YouTube Is Dead, I’ve Been Throttled
It’s finally happened, I’ve been throttled.
I use AdBlock, no, I use the Brave browser. For my hatred of advertisements knows no bounds, as there is something within me that resists mechanisms of institutional programming. When I see an ad, I get the sudden urge to vomit, to spit acid before recoiling defensively. Merchants have no place on my screen, in my dwelling, in my car, or anywhere else. They are a malignant cancer, a thing which wishes to spread everywhere and anywhere it can. Unlike mold, it grows in the light, then attacks governments, people, and canibalizes even itself. LinkedIn and YouTube have begun the process of self-cannibalism. Hollowing out the core of their userbase before consuming all the rest. Enshitification is the official phrase for this type of behavior. Lure the users in with a great website or app, before suddenly changing policies (alongside the nature of the platform itself) in an attempt to extract as much profit as possible.
I have no clue as to whether or not this type of aggressive gambit actually works. What I do know, however, is that whenever it occurs, I simply leave. I’ll ghost my account, leave my posts, and move to another platform. At this point, however, (now that I know the game) I post on my own website. It started with Quora, where I built up to 7k followers over five years, before the platform changed and became filled with ads and all sorts of weird shit posts. I later moved to LinkedIn, where the platform has suddenly pushed users to pay for boosted posts over allowing for organic traffic. Not to mention that I rarely see anything from anyone I’m connected with. No comments or posts anymore. Instead, I get to deal with weird, insulting “suggested” posts from idiots I despise. Clowns, of whom I’ve left other platforms specifically to avoid.
YouTube is dead, the video platform that I’d browsed for years has been completely hollowed out. I mostly blame private equity for this, since they’ve begun buying YouTube channels outright for reasons unknown. More corporate pillaging, more profit, less meaning, less engagement. It seems like these types have an obsession with chasing people around. Much like Russia has for chasing the Slavic people around Eastern and Central Europe. They just can’t help themselves; they have to have them, they must be made miserable at all costs.
At this point, YouTube has begun throttling videos whenever it detects that I’m using AdBlock. This is the last straw for me; I’m done, time to move on.
Hello! We’re D.J. Hoskins
We are Davena and Jason Hoskins, co-authors of 40+ books and siblings who write under the pseudonym D.J. Hoskins. Three years apart and in our twenties, we have been fascinated by stories from a young age. Davena is a student attending Princeton University, and Jason attends Georgetown University.
