this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2025
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TBF, just leaving YouTube would be better. There's plenty of information out there which don't need some glorified video hosting platform (books, blogs, wikis and so oh). I really struggle trying to understand people's addiction to YT...
I like long form video content from someone who is passionate about a subject
To each their own, I guess. I prefer written stuff.
Me too. A good written guide is always way more effective. There rare today though :/
Shout-out to Gamers Nexus for making a written site for all their content https://gamersnexus.net/ tho i recognize that's not very helpful for avoiding American lol
I use YouTube extensively (I mean, 2-5 hours a day) and 7 days a week for years now; I use it for language learning, there is really nothing better than normal people chatting (to the camera or between themselves) about regular daily stuff that I'm also interested in, to improve comprehension, I'd love to find any source as rich as YouTube. Peertube is hopeless, I tried and failed there due to a complete lack of content (though I do check in occasionally, I'd love if some of my subscribed YouTubers would start publishing on that platform... Though I don't know if there are any monetary incentives for them to do that?).
Can you not just make sure YouTube gets none of your money by using a front end that strips out all ads and sponsored segments? My kids watch YouTube but they’ve never seen an ad.
I pay for YouTube premium. Although I'd prefer to find an EU alternative, I really have no problem paying for a service that I consider worth the price.
A red flag for me, is if I'm paying for a service and they still show me adverts.
Google's been attacking those lately, mostly to success (Piped and Invidious are effectively dead, ViewTube is also dead, and FreeTube's a target now).
I'm specifically talking about the video as a medium to share information, and youtube is the worst, as it's 99% filled with crappy influencer stuff whose only aim is to monetize people's time.
Sure there's that. I'm just trying to help you understand the viewpoint of some of the people that are heavy users of YouTube, and why there are currently no good alternatives, as you said "I really struggle trying to understand".
I'm sure, like me, there are other people with their own alternative valid reasons for using YouTube for enormous amounts of time.
Just because some of the content on a platform is bad or not to our tastes, doesn't mean it all is, and it certainly doesn't mean that the users are wrong for using that platform in a way that suits them.
I do disagree with the publishing of content that is hateful or deliberately trying to misinform people, and I think YouTube has a lot of that, I'd obviously prefer it didn't.
"I really struggle trying to understand the addiction", was my original statement. The two last words are important.
That's fair.
It's not really the same kind of media at all, depending on what you watch. I guess what I look for in YouTube are interesting perspectives, often on things I haven't even considered. Maybe something like blogs could partially replace it, but I'm not aware of any blogging platforms that have tons of interesting perspectives and things to talk about and actually knows what to offer me. Isn't blogging kind of dead?
I used to read books when I was younger, but I have serious attention issues with text-only stuff. And it's straining on eyes.