I have become a regular YouTube user relatively recently.
The video platform, which first launched in 2005, wasn't something I spent much time with during its first decade of existence. I had heard that Google bought it and that it was popular with kids.
I saw parents put a tablet in their kids' hands at the mall or the airport and let them see what the kids watch on YouTube (an entirely different discussion for another time), and I heard about the first YouTube influencers who started to earn real money on the platform. But it was the '20s and early '10s, and there was a lot of that going around, so it was mostly just background noise.
It wasn't until my first computer science courses in 2015 that I started using the platform with some regularity, almost exclusively for programming tutorials to help me navigate C++ memory allocation or how to program a game in Unreal Engine.
I was a free user back then and you know the saying: if you don't pay for a product, are the product. The ads weren't that bad at first, but once YouTube got an idea of who I was (a thirty-something man living in the US interested in computers), that quickly changed.
YouTube ads are some of the worst I've ever seen.
If you know it, you know it. The types of ads targeted at my demographic can be ridiculously bad at best, and downright offensive and maddening at worst (I'm looking at you). Evony: The Return of the King).
For almost a decade as a casual YouTube user, it never occurred to me to pay for a premium subscription. After all, ads are the price you pay for free media and always have been. They're annoying, sure, but without ads, the media you're consuming can't exist without you paying for it.
But hey, there are only so many misogynistic mobile game ads you can watch over and over again before you're done. In early 2024, I started watching various craft videos much more regularly than my computer science and programming content.
Initially, this was just a form of white noise that I used when working or testing computer hardware on a test bench in our New York office, but I soon discovered that there was a certain meditative quality to watching someone make a kitchen knife from Damascus steel. without comment, or using workshop tools and a lathe to carve a stunning wooden vase.
As you can imagine, my algorithm was now really messed up and the targeted ads I received weren't for normal things like, I don't know, woodworking tools or maybe shop equipment. Hell, try selling me some outerwear from Carhart and maybe I'll buy it.
No, my demonstration as a fully identified middle-aged man, my meditative background watching a group of guys silently setting up a rig in their backyard was interrupted every few minutes by ads for mobile games that look like they were created by the absolute. The worst people on 4chan.
I won't detail what exactly was wrong with these ads (leaving aside the fact that none of the games shown are what you'd get if you played these social, cash-in city builders that are packed with microtransactions). But many of you know exactly what kind of juvenile, gross nonsense I'm talking about. If you don't, consider yourself lucky.
YouTube Premium saved my sanity
I don't know exactly how I found YouTube Premium, but I do remember that the only thing I saw was that it meant watching all YouTube content ad-free.
I signed up for YouTube Premium on the spot and haven't looked back since. I don't even know what other features come with the subscription. I really don't care.
Before you bombard me with emails, yes, I know ad blockers exist, but I won't use them. Monetization for YouTube creators is a tricky thing, but blocking ads doesn't help them keep doing what they do, and an ad blocker can always disable you or introduce security vulnerabilities into your browser, and so on.
Here's the thing. We probably all have more streaming subscriptions than we actually use. So if you're like me and spend a lot of time on YouTube, consider upgrading to YouTube Premium. You'll save yourself a lot of hassle, headaches, and sanity in the process.