The name might already tell you what this feature does, but in case you don’t know. Cosmetic filters allows you to hide certain sections of a website. Not only ads, but many other things. Like comment sections, sidebars or annoying pop-ups.

I decided to write this as somewhat of an answer to Ru’s post about using Stylus (a tool to make custom stylesheets for websites) to hide followers and follows in Mastodon. Stylus might be a little too much for such a simple thing. Besides, having less extensions is always good to make fingerprinting more difficult.

UBlock Origin can help a lot for other use cases, I’ll share my filter list at the end to give you some filters you might want to use too.

How to use it

There are many ways to use this feature, the quickest is to simply click on UBlock’s icon. Then select the color picker icon to enter in Element Picker Mode, then click on any part of a website, to block it, you will see the element’s you choose highlighted in red, then you can click on Create to add it to your filters list.

Another way that can help you be more specific or add multiple filters at a time is to go into UBlock’s settings, then go to the “My Filters” tab, where you will see an empty input area, (unless you’ve already added some). Here you can add as many filters as you want.

Here are some of the ones I’ve added to my list.

open.spotify.com##section[aria-label="Fresh Finds"]
open.spotify.com##section[aria-label="Shows you might like"]
open.spotify.com##section[aria-label="Level up"]
open.spotify.com##section[aria-label="15 minutes or less shows"]
open.spotify.com##section[aria-label="Get creative"]
open.spotify.com##section[aria-label="Delve into the news headlines"]
open.spotify.com##section[aria-label="Shows to try"]
open.spotify.com##section[aria-label="What's trending?"]
open.spotify.com##section[aria-label="The Top Podcasts of 2020"]
open.spotify.com##section[aria-label="The Top Podcasts of 2021"]
open.spotify.com##section[aria-label="The Top Podcasts of 2022"]
open.spotify.com##section[aria-label="Episodes for you"]

! 2022-03-04 https://www.youtube.com
www.youtube.com###secondary

! 2022-03-05 https://www.youtube.com
www.youtube.com###header > .ytd-rich-grid-renderer.style-scope

! 2022-05-09 https://benign.town
benign.town##.account__header__extra__links

These filters make Youtube’s UI much more simple, and they also hide all the annoying podcast features from Spotify’s Web UI. So, I hope you find them useful.

That’s all folks, let me know if you find this features useful.

I have not watched as many videos lately, because I have been reading books and manga quite a lot, and I recently entered my community service at University (basically I work for them for free). But I still decided to take some action to reduce my temptation to lose myself into YouTube rabbit holes, since I know that even if its not a problem now, it is bound to happen in the future, as it has happened many times, despite my previous efforts.

Changing YouTube

The first thing I tried was installing an add-on that I heard of in, well, a YouTube video about distractions and such (I probably kept watching videos about that topic for a while…) named DF YouTube, which allows you to have a distraction free experience by disabling the feed, comments, recommendations, etc. However, the extension has not been updated in a while, and I realized I can just block those elements using UBlock Origin.

My main focus was to look at YouTube as its most essential form: a search engine. I only left a search bar for the main page, and the video frame, description and comments for each video page. It was all looking pretty nice, I also added the Return YouTube Dislike extension, because its nice.

At some point I restored the discover page because I tried another extension that allowed me to group subscriptions and keep track of them without an account, named PocketTube, and it didn’t show its custom feeds if I disabled the whole thing.

Changing Browser settings

Another thing I decided to do a while ago, and came quite handy now, was deleting all cookies and site data from my browser (which is still Firefox) by default, so I only white-list the websites I actually use. I decided to log out and remove YouTube from the white-list, I also assigned a Firefox container for it, so its pretty much unable to track my movements outside of itself.

However, after a couple searches or links clicked on a browser session, I can tell YouTube figures out some stuff and shows things that are actually atractive to me. Restarting the browser session can fix it, but realizing how effective it was at fingerprinting my interests, I decided to take this a step further and stop using youtube.com altogether.

