I find YouTube addictive. I go there to watch an informational video, and, BAM, the video recommendations beg me to watch something else.

But I found a way to stop the vicious cycle. Turning off my YouTube history. Once you kill the history, YouTube will be a blank slate.

YouTube Homepage with the text "Your watch history is off" demonstrates no example videos shown by default.

How to Turn Off YouTube History#

First, navigate to Google's Data & Privacy Page. Then, you'll see a setting called 'YouTube History.' Hit 'pause,' and your YouTube history will no longer be factored into recommendations.

But we must continue. YouTube will keep recommending videos that match your existing history even though you have paused new history from happening.

To delete all your history, you will need to click on the 'YouTube History' and then hit delete

The YouTube History page shows that it is not currently being saved with a delete button at the bottom to delete the existing history.

If you have followed the steps, you should have deleted all your YouTube History and paused the creation of any new history.

What Are the Pros and Cons of Removing YouTube History?#

It's an age-old conundrum: The more 'private' you are, the less relevant your ads and recommendations will be. Some people say, "My information is already out there; I might as well capitulate to Big Corp®."

With Google, YouTube, Instagram, etc., I have found that these technologies are expertly crafted to be ADDICTIVE, not practical or helpful. Any utility is overshadowed by the rabid A/B testing designed to increase 'active user minutes.'

I would rather keep as much user behavior data as I can out of the hands of advertising companies like Google.

What YouTube is like post-history scrubbing#

Now, if a friend sends me a YouTube video or I have to look something up, I only watch one video, and there is no enticement to keep watching more videos. I notice the following changes:

  1. The YouTube homepage is blank (Thank Goodness)
  2. When I watch a video, all the suggested videos in the sidebar and preview are directly related to the video. For example, if I watch a video called 'How to Tie a Tie,' I only see recommendations related to tying ties. There's no sneaky business happening where I get recommended videos based on what I have watched.
YouTube thumbnails at the end of a video about tying ties show related videos. The sidebar also shows videos related to tying ties.

Personally, I like the change. Each video is a clean slate, and I am not 'sucked into YouTube' like I used to. If you need help with the addictiveness of YouTube, I hope you'll try the history wipe and let me know how it works for you.