FreeTube
Cory Doctorow has been talking about "enshittification" for awhile now. Here is one of his early posts, though certainly not his first, which really gained popularity.
Of course, the enshittification of YouTube has been going on pretty much since Google bought it almost 20 years ago. The algorithms have been getting steadily worse of late, which is why I am ditching my smartphone except for work and moving to single-use devices. But YouTube still provides value, it's just that it is easy to get sucked into the algorithm. So I have found a way to still enjoy YouTube: FreeTube. It is available on Mac, Windows and Linux. There is also a version available for Android.
FreeTube allows you to enjoy YouTube without logging in, and everything is stored locally. This means you cannot comment from within it, but you can hit "Share" on a video and grab the link, paste it into your browser, and comment to your heart's content. It also means it doesn't sync your data between devices like you can when you're logged in. But Google cannot feed you Javascript or Cookies or anything else to track you. If you use Tor or a VPN and it uses different exit nodes, it even makes it harder to ID you via your IP address.
I just started using it, and I will still be going to YouTube directly occassionally for Lives and Premieres so that I can chat real-time with the creators. I also comment of videos every now and then to make it feel more like a community. But most of my use will start from within FreeTube before launching a browser. This lets me take back control from the algorithms which are trying to push content you may not like to engage with in front of you.
I am taking power away from the algorithms by carefully curating content I actually want to engage with. I wish there were something for Facebook which just showed my the content from my friends and the groups and pages I actually follow. Until I find a solution for that, my time on Facebook will be strictly limited. I will likely even set up a bookmark page with links to the specific people, pages, and groups I wish to remain engaged with, then only engage via those links. It's getting too easy to get drawn into doomscrolling. I am done with that.
Tags: YouTube, enshittification, FreeTube
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