Here is one way to stop binging on YouTube so much

Look at those cute cats. Just one more video and I’m done for the day. Promise! One of the many appeals of YouTube is the site’s vast assortment of videos. There is probably nothing that you cannot watch on YouTube, with the exception of prohibited content of course. If you find a video you like, there is a good chance that hundreds, thousands or even more videos exist that are similar.

Google does a good job of pushing video recommendations to users. You get them on the startpage, while watching videos, and even after watching videos. Some vides may also autoplay after you finish watching a video. While it does not mean that these recommendations are great, they are not sometimes, they do parade new content in front of your eyes all the time.

In fact, you could probably spend the whole day on autopilot on YouTube without ever running out of something to watch.

Google knows that recommendations are key to keep users on the site. The more it knows about its users, the more likely it is that the next video may be of interest. Yes, YouTube gets it wrong at times.

I get a lot of Turkish video recommendations on YouTube, even though I do not speak the language and never watched a single Turkish video on the site. Still, most of the time, you get more of the same, which many users seem to like.

Binging may be a problem for some, especially if it keeps you from something more important. Some YouTube users seek for ways to limit binging on the site. While it may be easy for some, all it takes is to close the YouTube tab and that is that, it can be really difficult for others.

Read on to find out about one way that may help you with your binging on YouTube, at least a bit.

Stop binging on YouTube

One of the ways that YouTube may get you is through recommendations on the homepage. Open the YouTube homepage and you will see a list of recommendations. YouTube uses the watch history to show recommendations. The main intent is to provide users with something new to watch. This keeps them on the site and Google earns money through video ads and other ads on the site.

If you turn off the watch history, and delete all watched items, then you won’t get any recommendations on YouTube’s homepage anymore. It is a simple option that does require a Google account.

You could create a simple Google account for that, if you don’t want to stay signed-in on YouTube.

Here is how you disable the watch history on YouTube:

1. Open the YouTube website.
2. Sign-in to a Google account, if you have not done so already.
3. Activate the profile icon in the top right corner and select “Your data in YouTube”.
4. Scroll down to YouTube controls.
5. Check the “YouTube Watch History” status. If it reads on, click on the “on” line.
6. On the page that opens, select “turn off”.
7. An overlay with information opens. It tells you that you can only pause the history, not stop it entirely. Scroll down until the pause button becomes active and activate it.
8. Select “Delete old activity” on the next page to delete information about previously watched videos.
9. Select “all time” on the page that opens.
10. Select “delete” on the next page to finally delete the information.
11. Select “Got it” to go back to the main page.

When you go back to YouTube now, you should see no recommendations on the startpage.

You could also hide YouTube Shorts, especially if you do not find Shorts useful on the site, but happen to tune in from time to time anyway.

Closing Words

Obviously, not everyone may want to stay signed-in on YouTube just to limit binging on the video site. Working on self-control may also help. You could, for instance, make sure that everything else is done already before launching YouTube.

Another option that you have is to download YouTube videos instead of watching them online. Use a program like Vividl and download the video that interests you. You can play it locally then and do not get any recommendations while playing the video or afterwards.

Now You: do you binge on something?