this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2026
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Off My Chest

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I cannot watch TikTok or YouTube shorts or Instagram reels anymore.

When it comes to having any degree of comprehension as to why these apps insist on making me so angry I feel like I cannot characterize myself as anything better than a plank of wood.

I don't understand who is benefiting from this relationship because clearly I'm not. Every time I stop scrolling on tiktok or YouTube I am so angry I cannot focus on my job! I can't decide what to do next! I can't do anything!! I'm not even clicking on ads, I've bought a couple of things from TikTok that are ok,, prices are sometimes better on tiktok,,

But if I watch one more:

  • CPS worker try and fail to kidnap children
  • Any sort of religious debate though most of the ones I'm getting are about Jesus and convincing people that Islam is real or not
  • Narrated stories from Reddit
  • Ella Boyett (the hiiiiiiiii Karen with the wig)
  • Any skits about customers misbehaving at businesses
  • Instructional recipe videos formatted in discovery-speak, for example "when you add this to this and add this to this and mix and bake you get this"
  • Sheffield Jew hunt awareness videos
  • Videos about how gross immigrants might be behaving in European cities
  • NYC, Dearborn Mi, Lakewood Nj
  • Anything involving screaming
  • Video recording strangers crashing out
  • Crashouts in general actually
  • Videos of people whining about something that they're psyoped to believe they need in their life
  • Tiny accounts with less than 100 followers making lukewarm observations

I will actually be in a state of life or death emergency. Like I'm not even being facetious or obtuse I just deleted tiktok before I started writing this and I don't feel safe.. I'll feel better in a little bit.

I just can't remember the last time I watched something funny. I can't remember the last time I laughed on YouTube. I'm just miserable by nature and these apps aren't making it any better.

I want to know what profit these algorithms are optimizing for. I feel like with me my algorithm might have reached a false valley way too soon and there's nothing I can do to dislocate it and have it try again, tiktok lets you reset your feed but YouTube doesn't really. But every time I reset my tiktok feed it always returns to the same exact shit, you can't even not engage with the same content you used to engage with because that's also considered engagement, swiping away too fast apparently counts as much as watching the whole thing through because you already know what it is therefore you interacted with it which is what the algorithm wants. I like algorithmically curated content sometimes, I like it when the algorithm is also really good which is something I used to say about tiktok but not now that it's trying everything it can to make me angry.

Edit 2hrs later: all is well I'm okay. Turns out I kind of like reading horror manga. Junji Ito is pretty good, I can now say that I've read Frankenstein!

top 19 comments
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[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 8 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

heck im watching broadcast tv again.

[–] fleem@piefed.zeromedia.vip 2 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

it feels good to be able to change the channel when the ads come on. surf through the 60 or so in my area, stop at a couple of other channels with comedy stuff on. maybe by the time i've come back around, that first channel is only a couple of commercials left until its back to playing bad boyz II?

[–] danhab99@programming.dev 3 points 12 hours ago

In what feels like 50 years of cable / broadcast television how is there no device that can detect when the ads start to change the channel for you? Maybe we really do need the AI for that.

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 3 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

I like the commercials to give me time to get up and do stuff and I kinda like seeing them as I feel they are a look into our dystopic present.

[–] fleem@piefed.zeromedia.vip 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I'll buy that first part for a dollar! but yeah the second part is very nearly abject terror at all times.

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 2 points 11 hours ago

have you seen the casino games one that unabashadely makes it out that you will be a millinaire if you play their game. oof.

[–] itsathursday@lemmy.world 6 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

I can’t remember the last time I watched something funny on YouTube

I said this myself yesterday, and then searched for “adventure serials” and found some joy in watching media that was actually designed for entertainment and long form. Fuck algorithms.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago

I have a few super tiny channels I watch that are pretty funny. I've been making it a point to click on every small account the algo sends me and hitting like a few times.

Also auto-hiding big channels.

But the SNL Snack Homiez skits always make me laught.

[–] schwim@piefed.zip 4 points 14 hours ago

I hope you find a balance that adds quality to your life, whether that's different apps, less of the same apps or just no apps at all.

I do use a modified version of Instagram(AeroInsta, I think it's called) so I don't see ads and I only view my "following" feed so I only ever see things I want(cats, owls, drag racing, mountainbiking, restorations, etc. etc.) and I can't think of the last time I saw something that made me angry. I only say this in case it's a preferred solution for you. My only other outlets are Lemmy, Pixelfed and Loops. They're very easy to tailor to my likes since they don't push ragebait for profit. I do watch Youtube often but again, it's ad-free(including sponsorblock) and it's only my subscription so I never see anything I don't want.

Take care of yourself.

[–] disregardable@lemmy.zip 3 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

I just can't remember the last time I watched something funny. I can't remember the last time I laughed on YouTube. I'm just miserable by nature and these apps aren't making it any better.

I can. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vpX0-sE2yjk I share the animal clips this channel posts here sometimes. I like it.

[–] classic@fedia.io 2 points 11 hours ago

Clips of Flula Borg on Conan O'Brien's show were my most recent laughs

[–] danhab99@programming.dev 1 points 12 hours ago
[–] cybervseas@lemmy.world 3 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

YouTube doesn’t really

Is that so? I thought you can delete your watch history and your liked/disliked videos. Also your subscriptions. That ought to get you pretty close to a reset on YouTube. There are a few different screens you have to navigate to to do it all.

I've nevert done 'short' or 'vertical' formatted videos, and yeah lordy all of those video types sound exhausting!

[–] danhab99@programming.dev 2 points 12 hours ago

Yeah so I've done that but as far as I understand (based on my experience as a programmer and documentation), it's literally not feasible to reset my Google accounts "personalizations" because Google uses your advertising data to augment the YouTube algo.

It's all one big bowl of spaget and you're the butter

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 2 points 13 hours ago

Newpipe on mobile is a good way to watch YouTube without signing in or ads

[–] devolution@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

Your mainly bitching about right wing click bait. Not much you can do about it since Youtube folded to the fascists.

Edit: No matter how many reports, blocks, etc I do, I still get fucking Turning Point ads.

[–] noxypaws@pawb.social 0 points 10 hours ago

youtube has ads?

[–] devolution@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago

Is there a way to turn it off?

[–] Cherry@piefed.social 2 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

I have always hated YouTube, insta became so fake and narcissistic it was making my eye roll constantly. My dislikes for videos

  • Orgasm faces when eating/seeing a view etc
  • Studio phases like ‘she didn’t know yet/it’s important you etc wtf is that copycatcrap
  • Stupid overacted comedy skits people who think they can act
  • People recording their boring daily activity like cleaning up, driving around etc and narrating like they are special or something.
  • loud idiots
  • anything with a marketing link or a comment to find out x or y. Pi$$ off id rather do without.

Dumped them ages ago. Can you tell I get miffed at social media much 🤣.