Ask HN: Has your YouTube usage decreased?

Yes. Want to spend more time reading and there was never a better opportunity than the great enshitification of youtube. I’ll still be following some niche channels with less frequency as well as archive as much as stuff I want to have offline without all the dark patterns and distractions.

I've never actually encountered the issue of YT blocking ad-blockers. Currently running Chromium 119 on Pop OS. I don't subscribe to premium or anything like that.

Yes, but not due to adblocking -- I keep history off, and the recent change to show a blank homepage when history is disabled has caused me to simply turn away from the homepage rather than mindlessly clicking links from there. (My homepage actually used to be decent before, since the suggestions were based on my likes. No longer, oh well, helped me kick the habit.)

Baking Soda/Vinegar still work on Safari. Still no ads. There’s some evidence they’re attempting to block them maybe once every ten plays, but I just hit refresh and it works.

Me too. YouTube has tons of content I can't find anywhere else. Talks, lectures, how-to's on all kinds of stuff. And sometimes it's very easy for me interact with the creators.