Using an alternative front-end

There are YouTube alternatives such as Odysee and Peertube, but there is just not enough content for my taste, I know the purpose of all of this is to restrain my YouTube consumption, but not to such a degree just yet.

I already knew about Invidious and other YouTube front-end alternatives, but I went for a Piped instance I was already using before. There are also things like Freetube which is a native client available for Linux (and others), but I’d never had any luck with it, since it slowed down when importing my Newpipe subscriptions and was quite buggy for me.

The Piped front-end is quite light, and it worked just fine, so I decided it was worth using instead of a client. There are also some bash scripts, rofi scripts that use mpv and such, but I didn’t feel like going that far.

Also, while writing this, I decided to check out some invidious instances and realized they are not as slow as they were months ago when I first tried it, so I might consider switching to it instead, although as I said, Piped is a lot more minimal.

What about Android?

Well, if you asked that question yesterday, I would have probably told you to go with Youtube Vanced.

But YouTube Vanced is dead. Going back to Newpipe then!, I actually prefer it over Vanced, but it has some problems on Android 12, which I use, so PiP doesn’t work as well and takes over the entire screen, disabling touch for everything under it. There is an adb command I used to fix it (I don’t remember it now):

adb shell settings put global block_untrusted_touches 0

Now I can use it just fine now again, even if its still a bit less polished than Vanced and the official app. Also, keep in mind that this command can leave you vulnerable to malware.

There is another very promising client that uses the proper PiP API and works wonderfully, named SongTube which has an awesome user interface and is a bit more suited for music (as the name implies). Sadly, it doesn’t have a way to import subscriptions, which is the reason I haven’t fully switched to it, but if you don’t mind, I recommend giving it a try.

Wrapping up

YouTube is such an incredible tool, but it had turned into quite a problem for me, with suggestions and tracking that, even though I was aware of it, I chose to bear with it because of how good it is at knowing what I want.

I might still struggle to leave it behind, I know returning to its intended experience (minus the ads, clearly) is just a few clicks away for me, I could just keep using it as is, enjoy it, spend hours on it and tell nobody, but I really want to stop that.

There are tons of Vanced users migrating to Newpipe and asking for ways to log in, leave comments and even get their recommendations tab back. I know I can’t force anyone to stop depending on the algorithm, some might have legitimate reasons. But, regardless, this is what I chose to do, and I hope it helps others who are also struggling with this. Let us be the ones in control instead of delegating our consumption habits to some soulless algorithm.

I’ve thought about how cool it is to be able to pick a week, or a date and be able to know what you did in that day. I haven’t really had the time to do journaling or anything like that, but I guess this blog has kind of become that for me, although I don’t really follow any method and go by whatever I feel like writing, which I guess is yet another way of journaling.

I didn’t even know a lot of the software and tools that Edel used to track all of that stuff. So I guess I will take a look at them sometime soon, since I don’t really have such granular control over the things I currently do.

Some programs I use have decent usage statistics though. Like AntennaPod, but it still lacks daily, monthly or yearly metrics, it only keeps track of the time I’ve spent listening to each podcast I follow.

Tachiyomi also tracks my progress reading manga, and the database it keeps is pretty nice, I use Anilist to keep track of both manga and anime in the same place. I also use Backloggd to track the videogames I’ve played, as well as Letterboxd for movies I watch.

I have decided to use ActivityWatch too, I installed my app on my phone, which is sadly not dark themed, as well as the Linux client. I might put some work into the CSS or just wait for the devs to work on it, maybe its already in some setting and I’m just missing it.

Anyways, I didn’t really have that much to say today. I like the idea of keeping track of things, I hope I get some use out of the data I’m collecting, maybe I will try to make it appear in my website somehow for anyone to see using some API or something.

Another thing that kinda made me think of this is the time I’ve invested into manga reading. The one I am reading like crazy since I finished Solo Leveling is Kingdom, the story is so good and its starting to take away my time from other things, I love the battles and action, its a lot easier to follow and feels much more realistic, despite a few fantasy elements here and there.

