I can relate far too much with the YouTube "Watch Later" bloating phenomenon.... I recently (last year I guess) did a YT-Sub-Purge, where I went through all my Subscriptions, and really asking myself "Do I *really* care about this anymore? Do I *REALLY* watch these videos, do they excite me when I see them, or do they just get banished to the Watch Later pile?
I went from somewhere north of 250 subscriptions, to about half. And honestly, the moment I was unsubbed, I didn't really miss any of them since. Besides, the YT Algorithm is good enough to sometimes still recommend me a video of someone I used to watch, when they have an interesting or relevant video.
Anyhow, the next step for me was nuking the Watch Later wastebin. That was tough. There's this voice in my head saying "But I swear, I SWEAR THIS ONE IS INTERESTING, AND THAT ONE TOO, I don't want to forget about those!?" - and you have to just yeet it. It's hard to do, but you'll forget about it quickly after you've done it - because, as it turns out, you don't really care as much as you think you do.
Anyhow, after all this, I've been quite strict. I use "Watch Later" as a short queue, and if I find that I'm not watching something within a few days of adding it, I yeet it. And, 95% of the time, promptly forget that it ever existed. Sometimes I come back and go hmmm well I did have something queued up and now I'm in the mood to watch it; then I can just search it up manually after all.
Not sure if this is helpful, but as a fellow YT addict, I found I could really relate to what you wrote about it 🙃
I can relate far too much with the YouTube "Watch Later" bloating phenomenon.... I recently (last year I guess) did a YT-Sub-Purge, where I went through all my Subscriptions, and really asking myself "Do I *really* care about this anymore? Do I *REALLY* watch these videos, do they excite me when I see them, or do they just get banished to the Watch Later pile?
I went from somewhere north of 250 subscriptions, to about half. And honestly, the moment I was unsubbed, I didn't really miss any of them since. Besides, the YT Algorithm is good enough to sometimes still recommend me a video of someone I used to watch, when they have an interesting or relevant video.
Anyhow, the next step for me was nuking the Watch Later wastebin. That was tough. There's this voice in my head saying "But I swear, I SWEAR THIS ONE IS INTERESTING, AND THAT ONE TOO, I don't want to forget about those!?" - and you have to just yeet it. It's hard to do, but you'll forget about it quickly after you've done it - because, as it turns out, you don't really care as much as you think you do.
Anyhow, after all this, I've been quite strict. I use "Watch Later" as a short queue, and if I find that I'm not watching something within a few days of adding it, I yeet it. And, 95% of the time, promptly forget that it ever existed. Sometimes I come back and go hmmm well I did have something queued up and now I'm in the mood to watch it; then I can just search it up manually after all.
Not sure if this is helpful, but as a fellow YT addict, I found I could really relate to what you wrote about it 🙃