I really did have to do something this.
I started today by watching my usual YouTube channels that come out on Sunday morning (none political, they’re all about building stuff).
Then I spent a little time with the tray in my Jeep because it was rattling. Found some things to tighten so hopefully that annoyance is solved. Plus I cleaned the tray up a bit.
And then lunch.
And then I glanced at YouTube before moving on to other stuff and … it’s wall to wall about Joe Biden dropping out of the presidential race.
Look, I’m okay with a single video about Biden dropping out. I’m even okay with three or four videos about it. Really, its important, and its something that I need to know. But not Every. Single. Recommend. Video. Holy Crap!
And, no, I didn’t click on any of them. That would’ve just encouraged the algorithm.
As it turns out, one of the channels I watch (Jenna Phipps, who is rebuilding a mid-century house in Vancouver) had their video today sponsored by the Opra web browser. Hey, I remember that. I used to use it exclusively back around 2001 or so.
Thus was my mad plan hatched.
I will no longer click on political videos in YouTube because I really don’t want to encourage the algorithm. But what I will do is if a political story is breaking, I’ll switch to my laptop, launch Opra, open a private window, and go looking for that story. Google really hates that, by the way. They made me prove I’m not a robot before they would serve up my searches. And then the search results were, well, stripped down shall we say.
And now my YouTube habit can hopefully go back to people building stuff, and people driving around in the wilderness, and people sinking ships for artificial reefs, and maybe the odd history lesson, and even some Critical Role (although it usually takes me most of the week to get through one of their episodes).
Now if I can just figure out how to cut down on all the spam in my email. Joe Biden has been hammering me for money five or six or ten times a day recently. Seriously, I need to implement a white list.
Whelp, sounds like a project.
C’ya!