I just realized I spent 5 hours reading it today, 6 yesterday, despite having classes today, I got quite distracted this time, which is bad, because I don’t want to end up doing “just enough” to pass, since I know I can do a lot better. I’ll probably read some more before going to sleep, but I have to restrain myself since school is starting to get serious again.

Anyways, this is day 98 of #100DaysToOffload, right on time.

By now its old news, but the Twitch leak happened the same day I was getting my vaccine, and while waiting I talked a friend who was worried about the security of his account, turns out, both of us as soon as we woke up changed our passwords and got ready to get the shot (Astra Zeneca btw).

Regardless, because of this and other conversations in the Fediverse, I decided to check my accounts once again, change some passwords and enable multi-factor authentication everywhere I could. I already had a ton of accounts with it, but I knew I had ignored some sites since I didn’t care enough back then, or I didn’t bother to find the option.

Basically, MFA allows you to get a unique code that changes over time. This means that even if someone gets access to your password, they only have 30 seconds to try and guess the code until it changes. Sadly, not every website implements this feature properly. Twitch for example, requires you to add your phone number first, even if you don’t use MFA via SMS and use an authenticator app, the most recommended way of getting the codes.

I was sad to see that less than a third of all my online accounts provided good MFA support. I have like 150 accounts total, and I used to have a lot more, and while some don’t really need it (local accounts, router passwords), there are is a big amount of sites that don’t even bother for some reason.

Some interesting places that do not offer Multi-Factor authentication are the following:

• Vivaldi: While I really like this browser, the lack of OTP based MFA was a little annoying, they have an Encryption password that is just a second password apart from the one you set yourself, however, both are of the something your know type (which is not enough, at all), while MFA is something you have. It looks like there is a thread about implementing MFA in their forums, so hopefully the devs work on it soon.
• Matrix: I kinda want to give Matrix a pass, even tho there is no TOTP based authentication, it still requires something you have, in this case, another device, to authenticate your session and gain access to encrypted chats. Still, there is a lot of metadata still accessible, which can be very very compromising.
• Spotify: It does not surprise me at all, this streaming service is getting more and more problematic as time goes on. I still use it, because it is convenient, and I can’t afford to pay for music in something like Bandcamp. Still, no way to secure an account.
• HackerNews: This is a news aggregator that is quite similar to Reddit. To me, all the data here is basically worthless, I do use it but I don’t comment often. Still, it would be sad to have to remove the email alias I assigned to it in case there is some leak.
• Wikipedia: Well, this is the place I get my homework from. Everyone can contribute, there are a lot of articles about basically everything. As far as I could tell, while this account is not important for me either, no MFA still sucks. Fandom, another Wiki used to create sites for specific topics, comics, movies, etc does not support it either.

There are many other sites that don’t have MFA and there are also some that surprisingly delivered. Stuff like the WCA, which is a site that keeps tracks of speedcubing competitions and world records is the kind of website that I would expect to not have the highest security, and yet, they actually did it. Mathworks and Autodesk also have it, which is quite surprising, especially taking into account that National Instruments nor Texas Instruments offer the option (Yes, I study Engineering btw)

Anyways, this is a friendly reminder to check if you have MFA enabled in all of your accounts that support it, and its important to encourage the developers of every account you log into, so they get to work on it.

This has been day 58 of #100DaysToOffload. I once again took a while to post something, but that’s how it is sometimes. Anyways, have a good day!

So, social media has been quite useful for humanity, however, it has also become a big problem among people of all ages and demographics. Personally, I have been affected by it differently as I grow up and develop my thoughts and lifestyle.

The first contact I had with social media, was MSN Live Messenger, I used to talk to people I knew, play online games and of course, ping them constantly until I had an answer from them!

But I was just a little kid, and I only talked to family or friends from school. I was still inside this little bubble where I had no real idea of how big the internet could be. I also had a Club Penguin, but despite being in a multiplayer environment, the social aspect of it flew over my head at the time.

