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Ask HN: Has your YouTube usage decreased?

43 points by wonderingyogi ↗ HN
With YouTube blocking adblockers, I found myself using YT a lot less. Every time I click on a video, it gets blocked. Then I realize I didn't really care about watching the video. It felt like I caught myself before lighting the cigarette. I welcome the change and it has helped free up my mental space for other stuff.

73 comments

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chairmanwow1
No. I have premium so never noticed.
campbel
I also have premium. I went the route of Youtube music + premium a while back instead of doing Spotify. I might be missing out, but been working for me. I probably use Youtube more than any other streaming service.
phito
Same here, I'm happy to pay for premium as long as the price stays decent...
chrsw
Me too. YouTube has tons of content I can't find anywhere else. Talks, lectures, how-to's on all kinds of stuff. And sometimes it's very easy for me interact with the creators.
LewisVerstappen
I ended up replacing my YouTube time with more Hacker News, so I'm really hoping dang decides he wants a Ferrari and starts to put some ads on HN.
hooloovoo_zoo
I suspect the ad-block usage of hacker news visitors would force him to settle for a used pair of crocs.
richiezc
no, i have YT premium via a family plan i share with 5 friends. so < $4 a month per person
menshiki
I subscribed to premium a few months ago. I personally don't think YouTube has negative impact on my mental. Twitter and IG definitely did and I deleted my accounts there.
ksherlock
Yep... part of it is the blocking^2 but also I feel like their recommendations took a nose dive a few months back... The front page used to be things I wanted to watch; now it's either things I've already seen or things I want to do-not-recommend.
paulpauper
I keep dozens of music tabs that i periodically replay. like a jukebox of sorts
lacrimacida
Yes. Want to spend more time reading and there was never a better opportunity than the great enshitification of youtube. I’ll still be following some niche channels with less frequency as well as archive as much as stuff I want to have offline without all the dark patterns and distractions.
smitty1e
No, I mainly go to YT for specific song URLs to share on X, or personalities like Rick Beato.
bavell
+1 for Rick Beato, great content. Elizabeth Zharoff over at The Charismatic Voice is another lovely YT music personality.
droptablemain
I've never actually encountered the issue of YT blocking ad-blockers. Currently running Chromium 119 on Pop OS. I don't subscribe to premium or anything like that.
somenameforme
They seem to be rolling it out by region. In my region there was a brief complaint about ad-blockers, once, and nothing since. It could also be that Brave is successfully winning the game of cat and mouse.
bavell
Idk if I'm special but I only saw the adblocker warning twice 2-3 weeks ago and haven't seen it since. My adblocker (ublock origin iirc) is working fine and I still haven't seen any ads yet. I did subscribe to premium once around a year ago but only briefly.
colanderman
Yes, but not due to adblocking -- I keep history off, and the recent change to show a blank homepage when history is disabled has caused me to simply turn away from the homepage rather than mindlessly clicking links from there. (My homepage actually used to be decent before, since the suggestions were based on my likes. No longer, oh well, helped me kick the habit.)
gavinhoward
Yes, absolutely.

But this is intentional avoidance on my part. I don't want Google to ban my Google account because I use an adblocker on YouTube.

skytbest
Has that been happening?
gavinhoward
I don't think so, but I don't want to risk it in case it does start happening.
whatwhaaaaat
Sounds like it’s time to start diversifying. How is it acceptable that one company could have that sort of control over you?
gavinhoward
I am diversifying. But I'm still trying to mitigate the risk on this end too.

Besides, I waste less time now.

throwaway318
If you're that worried about that, it might be time to mitigate the risk anyhow and move from Google as a single critical dependence.
gavinhoward
I am. My email is with someone else, and I am trying to move everything else.
Euphorbium
I browse on my account, copy the link and then jump to another browser with integrated adblocker to watch. This small step limits the addiction.
n8cpdx
Baking Soda/Vinegar still work on Safari. Still no ads. There’s some evidence they’re attempting to block them maybe once every ten plays, but I just hit refresh and it works.
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strzibny
Nope, I bought Premium and it's one of my fav subscriptions (comes with music, too). However, maybe I should watch less.
squigz
uBlock Origin is still managing to block ads
keiferski
No, I signed up for premium a few months ago and happily pay the $20/month. YouTube has literally millions of hours of high-quality interviews, lectures, courses, etc. and paying is worth every penny.

If you find yourself watching low-quality videos, that’s a problem with your selection of content, not the platform itself.

