I stopped trusting YouTube’s algorithm after one curious click destroyed my entire feed

I open a dedicated YouTube account and watch a video about the design analysis of one of my favorite games. In the sidebar, we found another video showcasing a major graphics project for a PlayStation 1 title.

I am immediately drawn to the thumbnail and click on it. The entire video was generated by AI.

If you open your YouTube feed now, you’ll find more videos like it.

But this is not a one-off. Many of the videos I watch have this problem, even if I only check them for a few seconds before turning them off.

My feed ends up being filled with similar videos. In this case, your curiosity will be heightened no matter where you watch YouTube, whether it’s on your Chromebook, your phone, or your TV. sometimes kill the cat

Therefore, you should watch YouTube in incognito mode on your browser or in the YouTube app to prevent further destruction of your recommended feed.

While it’s not a perfect solution for everyone, it’s far more worthwhile to manage the platform carefully, as you can lose your YouTube Premium benefits if you don’t stay logged in to your profile.

I miss not being able to find it on YouTube

This was the app I spent a lot of time on

YouTube used to be one of my favorite apps, at least before.

But being interrupted by ads makes it even more difficult to navigate (although there are unofficial ways to easily stop them from showing, I split my time between different devices), and you have to be extra careful with how you watch videos.

But I’m here to watch, discover, and learn more from my favorite content creators, news curators, and people who explain what’s going on in the industry in their own jargon.

I also used this platform to get political updates and watch live channels. I felt like it was a safe place to explore multiple interests.

But now, if you check out a variety of videos, like hobby videos and some tech reviews in between, the algorithm will punish you for it, even if you spend more time in one area than another.

I sometimes listen to music mixes made by AI. My entire feed is filled with them, making it almost impossible to find random tech explanation videos or game theory building VODs.

This isn’t just a YouTube issue. I had the same problem with Spotify. But at least my interest is more focused on Spotify than the YouTube app.

I thought about creating a separate dedicated YouTube account to separate the types of content I watch, but I don’t want to keep track of the different content I watch.

Instead, I give up and use incognito mode in my web browser or YouTube app so I can search for what I want to watch without expectations.

If you have a smart TV, use a YouTube guest profile to view content without linking to a specific YouTube account.

I started taking more control over my YouTube account

Scrub your viewing and search history

I didn’t expect to have to go to so much effort to fix YouTube’s algorithm, but now I’m deleting videos that only get a few views before moving on, and I’m more cautious about whether I get liked or not.

I had to do this with other YouTube accounts. There have been a few instances where someone in my family left their YouTube account on their smart TV.

I didn’t hesitate to watch videos related to my hobbies until I later received complaints that the feed was related to video games and hardware failures.

So I cleaned my body Viewing history first, then my Search history. Unless you want to do a thorough manual cleanup, it’s easy to do and takes only a few minutes.

Basically, when you’re signed in, click or tap. of profile iconthen select setting (This step is not necessary for some devices).

choose from there Your data on YouTubescroll to Manage your YouTube watch history or Manage your YouTube search history.

You can choose from either menu automatic deletion. I don’t do this because I don’t care about saving history and would like a more detailed profile of my account, but you can also set it to delete your viewing and search history after 36 months.

YouTube Premium users can Pause your viewing history A function to temporarily avoid saving history.

in Manage your YouTube watch history or Manage your YouTube search history In the section, you can click or tap on dates or individual entries and use the “X” option to delete any of them.

You will be prompted to confirm the deletion of specific dates or entries.

The next option is to change the YouTube history sub-settings to reduce what is stored or used by the algorithm.

To do this, go to: control It’s on the left panel. From there, you can turn on or off three options:

• Include YouTube videos you watch

• Include search on YouTube

• Include YouTube audio activity

i keep Include YouTube audio activity I usually use my Fire TV remote to search YouTube with Alexa, so I leave it unchecked.

Another method I sometimes uncheck is searching on YouTube. Because what you’re looking for is everywhere. That’s when I realized I wasn’t always using the right profile unless I was in incognito mode.

After a while, I realized that the more careful I was with how I used YouTube, the more streamlined my feed became.

If you are a heavy user, it may take some time for your feed to return to normal.

Another recommendation is to use not interested or This channel is not recommended While viewing the YouTube home page (click or tap the three dots next to a video to see these options).

This allows me to avoid certain content creators and reduces the frequency of seeing “ragebait” videos in my feed. It’s not perfect, but it helps.

Google tracks more than just your YouTube history

Everything you do with Google Analytics is recorded by Google, including your search queries and interactions with AI while you are signed into your profile.

To learn more about what Google is tracking, please visit the following website: Google profilechoose Manage your Google AccountMove to Data and privacy.

From there, you can check your personal settings and activity to see exactly what’s being recorded or even delete it.

Even if you only check your Google Account activity a few times a month, it’s a good idea to monitor and clean up anything you don’t want Google to see. It’s worth it.