YouTube, and to change the video, you'll need to take a timed break on Jomo. If you press "Cancel", it will merely relaunch. (To use your browser for other activities without interruption, simply open a new window).
With this short tutorial, you won't be drawn into the endless vortex of YouTube content, especially the highly addictive Shorts feature. Personally, I love YouTube, but I often find myself getting lost in it and spending too much time there. I didn't want to take too drastic a measure, so I discovered these tricks that I wanted to share with you! If you know others facing the same issue, feel free to share this article with them!
✋ Illustrations by Jomo ; Photography Unsplash
Made with love in Brittany