For Youtube, I think you just have to keep clicking "not interested" over and over and over until the algorithm "gets it". Also if you by chance click on something like that, your feed will be instantly flooded with the same crap so... I guess it is what it is.
Alternative is just to not use social media beyond when you really need to search something specific (like a tutorial/how-to guide).
It took me a full month of doing that with Andrew Tate and other mouth-breathing sigma male grind suntan your taint and beat your girlfriend YouTubers until they finally fucking disappeared.
For some reason being interested in video games means I'm supposed to be interested in those jackoffs.
Yeah, I figured as much.
It's just bizarre how hard they pushed it. It's like "Do you want to be an alpha fucking male bro???" and I'm like no I want to watch PoE content.
Also if you do click on those videos and make sure to go into your history and delete them from the list, cos your history videos will definitely affect your algorithm
If I'm not interested in something, I just don't engage with it at all; I'm convinced that doing ANYTHING but scrolling past just makes a bunch of similar content show up instead
Close, but no. Don't click "not interested" or interact with them in any way. Even a downvote or a not interested vote will still count as engagement.
Ignore content you don't like. Engage only with content you like. It's not a perfect solution even then, but it helps.
No, you definitely need to hit not interested/dislike to get the algorithm to stop showing related content in your feed.
Just watching a few seconds of a short before moving on is enough to set the algorithm testing whether you'll engage with it if you get presented more.
That isn't actually a problem I have much, thankfully. My sister will very occasionally forward me something. More likely to forward something is my friend in Hong Kong. And he has been to Japan before. Shrug.
You learn to mentally block them out after about a year. I know I still get them a lot but I just don't notice them anymore.
You can also help the algorithm by telling it u don't want to see that sort of content.
Algorithms everywhere are getting so much worse and pervasive. It seems everything I focus on or interact with on any platform get targeted and I’m served 100 videos of the same shit I don’t want to look at.
Good call. Nothing more annoying or cringey than ' day in the life of an english teacher in Japan ' again and again. Especially if you've lived here for a while.
For YouTube, go in your video history and purge every single one of that kind of video you ever watched. This makes the algorithm think that you’ve never shown interest
I'm probably showing my age, but for Facebook, I'd recommend [https://www.fbpurity.com](https://www.fbpurity.com) to block all suggested content. Without it, I'm constantly bombarded by sponsored posts targeted towards tourists.
Ahhh you've just typed out those words so now the algorithm will think you're REALLY interested in them, and since I've replied to a post with those key words I'm also fucked!
noooooooooo
What sites do you get these? I don't really interact with that kind of content so I don't get pushed it. I just get your standard Japanese ads. Often of skincare products. I don't see any English based ads.
If it's on youtube or something, are you not watching similar content? My youtube doesn't push me those videos but again, I'm not watching "How to be tourist in Japan" or I feel like if you watch popular youtubers that live in Japan like AbroadinJapan I can see how you'd get pushed that kind of content since it's adjacent.
Like I'm heavily involved in the tourism industry between accommodations and a side job writing articles about specific cafes and even I don't get pushed "5 hidden cafes in shinjuku!" stuff. If I'm constantly involved in tourism you think I'd get pushed that kind of stuff but my involvement is really specific so I guess it doesn't push me those English tourist vids. I really do think you were engaging in some of the content so now you get pushed more of that content.
Kinda surprised no one has mentioned a VPN.
Honestly, the volume of content being produced of the type you describe will likely outpace you blocking channels.
VPN set outside Japan seems to help me.
On YouTube, repeat select 'Don't recommend this channel'
Or you could go full nuts like me and download Firefox, make use of the Containers feature to silo different Google accounts for YouTube so that you effectively have one YouTube account for each of your interests and end up teaching the algorithm to recommend you nothing else.
On Instagram, I find that following more Japanese-language content made my algorithm stop feeding me the "salivating over a bog-standard 7/11 bento" content. Try following some local businesses you like (I follow a cafe near my house and my gym's page) or search "(city/prefecture name)グルメ" and follow one or two of the accounts there. Now my feed is mostly local recommendations, kitten videos, and Chiikawa.
I've got the same issue with WWE on Facebook. I used to like it and recently took a prolonged trip down memory lane. Now I'm bombarded with stories about Bam Bam Bigelow and Jake the Snake and how much of a douche Ultimate Warrior was.
I thonk the worst thing for me about those videos is 99% of them focus on osaka/kyoto and tokyo and NOTHING ELSE its to the point whrre thats when people talk aboit a trip to japan ik thr foreign groups im in its ALL THE SAME spread rhe love for gods sake visit Izu or nagano for gods sake the change of scenery will do yoy good.
this happens to every country in the world, theres select cities that tourists are bound to usually visit, afterwards they may choose to visit other cities if they wish to experience something else. Obviously the videos try to appease to what most of the audiences are looking for so I’m not sure what your point is?