It was not until middle school, that I got an android device, I got Whatsapp, and got engaged into looking for apps and customization. At one point, I created a Facebook account. I was not allowed to have one, and I felt incredibly guilty the moment I did it, so I actually did not use it for years.

However, after I got permission to use it, I ended up pretty addicted to it, I joined different groups and follow random pages that were popular or that I heard from classmates at school. Some of them were fine, others were a little bit to edgy, and I was constantly distracted by memes and mostly useless posts. As I grew up, I started to delete old groups and follow more meaningful topics for me. And of course, due to all of this, I was feeding Facebook with personal data and ad revenue.

At some point I realized how problematic this was for my life. I managed to stay with good grades and keep up with real life shenanigans. But I still felt attracted to my phone and to Facebook.

I would like to say I stopped using Facebook because I started to use my phone and social media less. But no, looking back, the reason I did, was because I started to learn English, and I joined Reddit. I had heard of it for a long time, and it was actually pretty amazing. I started to see how most of the memes I saw in Facebook where born there, I got interested by the sense of anonymity and separation. How nobody cares about you, but the content being shared in the subreddits.

I joined a few communities related to my interests, Doctor Who, Origami, but I also joined a bunch of places full of toxicity and gossip. Yeah it was nice to see how news and memes came out here first, seeing how Youtubers got ideas for their videos and stuff like that. But at the same time, I started to be surrounded by politics, debates, conspiracies and a lot of weird things that I was not really interested in seeing, and yet, there I was. I am probably going to clean up my subreddit list one of these days, or just start from scratch with a new account. It is kinda amazing how powerful reddit’s Karma can be, I have a decent amount, and only because of that I have doubts about getting rid of my account, even though it has no real value.

At some point I also had a Twitter account, but I successfully deleted it. I have to say I only had it to participate in Giveaways of app codes and such, and I actually won a couple times, but well.

Anyways, after I grew aware of how most of social media disrespects my privacy, I ended up looking for alternatives, and I found Mastodon, which a social media app similar to Twitter, which can be self-hosted, so all of your data stays with you. Or you can join instances hosted by people you are willing to trust. The point is, there is no single centralized server where everything you do is tracked. At first, I decided to join a bunch of instances, since I did not know how federation actually worked back then. I have found some nice people, and I have been inspired to do things to improve my life, like making this website! Thanks to it, I have a way to share my thoughts without having unwanted eyes all over my data. Of course, anyone could scrap this and make some profile to identify me, but well, I am saying this willingly, without having to abide to any terms of service. Even if Netlify or GitHub, where this is site is hosted, have anything against me, I can at least keep all of my information locally and host it somewhere else.

Detox Day Log

Anyways, the original reasoning I made this post was to share what I was going to do during this day. Besides writing this blog, I have spent quite some time contributing some icons to the Arcticons Icon pack, while listening to podcasts on YouTube and AntennaPod.

Being honest, I opened Mastodon for about 4 minutes until I remembered which day it was, and I also opened Reddit for 8 minutes because I forgot again. But other than that, I have avoided social media, enabled Do not disturb, deleted some apps. I even decided to leave Nova Launcher, which has been my choice for years, and tried out Olauncher once again! I hid all of my those distracting app icons and ended up with a pretty sick looking setup, if I do say so myself.

After some though, I’ve also requested my data from Reddit. There is no way to export my data from the usual settings menu, but it can requested via this link. I’ve decided to finally delete my account. Having a history and social media points is not that important, and some peace of mind should be quite good.

After listening to the latest episode of Darknet Diaries, which is about the problems someone got because of having a good Instagram username. The fact that an account can be that valuable is mind-blowing! Thankfully none of the usernames I’ve used are worthy enough for someone to harass me because of them.

Finishing thoughts

So, I started writing all of this yesterday, during Detox Day, and this final words are done a day after. I hope this movement takes off, in my case, I did not found a lot of movement in my country and language, although that might be because Facebook and other common social media I don’t use are more common here. Anyways, I found myself having a decent time, but I have to admit I spend quite a lot of it on YouTube, but it was not that bad, since I mostly use it as background sound and, as previously stated, to listen to a few podcasts and long videos that are only available there.

