Fix YouTube
The video that coined 'tech fencing.' Take back your attention.
The YouTube Problem
YouTube is engineered to keep you watching. The homepage feed, the recommended sidebar, Shorts, autoplay — every pixel is designed by teams of engineers whose job is to maximize your time on the platform. PewDiePie's "I Fixed YouTube" video is where the term "tech fencing" was born. His core insight: you don't need to quit YouTube. You need to build a fence around it.
The problem isn't that YouTube has bad content. It has incredible content. The problem is that the algorithm decides what you watch instead of you deciding. You open YouTube to watch one specific video, and 90 minutes later you're watching a documentary about deep-sea creatures you never asked for. The algorithm won, and you lost an hour of your life.
The solution is friction. Make it slightly harder to mindlessly consume. Make YouTube a tool you use intentionally instead of a slot machine you pull the lever on.
The Core Setup
Install Unhook
This is the centerpiece. Unhook is a browser extension that lets you selectively remove parts of the YouTube interface. Search for "Unhook - Remove YouTube Recommended" in your browser's extension store (Firefox Add-ons or Chrome Web Store).
After installing, open the Unhook settings and disable:
- Homepage Feed — The endless scroll of recommended videos. Gone. When you open YouTube, you see a search bar and nothing else.
- Recommended/Related Videos — The sidebar that sucks you into the rabbit hole after every video. Gone.
- Shorts — YouTube's TikTok clone. Algorithmically addictive by design. Gone.
- Trending — Rage bait and clickbait. Gone.
- End Screen Cards — Those "watch next" overlays in the last 20 seconds of a video. Gone.
What's left? The search bar, your subscriptions, and your library. That's it. YouTube becomes a place where you go to watch something specific, not a place that decides what you watch.
PewDiePie described the experience: "When I open YouTube now, there's nothing there. I actually have to think about what I want to watch." That moment of having to think is the friction. It's the fence.
Install SponsorBlock
SponsorBlock is a community-powered extension that automatically skips sponsored segments in YouTube videos. Users submit timestamps for sponsor reads, intros, outros, subscription reminders, and other non-content segments. The extension skips them automatically.
It's not about hurting creators — it's about respecting your time. The average sponsored segment is 60-90 seconds. Watch 10 videos a day and that's 10-15 minutes of your life spent listening to VPN ads. SponsorBlock gives that time back.
Install it from your browser's extension store. The default settings are good — it skips sponsor segments and interaction reminders. You can customize what gets skipped in the settings.
Use RSS for Subscriptions
Here's a move most people don't know about: every YouTube channel has an RSS feed. Instead of relying on YouTube's subscription feed (which doesn't show you everything anyway — YouTube algorithmically filters your subscriptions), use an RSS reader to get a chronological list of every video from every channel you care about.
To get a channel's RSS feed URL:
https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=CHANNEL_ID
You can find a channel's ID by going to their page, clicking "About," and looking at the URL or using a site like commentpicker.com/youtube-channel-id.php.
RSS reader options:
- Feeder (Android, free) — Simple, clean RSS reader. Add YouTube channel feeds and get notifications for new videos.
- Miniflux (self-hosted) — Minimalist web-based RSS reader. Perfect if you've set up a server from the Self-Hosting guide.
- Thunderbird (desktop) — Yes, the email client also does RSS. One app for email and YouTube subscriptions.
- NetNewsWire (macOS/iOS) — Free, open-source, beautifully designed RSS reader for Apple users.
With RSS, you see every video from channels you choose, in chronological order, with no algorithm deciding what to show or hide. You control the feed. Not YouTube.
Consider Alternative YouTube Frontends
If you want to go further, alternative frontends let you watch YouTube without the YouTube interface entirely:
- FreeTube (desktop app) — A desktop YouTube client with no ads, no tracking, and a clean interface. Subscribes to channels locally (no Google account needed). Has an import feature for your existing YouTube subscriptions. Available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
- NewPipe (Android) — An alternative YouTube app for Android. No Google account needed, no ads, background playback, and download support. Install it from F-Droid (not the Play Store — Google wouldn't allow it).
- Invidious (web) — A web-based YouTube frontend you can self-host. No JavaScript required, no tracking, lightweight. Public instances exist but tend to get rate-limited by Google.
These tools strip YouTube down to its content. No recommendations, no comments (unless you want them), no Shorts, no ads. Just videos.
DNS-Level Blocking for YouTube Shorts
If you've set up Pi-Hole from the Self-Hosting guide, you can block YouTube Shorts at the DNS level. This means Shorts won't load on any device on your network — phones, tablets, smart TVs, everything.
The nuclear option: add Shorts-related domains to your Pi-Hole blocklist. This is an arms race (Google changes things frequently), but the community maintains updated blocklists. Search for "Pi-Hole YouTube Shorts blocklist" for current lists.
A softer approach: use the Unhook extension on desktop and rely on discipline on mobile, or use NewPipe on Android which doesn't have Shorts at all.
The Philosophy: Why Friction Works
The key insight from PewDiePie's approach isn't about blocking content. It's about making consumption intentional. When you remove the YouTube homepage feed, you don't lose access to any content. Every video is still there. You can still search for anything. You can still visit any channel directly.
What you lose is the autopilot. The zombie mode where you open YouTube and let the algorithm drive. That 2-second pause where you think "what do I actually want to watch?" is the entire point. That's the fence.
PewDiePie described catching himself mindlessly opening YouTube out of habit, seeing the blank homepage, and closing it again because he didn't actually want to watch anything. That's a win. That's a moment of your life you got back.
Honest Downsides
- You'll miss some discovery. The YouTube algorithm, for all its evils, does occasionally surface genuinely interesting content you'd never find on your own. When you kill the homepage feed and recommendations, you lose that serendipity. Counterpoint: curated subreddits, newsletters, and word of mouth are better discovery sources anyway.
- The setup is tedious. Finding RSS feed URLs for every channel, setting up an RSS reader, configuring Unhook, installing SponsorBlock — it takes an hour or two. It's not hard, but it's boring. The payoff comes over weeks and months.
- It requires ongoing discipline. The fence only works if you maintain it. If you disable Unhook "just for today" or start browsing Shorts "just for a minute," the habit comes back fast. The algorithm is patient. It will wait for you to lower the fence.
- Mobile is harder to fence. Unhook only works on desktop browsers. On your phone, you need NewPipe (Android) or just willpower. This is where the phone guide comes in — moving YouTube to a second profile adds that friction.
- Some extensions get broken by YouTube updates. YouTube occasionally changes their frontend code, which can temporarily break Unhook, SponsorBlock, or ad blockers. The extension developers are usually fast to update, but you'll occasionally have a day or two where things don't work perfectly.