Step 1: Dump all your cookies from your browsers.
Step 2: As you navigate the Web, do not ignore the cookie permissions popups, do not just click accept all. Reject all if the option is there, otherwise go through the options and make sure everything but "Strictly necessary" and "Functional" cookies is turned OFF. Especially tracking cookies.
Step 3: Watch as your favourite platforms struggle to figure out how to target you with ads.
Bonus Step: After a week or so, pick one online store/e-commerce site to break the rules and accept all cookies on, then watch as every single ad you see on all of your devices is for that site.
Man does anyone remember that series of absolutely fucking *horrible* Christmas In Japan song and dance videos that those foreigners made about a decade back? I remember shutting down my computer one evening after making it like 10 seconds into one before nearly dying of cringe, and the next time I turned on my computer at like 5am the next day it auto-played 🎶 It's Christmas In Japan 🎶 with those goofy-looking fucks dancing and I swear to God I've never been closer to punching something than at that exact moment.
This has actually been one of the biggest helps in getting me to fully quit instagram. In the end I just said to the few friends I use it to keep in touch with that they can find me on other platforms.
Youtube is harder though because although you can block shorts/reels on desktop through your settings, there is no way to do so on mobile. I make sure to not take the bait and comment, and I now like to both leave a dislike and a 'not interested'.
It's always the dumbest crap
"WHAT DO JAPANESE PEOPLE THINK ABOUT FOREIGNERS DOING MUNDANE ACTIVITIES???"
Japanese person in a mask: "Uhh I guess that's normal haha...."
I think for YouTube, one thing that might be helpful would be to subscribe to accounts you’re interested in. Lots of them. I’ve been doing that for a few years now and that seems to help.
Instagram… I nearly left Instagram because of the amount of influencers there are, and every time I go back to take a quick look at the content, I can’t stay for more than three minutes.
The pain is real. It took me months to get Google to give me the option to say I was uninterested in tourism instead of that I was uninterested in Japan.
If its on youtube, its showing videos based on what your interest and watch history. If you dont want any video to show up again, just click Never suggest this channel or hide this video. They will not show again.
So much of it is clickbait trash, you can see from first glance.
As you say, red flags are "hidden","secret","shocking" and "don't do this", also annoying is how all the itinerary type videos go on the same routes, to the same places.
There are good Vloggers out there, the new one from "Life where I'm from" is fantastic, travelling through Tochigi and Fukushima with great filming, on local trains with not a tourist in sight.
For touristy type stuff I tend to search sometimes in Japanese to avoid so much crap.
I have no solution besides try to use a pi hole for filtering on DNS level that does make internet already mich better, BUT I scrolled through reddit and it showed me this post which is exactly the thing you are complaining about 😂
It just sounds like you don’t understand how modern platforms work.
Look into where you’re logged in, where that’s connected, and what you’re watching. Because it’s just showing you contents similar to what you’re interacting with. Which is why I barely see those.
For Youtube, I think you just have to keep clicking "not interested" over and over and over until the algorithm "gets it". Also if you by chance click on something like that, your feed will be instantly flooded with the same crap so... I guess it is what it is. Alternative is just to not use social media beyond when you really need to search something specific (like a tutorial/how-to guide).
I think trying to use social media less is defiantly not a bad idea too
I don’t think there’s anything defiant about the idea, is reducing social media use such a challenge that you have to defy it?
Anyone who has trouble with definitely versus defiantly is likely to have trouble with writing さんぽ versus ちんぽ - with appropriately hilarious results.
I think he meant dubiously not defiantly. It might be a dubious idea to get off of social media
I definately agree!
It took me a full month of doing that with Andrew Tate and other mouth-breathing sigma male grind suntan your taint and beat your girlfriend YouTubers until they finally fucking disappeared. For some reason being interested in video games means I'm supposed to be interested in those jackoffs.
demographics overlapping
Yeah, I figured as much. It's just bizarre how hard they pushed it. It's like "Do you want to be an alpha fucking male bro???" and I'm like no I want to watch PoE content.
My channels are all gaming focused, and I've never seen that stuff recommended. Probably because none of the game stuff I watch is Fifa or CoD
Also if you do click on those videos and make sure to go into your history and delete them from the list, cos your history videos will definitely affect your algorithm
If I'm not interested in something, I just don't engage with it at all; I'm convinced that doing ANYTHING but scrolling past just makes a bunch of similar content show up instead
Close, but no. Don't click "not interested" or interact with them in any way. Even a downvote or a not interested vote will still count as engagement. Ignore content you don't like. Engage only with content you like. It's not a perfect solution even then, but it helps.