JCharante
Same here, I think my YT usage is actually increasing
somenameforme
The overwhelming majority of the stuff you mentioned was put up for free with 0 monetization intent. Is Google also putting ads into non-monetized content as well?
phito
Bandwidth and storage aren't free.
keiferski
It’s been awhile, so I don’t remember exactly, but I’m fairly certain that an ad is played in front of every video, even the obscure philosophy lecture ones. There are definitely ads for Masterclass, etc. in front of the more modern educational podcasts and shows.

I assume it isn’t free to stream a four hour lecture to my device, so I don’t have an issue paying a small fee to do so. $20/month is nothing compared to the value I get from it.

nickthegreek
Pretty sure it’s only monitized content unless it has copyright issue (music). Then ad is shown to pay artist. Demonetized videos might also still have ads I think.
effingwewt
Ah yes, it's the consumer's fault for no longer being able to use the up/down ratio to tell if a video is clickbait or low quality.

Not because google took it away to protect that sweet advertising money.

The amount of ppl shamelessly stanning for companies has just gotten ridiculous.

keiferski
I don’t particularly like Google and have been slowly trying to move my accounts away from them.

Paying a small fee for a superior service is common sense and has nothing to with “stanning” for companies.

I also don’t even pay attention to upvotes 99% of the time, as it’s pretty unlikely that an old lecture about Hegel hosted on a philosophy channel is going to be clickbait. The clickbait stuff is almost always immediately obvious just from the title and thumbnail image alone.

Wurdan
People have different strategies for discovering new content, I guess. It’s rare for me to watch stuff from creators I don’t know, so I’m not usually surprised by the quality of them.

But if any kind of sponsorship of a video counts as “shameless stanning” to you then yeah the whole concept of YT is just not going to be your jam.

EvanAnderson
Nope. Not logged-on to a Google account, no persistent cookies and restart the browser fairly frequently, and the particular concoction of ad blockers I'm using (and reluctant to share) is still working well.
wolrah
I've had Youtube Premium since it was Google Play Music All Access, so I'm happily paying the $7.99 grandfathered rate to not even have ads to block, plus I get music along with it.

Multiple creators I follow have confirmed that YTP views are worth more to them than ad-supported views so it's a win-win in my book, the cost of one single strong drink at the bar per month to not see ads while also better supporting the people creating the stuff I want to watch.

nickthegreek
Are you sure you are still on the $7.99 rate? I was on that grandfathered plan but it was eventually raised to $10.73. I am in the USA.
wolrah
I could have sworn it had gone up somewhat recently as well, but I checked my Google payment history while making that post and it's still showing $7.99 as of this month's billing cycle.

Either way, even the current new user rate of $13.99/mo would still be worth it to me because of how much I watch Youtube on devices like my TV which can't run advanced ad blockers, it's still cheaper than some drinks I've ordered this month, but I'm certainly not going to complain about still having the discount.

milsorgen
For me Premium is worth it for ytmusic alone. I have discovered so much new music it's been a new personal golden age, like I'm in high school again. I think its due to at least in part its ability to integrate my many years of YouTube history and playlists. Now to be fair I have read others saying the exact opposite in terms of music discovery, all I know is I find a great new song or album at least once a week and that is something I could never say about Amazon, Tidal or Spotify.
irjustin
No, I purchase premium for the family and my daughters to have no ads and music.

I like the platform and being able to get high quality long form content for my hobbies- coffee and particular streamers for a game I play.

cmod
YouTube Premium has to be the best pay-for deal of any service. I'm frankly surprised by how much adblocking talk there is when YouTube comes up on HN. YouTube is doing what I want all services to do: total elimination of ads as part of Premium. The result is it's one of my favorite spaces online, and feels miraculous in the quality and quantity of content (docs, interviews, how-tos, history, music, archival footage).

Grateful for YouTube and enthusiastic to pay for premium.

ls612
I get $8/month for YouTube Premium Student and will have 2 more years, so hopefully by then the YouTube-Adblock wars will subside like they did for Twitch.
themadturk
I don't YT that much anyway, but I just tell my blocker (1Blocker on Safari) to let it through. YT still complains, I acknowledge the message and refresh the page and it lets me right in after that. I don't seem to see any more or fewer ads than I did before I stopped blocking YT, but as I said, I don't use it that much.
whatwhaaaaat
Yes but not because of the ad blocking but because of the actual content of the ads. I’m not under any circumstance having the option of dead bodies appearing on my tv when a 4yo runs into my office so my time is limited to when he won’t. The kids already were severely restricted but now it’s over - no google products at all for them for now.

I’m taking the power in to my own hands like my parents did with me owning distribution and storage. Seeing these dreadful ads played on children shows has made me realize these people have hostile intentions.