Am I a bad person for wanting to go back to YouTube?

[IndigoGolem]

I don't have much to say here that hasn't already been said.

It's not your fault that Youtube has a monopoly on sharing videos longer than a minute online. It's hard to avoid, but if you're unable or unwilling to cut it out of your life you should consider a proxy. Invidious has already been mentioned. More options do exist.

There are alternatives to Youtube that aren't just more frontends for it, like Peertube.

If you don't like the options i just mentioned, i assume IOS at least has browsers that do support adblock, like Firefox. You'd still have to put up with everything besides the ads, but at least those would get out of your way.

[bodypoetic]

Adding my two cents on the matter (and broadly agreeing with what has already been said). As I get older, I am increasingly of the opinion that 'am I a good/bad person for doing XYZ?' is not a particularly useful question to ask. A little introspection is healthy, but after a certain point you can get so caught up in judging yourself that it impedes your ability to make good actions. (This is a trap that I often fall into myself.) A better question might be 'is this action in line with my values?', or 'what material outcomes do I want to achieve?', or 'how can I best take care of myself and others?'

I want to highlight this blog post by an internet acquaintance of mine, particularly this part:

i think i have had to get over myself in this process. in a way i see the modern boycott as the boycott as an act of self-purification, the hair shirt of the secular leftist. the montgomery bus boycott aka not a modern, individualised boycott, or in other words an organised, focused, successful boycott, i deeply respect and admire.

I will (and do) engage in boycotts as part of concerted efforts to make change, or because some companies are so transparently evil that I can't stomach giving them money. That said, an equally important part of the process is just... training a muscle. I highly doubt that there will be an eventuality in which we magically get a better world without having to change our consumption habits; I want to practice in advance, to know what I can live without and what I might struggle with.

As any personal trainer will tell you, though, if you exert a muscle without warming up first, or attempt a particularly difficult work-out without building up to it, you put yourself at risk of injury. This damages your ability to stay in the game long-term - if you go in at the deep end and have a bad time of it, your brain will remember how difficult it was when you want to try again.

In this instance, it sounds like your muscles are aching and you need to find a way to go easy on them. The suggestions in this thread seem like very good ways to do so.

[sirenkidu]

i find that tumblr folks (and to be honest pinterest but why would you be on that site anyway) are too keen to point fingers. Sometimes its needed but for something like this I think there's more nuance. So I wouldn't base your opinion on whether you're a bad person on them, and besides does it even matter if you'll never talk to these people? Like bodypoetic said you're better off just checking your own morals instead of letting whatever someone else said as a soap box (i can say this because i often go on soap boxes but i dont call people bad because thats too much for me).

[EdgyRabbid]

i find that tumblr folks (and to be honest pinterest but why would you be on that site anyway) are too keen to point fingers. Sometimes its needed but for something like this I think there's more nuance. So I wouldn't base your opinion on whether you're a bad person on them, and besides does it even matter if you'll never talk to these people? Like bodypoetic said you're better off just checking your own morals instead of letting whatever someone else said as a soap box (i can say this because i often go on soap boxes but i dont call people bad because thats too much for me).

I've noticed this too! I've seen people dig up decade old posts to prove that someone is still problematic even when said person has very much improved their behavior in that decade. They also tend to blame people who had nothing to do with said event. I think people just want something to blame.

anywho, I'm gonna use brave and download some of my favourite videos! 

[MaiaVulpes]

No Age Versification on youtube is not yet global, only in the US and UK as far as I remember. But it is coming to the EU, which has its own Project to implement Age Verification themselves. Which should be more Privacy Preserving.

Ahh thank you for letting me know! I'm not quite sure if V3 works as a proxy service, the only one I know of that I have used is that YT2009... although it is definitely a handful and not great for daily usage.