How to Break the YouTube Addiction: Turning Off Your History

Learn how to break the YouTube addiction by turning off your history. Follow these simple steps to disable recommendations

in Productivity
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I find YouTube addictive. I go there to watch an informational video, and, BAM, the video recommendations beg me to watch something else.

But I found a way to stop the vicious cycle. Turning off my YouTube history. Once you kill the history, YouTube will be a blank slate.

YouTube Homepage with the text "Your watch history is off" demonstrates no example videos shown by default.

How to Turn Off YouTube History

First, navigate to Google's Data & Privacy Page. Then, you'll see a setting called 'YouTube History.' Hit 'pause,' and your YouTube history will no longer be factored into recommendations.

But we must continue. YouTube will keep recommending videos that match your existing history even though you have pausednew history from happening.

To delete allyour history, you will need to click on the 'YouTube History' and then hit delete

The YouTube History page shows that it is not currently being saved with a delete button at the bottom to delete the existing history.

If you have followed the steps, you should have deleted all your YouTube History and paused the creation of any new history.

What Are the Pros and Cons of Removing YouTube History?

It's an age-old conundrum: The more 'private' you are, the less relevant your ads and recommendations will be. Some people say, "My information is already out there; I might as well capitulate to Big Corp®."

With Google, YouTube, Instagram, etc., I have found that these technologies are expertly crafted to be ADDICTIVE, not practical or helpful. Any utility is overshadowed by the rabid A/B testing designed to increase 'active user minutes.'

I would rather keep as much user behavior data as I can out of the hands of advertising companies like Google.

What YouTube is like post-history scrubbing

Now, if a friend sends me a YouTube video or I have to look something up, I only watch one video, and there is no enticement to keep watching more videos. I notice the following changes:

  1. The YouTube homepage is blank (Thank Goodness)
  2. When I watch a video, all the suggested videos in the sidebar and preview are directly related to the video. For example, if I watch a video called 'How to Tie a Tie,' I only see recommendations related to tying ties. There's no sneaky business happening where I get recommended videos based on what I have watched.
YouTube thumbnails at the end of a video about tying ties show related videos. The sidebar also shows videos related to tying ties.

Personally, I like the change. Each video is a clean slate, and I am not 'sucked into YouTube' like I used to. If you need help with the addictiveness of YouTube, I hope you'll try the history wipe and let me know how it works for you.

 

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John Solly

A hands-on AI practitioner who transitioned to a CTO role to broaden my impact.

Most of my career has been dedicated to developing spatial systems at Esri, startups, and federal agencies. Currently, I lead technology strategy for Leidos' Health IT division, supporting agencies such as SSA, VA, and HHS.

My primary focus is the convergence of spatial computing and AI, enabling machines to interpret the physical world and applying these capabilities to meaningful missions.

Please reach out if you are interested in spatial systems or advancing AI within the federal government.