My biggest time sink had grown to become YouTube. It’s the algorithm. It just kept upchucking what it thought I should watch. Video after video, engaging but ultimately useless. I could burn through the better part of an entire evening watching absolute junk leaving me feeling like I’d just wasted what could have been a productive evening. I hate life in the algorithm.

And then I discovered I could turn off YouTube’s search history and recommendations entirely. Now when I visit YouTube I’m presented with a clean slate, a completely blank page. No recommendations, no algorithm. That leaves it up to me to enter a search term to find videos. So what do I type in the search bar? Usually the term “ham radio” which causes plenty to appear, however, most of it sucks. I mean really sucks.

I’ve come to learn there are thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, videos created to explain why ham radio died. Or is dying. Or shrinking. Where did all the hams go? I’ve watched a few of them and they aren’t very good. Unless you’re just damned determined to waste an evening doomscrolling all the worst about the hobby you supposedly love. It’s a pitiful way to spend any time at all.

The good news for me is next time I visit YouTube the page is blank again and now I don’t search for “ham radio” content, I search more specifically. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of good amateur radio video content available. Just don’t let the algorithm feed your brain a load of tripe from a guy who has been licensed two weeks, recently got his feelings bruised at a local club meeting, and is now determined to explain why the hobby is dying.

It’s free content, but you still won’t get your money’s worth.