this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2023
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

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Think about it, Google Maps is (I think) the biggest collection of map data and information on locations everywhere around the world, yet I don't want an advertising company knowing that I just went to a fast food place.

YouTube is an endless trove of video content that anyone can contribute to, yet I'd much rather not give an advertiser information on every little interest that I have in video.

It's so bad for you, but it's so good.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (5 children)

My youtube front page just shows random foxnews, joe rogan, andrew tate, prager u, copaganda, hunter biden's laptop, china, tiktokers, all bunch of things I have no interest in. There are no republicans or nationalists in my household. Don't know why these shit keep showing up.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My roomie keeps getting videos and adverts about visiting Dubai/UAE/Qatar etc.

We're both LGBTQ+ so that wouldn't end well.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

My guess is that it’s because the area we live in has a decently sized immigrant population, usually Middle East/North African.

Those countries are probably a lot more appealing to them than they are to us, but the algorithm lumps us all in in the same demographic.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yikes... I hope you find your way out of that hole, maybe starting over may help? I know seperate channels on the same account have different recommended pages, so that might work.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I am not even logged in. I clear my entire browser every day and youtube still tries to shove propaganda. I use Firefox + uBlock Origin on Android. Seems like if you dont use an account, they just show what the average person watches, which is apparantly right wing shit.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Ouch. On desktop I use YouTube in a logged out container tab - after watching a LTT and TLE video my feed usually falls in line.

There is occasionally some disturbing stuff on the homepage which is a little offputting. Funny thing is, in NewPipe on my phone I see no such content!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

This is disconcerting to say the least 😑

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

It just shows up because it's popular and they don't reasonably know what you like.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Sometimes these kind of channels show up in my recommended videos. When they show up I click on "do not recommend this channel".

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That's a nightmare. You could try starting clean and going to your Google account settings and completely wiping your view history. You might be able to do it from the YouTube site, but I'm not sure. Hopefully that'll help a little? Edit: just saw you weren't even logged in! In that case....no idea. Best of luck 🤞✊