[everdrive]

Algorithmic curation is something I'm trying to avoid in all cases. I think it's not highlighted enough. The fact that youtube shows an infinite number of videos to choose from does its own sort of harm in a way that the specifics of the content cannot.

When the internet was brand new, it was very novel that I had to go out seeking the content and could look at it any time I wanted. It was different than TV. TV was enjoyed passively and you just watched what they showed you. The early internet was so much better it's hard to describe. It was a purely active experience. Algorithmic curation is a return to the TV model. Someone else decides what you should watch, and you passively observe it materialize in front of you. Try this for an experience. log out of youtube, install some filters in uBlock Origin which prevent all algorithmic results (even on the home page and in search results) and then try to think of what you'd like to watch. For some of you out there, I'll bet this feels like exercising an old, unused muscle. You used to do this kind of querying all the time. But scan your mind. What possibilities are there to view? It feels emptier than it should.

[D13Fd]

Wow, that’s really insightful. I hadn’t thought of it in those terms, but avoiding algorithmic feeds is exactly what I’ve been doing for the last few years. I mostly use RSS to read news, and I avoid browsing Reddit as much as I can, other than reading posts on specific things that I find through a search engine.

For a time last year I kind of fell off the wagon, and found myself wanting to browse Reddit constantly, even though I know it’s mostly repetitive junk, rage bait, and memes. It took me a concerted effort over a couple of weeks to break free again.

My spider sense goes off in the same way when I find myself looking at Apple News, TikTok, Youtube, etc.

I think you’re absolutely right that the common thread there is the algorithmic curation.

[SoftTalker]

If you subscribe to creators you like, and use the Subscriptions tab in YouTube, you will only see their content and not anything algorithmic AFAIK

[manuelmoreale]

The best way to subscribe to creators on YouTube is via rss. This way one doesn’t have to deal with YT at all.

[AnnKey]

Agree. I also use Unhook/Brave to remove all recommendations plus my DeCasino to grayscale social media and put a clock over. I only watch subscriptions - clicking from subscriptions bar, not the feed. My phone is fully grayscale, no notifications and only has Brave with custom content filter that removes the main feed as well. It's almost impossible to watch anything on my phone but a video from a direct link. Sounds kind of crazy, but it's finally sustainable.

As a result, I have zero curated feeds, and I only follow people that I chose and started taking more word-of-mouth suggestions. I've noticed that I got much more interested in politics and my internet time is now all meaningful. Algorithms do steer us, they aren't neutral.

[julkali]

I also tried setting my phone to grayscale, but it takes me significantly longer to do useful things, as some UIs are harder to distinguish without color. Have you found a workaround for this?

[PNewling]

I did this, and yeah google maps is all but unusable without color, that and the camera takes some getting used to.

I'm on an iPhone, but what ended up doing was creating a shortcut that toggles the phone to grayscale and back, and then having two automations, one for when I open any of the apps I actually want color in (maps, camera, photos, etc) that toggles grayscale off and then another automation to toggle grayscale back on when I close any of those same apps.

The option is located in Settings > Accessibility >Display & Text Size > Color Filters

It isn't perfect, but it works most of the time (I also added the shortcut to the back of the home screen so if it is off or I need one-off color I can just toggle it manually).

[xenonite]

On iOS, the grey scale filter can also be activated via triple clicking the power button:

It is the “zoom”, in which you can have 1.0 scale and add a color filter.

I like the combined grayscale and color inversion filter.

The triple click zoom is activated in Settings > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut: https://support.apple.com/111771

The scale can be set by activating the zoom controller once, zooming out, and then hiding it.

[AnnKey]

I'd look into accessibility settings - they often have a colorblind mode (even some games do)