Why You Must Reset your Youtube History Frequently If not Everyday (Hint — Mental Wellness & Freedom) & How.

Today most of us spend a big part of our lives on social media platforms consuming recommended content more than we started our search for. Platforms like Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, etc., etc., affect how we see the world regularly in a significant way.

You may say that there is a reason for this feature. We may want to see those recommended videos, and yeah, it’s okay when you are being recommended topics on Painting, Great new Gadgets, or some sports, which you will get anyway if you have subscribed to appropriate channels with great content. And use can use search for a specific need.

The Problem

The moment you open even a single video that is somewhat sensitive, something political in nature, something as small as a slapping video, platforms start pouring in content 👌 that is hard to resist. These videos keep getting stronger, making you open multiple tabs or saving some links for later.

I have seen people having radical views on religion after seeing how one type has done wrong to the other; I have seen people getting radical for feminism and some people getting extreme against feminism; the same is the case for political parties. The biggest surprise is that the platform does not try to mix the for and the against content. If you have searched how X is terrible, you will be recommended 100 videos of how it is awful, and not a single one will be against that point of view.

But we know that these platforms exist with the sole purpose of making money, it's understandable what they do.

See, What we believe…, we attach it with our identity, our ego, and we will enjoy as long as the content confirms it, but as soon as the video says otherwise, it hurts our ego/identity, and we get scared, moving on to the next video, businesses do not want that (🙇‍♂️ you must watch as long as possible).

The Reason

Today is the generation of Machine learning, where everybody wants to use the technology to understand data better and make the right decisions, and this is what companies like Facebook, Youtube, and others are using to recommend that perfect video that you will most likely watch by just using your history.

If you are confused about machine learning, then here's the simple explanation without any jargon — a technology that uses data to learn something, like using one-month weather data to predict future climate or using your online activity to recommend an advertisement or a VIDEO.

Solution

Just Delete the history, if not every day, then maybe every week, if not all of it, at least the ones you think are political in nature. There are two types of history on Youtube, Watch history and Search history. I prefer to pause the search history and delete the watch history after every few days.

Since search history is paused, I can freely search for videos according to my needs without affecting my recommendations.

To guide your recommendations, what you want to be recommended, I suggest you subscribe to the proper channels, which will lead to videos from those channels and other similar channels with similar content.

Let's see how one can delete the histories on the following platforms:

Youtube (Browser):

1. Go to the homepage
2. click on the History option from the left panel.
3. Choose your option from the right side of the History page.

Youtube (Android and iOS):

1. Open the app.
2. Go to the library from the bottom.
3. Choose history; here, you can remove one video at a time.
4. To remove all of the histories, click on the three dots in the top-right corner, choose history controls, and clear the watch or search history.

Facebook (Browser):

You can also delete your activity from the app, but it only allows you to delete one item at a time. Hence you can use a browser of your PC, Mac, Android, or iOS.

Go to your profile and choose your activity log, there you will find the option to delete one or many items.

Conclusion

Your mindset should be your decision only or maybe some other person if you prefer, but leaving it to an algorithm that does not know any limits is not a good idea.

Take care.