I have had YT set up so I can't see ads, I can't see (most) sponsored content, and I can't comment or even up/downvote others' comments... So the only ways I engage are up/downvoting videos, subscribing/unsubscribing to channels, reporting AI slop, and reporting hate crimes and the like. I only do pointless internet arguments on b3ta.
YT occasionally throws a fit and almost exclusively shows me content that it must know enrages me. When that happens I spend a few days on iplayer or whatever, then YT tries to win me back.
It's a toxic relationship, and it wants me to be a fashy incel for ...profit? I never hang around to watch the nasty videos it pushes. The logic and psychology of it all is a bit baffling. Tobacco and alcohol companies never wanted their customers to hate them... Drug dealers don't want their customers to hate them. Why do the pedlars of this new addictive thing behave so strangely?
(, Fri 13 Feb 2026, 20:33, Reply)
As long as you stay engaged long enough to serve ads and get paid.
(, Fri 13 Feb 2026, 21:17, Reply)
It would make some sense for YT's business model to drive people like me away, but if they were to commit to that then my YT feed would always look like Rumble.
I guess our viewing habits and behavioural data still retain value without the ad revenue.
(, Fri 13 Feb 2026, 21:29, Reply)
Edit: Here's a thought, perhaps the algorithm is using keywords that are independent of the view taken by the video, a video slagging off Farage might still be categorised as being about him, suggesting another.
(, Fri 13 Feb 2026, 21:45, Reply)
If so I wonder if there's a frustrated Nazi out there who keeps getting Skepchic suggested to him, and a frustrated street preacher getting all your Hitchens videos....
(, Fri 13 Feb 2026, 22:29, Reply)
I keep getting flag-shagger videos and financial market bullshit clickbait.
(, Sat 14 Feb 2026, 21:24, Reply)