Disgusted by YouTube/Google

I miss the times when technology was exciting, cool and going to last. Now it's becoming expensive, buy buy buy, data collecting, data harvesting, AI slop fest and like a cow's / bull's waste product. Keep in mind Google makes it's main money mainly through ads. In general, it's now becoming, you no longer own it, but a licence to use it. As well as the phrase, "you are not the customer, you are the product". bring back removable batteries, SD card slots, multiple ports, easy disassembling, repairability, etc.

You might want to visit the "Consumer Rights Wiki", created by American YouTuber Louis Rossman.

Another website is "Google Graveyard - Killed by Google". A collection of products and services Google made, but no longer supports or decided to discontinue.

Suggestions, especially getting into open source alternatives / FOSS (Free Open Source Software)

- Linux OS. E.g. Linux Mint, Zorin OS, Ubuntu, Debian, etc...

- Plex Media Server

- Jellyfin Media Server

- NAS Storage

- Firefox Browser

- Vivaldi, Browser

- Search Engines. E.g. Ecosia, DuckDuckGo, Brave Search, etc

- Malwarebytes Web Browser Guard

- Dailymotion

- Floatplane

- Soundcloud Music

- Music Players to use / upgrade. E.g. iPod Classic, iPod Mini, Microsoft Zune, Sony Walkman A30 / A40 / A50 Series. You can install Rock Box, as an alternative and custom firmware to the apple iPod Classics.

You might like a video from Canadian YouTuber / Tech reviewer "Linus Tech Tips". Titled "De-Google Your Life". Otherwise, British YouTuber "foci" is another recommendation. He published a video 4 months ago called, "I used Open Source Apps for 90 days. Here are my favorites".

Firstly, just get an adblocker (uBlock origin is my go-to) ((I am a Firefox user btw))

Secondly, to my understanding advertisements shown on pretty much all websites these days are based off of your browsing history/cookies etc., so unless children search up x-rated content online then they pretty much will never see advertisements like this.

Well I'm sure they must find me very boring as I use the same three or 4 sites, don't buy much online, don't stream tv, music or video. If they're tracking me so closely then why do amazon try recomend romatic fiction to me, I've never read it, I've never bought it for others, they just try and get me to buy airfryers, heated clothes rails and gizmos that I dont' even know what they're for let alone why I'd want one.

I do use ancestry sites and I've had DNA tests done, but, if they really want to clone me, well on thier heads be it, I'm not sure the world could cope with more than one of me.

After spending my younger years politically active in things like CND and other lefty political stuff, like Reclaim the Night marches and a lot of anti-war, anti-nuke activities, they can think what the hell they like, I still believe in those things and I think one of the biggest anti protest things that has happened recently is making people fear that they may have their name on a government list somewhere. Whilst there has always been fears about this sort of thing, I dont' think it's a good reason for not protesting, if anything it's a reason for it, overwhelm them with it. 

 Basically you-tube and the like publish this stuff because theres a market for it, We could probably spend our time more productively trying to find out why that market exists and what drives people to want it and how do we educate people better

These big corporations don't care about the safety of children, only how much money they can make. Unfortunately, controversial and inflammatory content happens to garner the most attention, regardless of how much they try to act like they "don't want" that kind of content on their platform

However much you try to reject cookies, things still appear. One thing that particularly annoys me is when you have looked at a site previously ordered from and get a message in emails asking if you forgot something or some similar message.

Can't you say if you don't like what they put etc or is that just for posts on things?

Everything we type (well, most of), every site we access, every search on Google or on an AI is stored somewhere.

It may be just fine. But it may not. It may be anonymised, or it may not. It may be sold to anyone wanting it or hacked off / stolen from the systems.

It may be just be used for friendly ads, or to track you down if you protest (say), or if autism become unfashionable, or to manipulate your vote.

Some of the things I mentioned are related to years of considering all those the statements above. For many people, it is too extreme (sometimes I agree, too).

I hope this clarifies the intent at least. In short, they all relate to fighting for our privacy.

I didn't understand any of that!

Sad state of modern life.

As Bob Monkhouse said, thirty years ago, "Sex sells. It's like a Liberal Prison Reform. 'Go to the Sex Cells!'"

This is the reason that I don't like the modern world.  It's the racy things that we see on the Internet.

Yes, I relate. It is too complex a topic because of the  interdependency of apps and the modern world.

I reckon you are aware of r/degoogle, of the free software foundation, and of f-droid where you can find newpipe (youtube viewer).

Currently there is turmoil and things are getting worse soon.

My take is to use the internet in limited ways, and usually through VPN or Tor, just as good practice.

And if I can with ethical apps. But not always can.

For OS's, there is Linux and alternatives but you may use it already.

Proton and its ecosystem is a drop in replacement for many google services. I use it too (and calendar, vpn etc.)

Hey TheCatWoman 

I certainly agree. Social media is far too toxic, and the big tech companies use that against everyone. 

I do recognise objectively it's a controversial post. I was carefully looking at the Forum's rules just to make sure I don't upset anyone. But yeah it's an important topic to raise awareness to

I don't use you-tube, the adverts drive me crazy and I'm sorry but I can't decipher the asterxed letters you've used.

I do think there's far to much harmful content online, from what I've head at least, I dont' use social media apart from here and I don't have anything that needs storage.

I don't think you should have to delete a post for raising awareness about an issue, what people do about using google or not is up to them. If anyone is seriously upset about raising awareness of issues such as this, then I think they should ask themselves why?