Comment by aaaashley
Speaking of using custom CSS with YouTube, I do the following for my experience:
- Completely hide the recommended tab
- Make every thumbnail grayscale (to mitigate eye-catching thumbnails)
- Make every video title lowercase (to mitigate eye-catching titles)
Here's my code, although I have to update it every once and a while when YouTube changes:
yt-thumbnail-view-model { filter: grayscale(); }
h3[title] { text-transform: lowercase; }
.ytd-watch-flexy #secondary { display: none !important; }
It's amazing how much a couple small changes can make on your browsing experience. The companies that own these products have a huge incentive to make every element purposefully addictive. I've also patched the iOS Instagram app to remove all Reels (using FLEXtool & Sideloadly), so I can keep up with my friends without falling into the traps. As developers, we have the ability to target these manipulative tactics and remove them, and I encourage you to do this as much as possible.
If you disable History, it automatically removes Recommendations across your devices.