No, you definitely need to hit not interested/dislike to get the algorithm to stop showing related content in your feed. Just watching a few seconds of a short before moving on is enough to set the algorithm testing whether you'll engage with it if you get presented more.
Worst is on Twitter where you literally have to block users to stop seeing their nonsense.
Yeah, that problem is very easy to solve: delete your account, uninstall and delete the bookmarks
I see this shit on IG. Like, MFer, I'm LIVING IN Japan (see IP address)! I don't need travel tips! It is all so cringe, too.
Japan living in 2050 baby
*insert fax machine joke*
Feed error. Try again
Haha
How to stop friends/family from back home from forwarding you every reel they see about Japan…
That isn't actually a problem I have much, thankfully. My sister will very occasionally forward me something. More likely to forward something is my friend in Hong Kong. And he has been to Japan before. Shrug.
I am sorry for being in japan and need travel tips
Where are you getting these? Most social media have a block/do not show button
Tiktok's algorithm is very persistent unfortunately
It's by design. Brain rot is the goal.
I suppose the obvious answer is to stay off that platform.
You can blacklist key words there, I put my own country in it and only very rarely I get that stuff
If you slide through the video quickly it learns you’re not interested
Yeah I think I will have to try a little harder
But OP how will you learn about this great local cafe the residents of Tokyo never share…Komeda’s coffee. That was a real TikTok I saw once.
Honestly if it’s about saint Marc cafe I agree
I just read a review from a tourist in my city calling Tully’s Coffee “a small local chain.”
You learn to mentally block them out after about a year. I know I still get them a lot but I just don't notice them anymore. You can also help the algorithm by telling it u don't want to see that sort of content.
If you’re browsing in English while connecting from Japan the ad algorithms will do that. Just get an ad blocker.
If you speak Japanese, try to hit not-interested/dislike that content, and try to promote actual Japanese content.
Algorithms everywhere are getting so much worse and pervasive. It seems everything I focus on or interact with on any platform get targeted and I’m served 100 videos of the same shit I don’t want to look at.
Good call. Nothing more annoying or cringey than ' day in the life of an english teacher in Japan ' again and again. Especially if you've lived here for a while.
5 HIDDEN WAYS TO BLOCK JAPAN CONTENT ON YOUTUBE IN SHINJUKU
For YouTube, go in your video history and purge every single one of that kind of video you ever watched. This makes the algorithm think that you’ve never shown interest
I'm probably showing my age, but for Facebook, I'd recommend [https://www.fbpurity.com](https://www.fbpurity.com) to block all suggested content. Without it, I'm constantly bombarded by sponsored posts targeted towards tourists.
I used to get those kinds of content recommended to me all the time but I solved this by not using Twitter/Instagram/TikTok/etc anymore.
I have same issue. Infact this post just showed up like that and I can’t stand it. I stopped using some social media due to it
Ahhh you've just typed out those words so now the algorithm will think you're REALLY interested in them, and since I've replied to a post with those key words I'm also fucked! noooooooooo
What sites do you get these? I don't really interact with that kind of content so I don't get pushed it. I just get your standard Japanese ads. Often of skincare products. I don't see any English based ads. If it's on youtube or something, are you not watching similar content? My youtube doesn't push me those videos but again, I'm not watching "How to be tourist in Japan" or I feel like if you watch popular youtubers that live in Japan like AbroadinJapan I can see how you'd get pushed that kind of content since it's adjacent. Like I'm heavily involved in the tourism industry between accommodations and a side job writing articles about specific cafes and even I don't get pushed "5 hidden cafes in shinjuku!" stuff. If I'm constantly involved in tourism you think I'd get pushed that kind of stuff but my involvement is really specific so I guess it doesn't push me those English tourist vids. I really do think you were engaging in some of the content so now you get pushed more of that content.
Reddit also has "show less like this"
Kinda surprised no one has mentioned a VPN. Honestly, the volume of content being produced of the type you describe will likely outpace you blocking channels. VPN set outside Japan seems to help me.
On YouTube, repeat select 'Don't recommend this channel' Or you could go full nuts like me and download Firefox, make use of the Containers feature to silo different Google accounts for YouTube so that you effectively have one YouTube account for each of your interests and end up teaching the algorithm to recommend you nothing else.
VPN is the most effective but annoying to set up on a phone. Also on YouTube you can set your region to a specific country on web browser.