I deleted my Reddit account, funnily enough, the exported data only occupies a couple megabytes, since it does not include the images and videos, just csv files and hyperlinks. I think I will keep most of the posts and comments there since they don’t contain any compromising information. This is mostly about getting rid of social media and less about gaining privacy, although it is a nice plus. I’ve also exported my Instagram data, and I might delete it sometime soon.

The journey has been difficult, but I am happy with my progress. This has been day 51 of #100DaysToOffload

All of these have some things in common, but sometimes the way current technology has evolved makes them hard to combine. I don’t really have an organized way to talk about this, but I will do my best.

Digital minimalism

This is one of those topics that got big on Youtube and other places last year, and is still going strong. Applying a minimalist mindset to the technology around me is supposed to help achieve a simpler digital life, have less distractions and more time to focus on what actually matters. Some of the ways to become a digital minimalist, are these ones.

• Get rid of unnecessary applications
• Disable notifications
• Enable downtime mode (black & white screen)
• Limit social media and app usage
• Use Cloud storage, organize folders, etc.

Privacy and Security

I have started to care about this more and more. Ever since beginnings of last year that I installed Linux, as well as started to use alternative social media such as Mastodon. I cared about new and interesting topics that are starting to get a bit more recognized, but also get some backlash.

Decentralization, Free and Open Source Software, avoiding Google and big companies, avoiding mainstream social media, etc.

All of these factors have shaped the way I see society and the Internet today, and it is quite a big reason to why I made this blog.

Customization

Ever since I got my first android phone, I started caring about this, I learned about Icon packs, about android launchers, rooting, custom roms, custom kernels.

The abilities to change almost everything I wanted about my phone, is something I’ve loved from android since I got one.

It is also a good reason I started to care about FOSS too, since I also like to find alternatives to common apps, like Gmail, Facebook, the default gallery and so on. Thanks to that I found out about 3rd party clients (Frost, Twidere,) and alternative apps (Simple Gallery, Bromite) that were more customizable, and better overall.

Side note: I actually just remembered that I started customizing Windows XP quite a lot even before I got a phone, I also remember changing my MSN Messenger themes or how my Hotmail account was organized, so yeah, I have liked customization quite a lot.

Social media

I first started a Facebook account because I needed it on order to play a mobile game, I did it in secret, since I was not allowed to have one at the time (I hid the secret for 3 or so years, I felt so bad during that time, that I actually didn’t use it and I stopped playing the game after a week).

Thats how everything started, but years ago, after I confessed what I did, there was this time I wanted to be using social media to get attention and stuff (like every teenager), you know, uploading photos of my origami figures, or videos doing magic tricks and stuff that I liked. I was in groups of other people sharing their own videos and photos and stuff like that. After a while I realized how terrible Facebook was for my own good, since I spent so much time there and it wasn’t worth it.

However, after leaving Facebook behind, I started using Reddit, Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube even more, until I adopted a more minimal digital life (kinda?).

What was my point again?

I think this got a bit convoluted and I don’t really remember what I wanted to say at this point. I have been thinking about this and I kinda wanted to let it out.

I think I just wanted to spread the cards and see the way I am currently working. I am still trying to get a better workflow. For example, I still rely on services such as Google Docs or Google Drive (Digital minimalism, decluttering, etc), at the same time, I don’t want to use Google apps on my device in favor of F-Droid and FOSS (security and privacy), however, I like to have my phone rooted and with a custom rom (customization, freedom). All of this while I worry about how people around me still don’t switch from WhatsApp, even tho I still don’t delete Facebook nor Instagram, but maybe I should not and just use them in a different manner?.

Sometimes I just want to not care about anything and do whatever I want to do, as well as let other go on. But at the same time I don’t want to look like a victim, or as if I am suffering because of taking this path. I want more people to know about this, not to stay away from it. I dont even know what I am saying now. This has been day 14 of #100DaystoOffload, and I hope that I talk about some of these topics at some point in a way that makes better sense.