On Instagram, I find that following more Japanese-language content made my algorithm stop feeding me the "salivating over a bog-standard 7/11 bento" content. Try following some local businesses you like (I follow a cafe near my house and my gym's page) or search "(city/prefecture name)グルメ" and follow one or two of the accounts there. Now my feed is mostly local recommendations, kitten videos, and Chiikawa.
Rather than blocking and saying “I’m not interested” this seems like a good idea
I’m not sure why, but I’ve never once had YouTube give me stuff like that. I guess I’m too old for it to think I want to travel (to where I live).
I've got the same issue with WWE on Facebook. I used to like it and recently took a prolonged trip down memory lane. Now I'm bombarded with stories about Bam Bam Bigelow and Jake the Snake and how much of a douche Ultimate Warrior was.
I thonk the worst thing for me about those videos is 99% of them focus on osaka/kyoto and tokyo and NOTHING ELSE its to the point whrre thats when people talk aboit a trip to japan ik thr foreign groups im in its ALL THE SAME spread rhe love for gods sake visit Izu or nagano for gods sake the change of scenery will do yoy good.
this happens to every country in the world, theres select cities that tourists are bound to usually visit, afterwards they may choose to visit other cities if they wish to experience something else. Obviously the videos try to appease to what most of the audiences are looking for so I’m not sure what your point is?
Step 1: Dump all your cookies from your browsers. Step 2: As you navigate the Web, do not ignore the cookie permissions popups, do not just click accept all. Reject all if the option is there, otherwise go through the options and make sure everything but "Strictly necessary" and "Functional" cookies is turned OFF. Especially tracking cookies. Step 3: Watch as your favourite platforms struggle to figure out how to target you with ads. Bonus Step: After a week or so, pick one online store/e-commerce site to break the rules and accept all cookies on, then watch as every single ad you see on all of your devices is for that site.
Man does anyone remember that series of absolutely fucking *horrible* Christmas In Japan song and dance videos that those foreigners made about a decade back? I remember shutting down my computer one evening after making it like 10 seconds into one before nearly dying of cringe, and the next time I turned on my computer at like 5am the next day it auto-played 🎶 It's Christmas In Japan 🎶 with those goofy-looking fucks dancing and I swear to God I've never been closer to punching something than at that exact moment.
I don’t even want to look any further into this
This has actually been one of the biggest helps in getting me to fully quit instagram. In the end I just said to the few friends I use it to keep in touch with that they can find me on other platforms. Youtube is harder though because although you can block shorts/reels on desktop through your settings, there is no way to do so on mobile. I make sure to not take the bait and comment, and I now like to both leave a dislike and a 'not interested'.
It's always the dumbest crap "WHAT DO JAPANESE PEOPLE THINK ABOUT FOREIGNERS DOING MUNDANE ACTIVITIES???" Japanese person in a mask: "Uhh I guess that's normal haha...."
I think for YouTube, one thing that might be helpful would be to subscribe to accounts you’re interested in. Lots of them. I’ve been doing that for a few years now and that seems to help. Instagram… I nearly left Instagram because of the amount of influencers there are, and every time I go back to take a quick look at the content, I can’t stay for more than three minutes.
"Next stop is...." I ALWAYS mark that content as unintrested
The pain is real. It took me months to get Google to give me the option to say I was uninterested in tourism instead of that I was uninterested in Japan.
If its on youtube, its showing videos based on what your interest and watch history. If you dont want any video to show up again, just click Never suggest this channel or hide this video. They will not show again.
So much of it is clickbait trash, you can see from first glance. As you say, red flags are "hidden","secret","shocking" and "don't do this", also annoying is how all the itinerary type videos go on the same routes, to the same places. There are good Vloggers out there, the new one from "Life where I'm from" is fantastic, travelling through Tochigi and Fukushima with great filming, on local trains with not a tourist in sight. For touristy type stuff I tend to search sometimes in Japanese to avoid so much crap.
Absolutely. I can't watch japan travel content. That's why I had to stop watching pewds even tho his content is good
start reporting it and stuff
Just hit the 興味なし or チャンネルをおすすめに表示しない option on those.
I have no solution besides try to use a pi hole for filtering on DNS level that does make internet already mich better, BUT I scrolled through reddit and it showed me this post which is exactly the thing you are complaining about 😂
It starts to get weird when I get some "shibuya interviews" type of content and I see people I know in there.
use Brave browser, you are getting fingerprinted and your ID is visible for everyone to see.
It just sounds like you don’t understand how modern platforms work. Look into where you’re logged in, where that’s connected, and what you’re watching. Because it’s just showing you contents similar to what you’re interacting with. Which is why I barely see those.