In the past, people learned about what was happening in the world through letters from other people. Word of mouth also played a significant role in how people connected with information. A person tells the story, and those who listen will tell it to others. Then came the newspapers, radio shows, and TV shows. For a while, people learned about the news through these. But now, there’s a new method. Social media platforms have become many people’s go-to places to look for information.
How do you use social media? Some people use it to connect with their friends and family members. Others use it primarily for entertainment purposes. That’s expected, as most of these platforms are designed with those in mind. However, some platforms also serve unintended purposes.
YouTubing is now one of the most lucrative careers, one that can be started from simply buying real YouTube views. The best thing about it is that you don’t need a degree to become a YouTuber. Even children have been helping their families earn millions by starring in videos on this platform.
Many new social media platforms are rising. For users, that’s good news because it means they will have more options. On the other hand, existing social media platforms do not like that as much. It means they will have to compete with many companies for the attention and time of viewers.
In the age of computers, people have plenty of options to make a living. Artists can sell their services on websites like Fiverr, while photographers can advertise themselves through Instagram. Meanwhile, other people can do “live selling” on platforms like TikTok and Facebook.
It’s a great time to be alive. You can use social media platforms not just to connect with people and share your love for something but also to earn money. And the money you can get from these platforms is not negligible. You can earn millions a year if you perform well.
However, there’s a problem that needs addressing. Toxicity is common on social media platforms. You will inevitably meet some trolls.
These trolls may berate you in your comments section. Also, they may attack your other viewers through hate speech and disinformation. You may be forced to release an uncharacteristic video to respond when they do that. That may throw your audience and other people who stumble upon your channel off.
Another thing they can do is encourage others to dislike your videos. While viewers can no longer see the dislike count, you can. And it can be disheartening to see that, of all metrics, go up. That’s bad for your mental health. Furthermore, that may push you to quit YouTubing.
So, are you powerless against them? Not necessarily. You can use a feature to stop them from causing you trouble. Like in other social media platforms, you can block users on YouTube to stop giving them more YouTube views.
How Does The Block Feature on YouTube Work?
On other social media platforms, blocking a person disables them from seeing and contacting you. For example, on Facebook, blocked users can’t message you. Aside from that, they can’t see your profile, posts, and comments anywhere on Facebook. They also can’t send you a friend request.
Does the same thing happen on YouTube? Unfortunately, that’s not the case. If they are content creators, their videos may still appear in your feed and recommendations. Also, they can still see your videos.
They can still comment on your videos too. However, their comments will not increase the comment count. More importantly, only they can see those comments. That stops them from attacking you or spreading hate in your comment section.
They can still react to your video by leaving a like or a dislike. The same thing goes for comments of other people on your videos.
Even though the blocking feature of YouTube is not as strong as that of Facebook, it is better than nothing.
How To Block YouTube Users on A Desktop
Launch the web browser of your choice, then open the YouTube website. Next, visit the channel you want to block. You can put their channel name in the YouTube search bar to get there. But if you can’t remember their channel name, you can check your comment section. Click their name to get to their channel.
Next, go to the About section in their channel. That tab will show you their channel description and when they joined YouTube. But that’s not important. What you want to look for is the flag-shaped Report User button. It is under the Stats section.
Click that button to access a drop-down menu. You can select “Block User” then “Submit” to disallow them from commenting on your videos. Also, you can click on the “Report User” option to make YouTube review their account.
When reporting a user, always choose the appropriate option for best results. You can flag them for harassment/cyberbullying, impersonation, violent threats, child endangerment, hate speech, spam, and scams. Also, you can report them for having content with your private information on it.
YouTube monitors flag users 24/7 to determine whether they adhere to the Community Guidelines or need to be penalized.
How To Block YouTube Users On the Android and iOS Apps
Blocking YouTube users on the YouTube smartphone apps is straightforward. Doing it would not take a minute.
Open the YouTube app on your smartphone. Then, visit the channel you want to block. Again, you can check your comment section if you can’t remember their channel name.
Then, click on the three dots at the top right corner of your screen. Choose “Block User” and confirm by choosing “Block.”
You can report the said user. Choose the appropriate category, then click “Next.” The next page will let you specify which are the abusive video/s that YouTube should check. You can do or skip that step. Next, add additional notes if you want to. And last, tap “Submit.”
Stopping YouTube Channels From Appearing in Your Homepage Recommendations
Unfortunately, there’s no way to make your content invisible to others and vice versa. However, you can stop a channel’s videos from appearing in your homepage recommendations. That way, you will only see their channels when you visit them or in search results.
Here’s how you can do that.
Desktop
Open the YouTube website on a web browser and log into your account. If you are already there, click the Home button or the YouTube logo to go back to your home page.
Find a video from the channel you want to block. Then, click on the three dots next to the title of that video. Note that it is not immediately visible. To make the three dots appear, hover your mouse over the title or thumbnail of the video.
Click “Don’t Recommend Channel,” which should do the trick.
Android & iOS
Launch the YouTube app on your Android or iOS device. Then, find a video from the channel you don’t want to see on your Home recommendations. Unlike YouTube on a web browser, you can immediately see the three dots next to the video title. Tap “Don’t Recommend Channel,” and you are done.
Should You Block A YouTube User?
When you block a YouTube user, you disallow them from commenting on your videos. That means you are purposely reducing the engagement. However, it is still recommended that you do it.
For one, it is only one user you are blocking. And that one user is doing nothing but cause you trouble. For the sake of your mental health and your viewer’s safety, it is worth losing that one person’s comments. You can always gain more comments from people who are not trolls.
People used to upload videos on the internet to entertain others. Also, it can make you famous. So, if you want to become popular, YouTubing is one of the things that you can do.
YouTube can help you rediscover yourself, believe it or not. How? You can check the list of content creators you follow and have followed. By doing so, you can see how your tastes have changed over time. Also, you may have an interest that you have put at the back of your mind and have forgotten about them. Looking at your Top 10 YouTube views sites and subscription history can remind you of those things. And the chances are you still love those things, and you may have even helped buy them YouTube views.
You can also check your subscriptions if you want to “declutter.” Getting recommended videos from YouTube channels you no longer watch could get annoying. So, you may want to unsubscribe to them.
So, how can you do this? There are many methods to do it. And the steps can also change depending on what device you are using. Let’s look at all of them.
Reviewing your YouTube Subscription History without Leaving YouTube
You can’t see how long you have subscribed to a channel using YouTube’s tools. A third-party app is needed for you to be able to do that. But it can show you your subscription history.
Here is how you do it on the web or mobile app.
YouTube is testing "Collections" for your subscription feed, allowing you to group and organize the channels you subscribe to.
The first step, of course, is to visit Youtube.com using a web browser and log into your account. Then, on the left-side panel, click on “Subscriptions.”
Finally, click on “Manage.” That should be on the top right corner of the screen, below the “Create” button.
On Mobile
The steps on the mobile app are almost the same as when you do it on the web. You start by launching the YouTube mobile app. If you haven’t logged in yet, do that. Then, tap on “Subscriptions.” That is between the (+) icon and “Library” at the bottom left side of the screen.
There will be a menu at the top of the screen displaying the profile pictures of the channels you are subscribed to. There’s clickable text saying “Manage” on the rightmost side of that menu. Tap on that.
Tapping or clicking “Manage” on mobile and the web will open the YouTube subscription management page. There, you can see the history of your subscriptions.
Please note that YouTube will not list the channels in any particular order. So, because the channel is at the topmost of the list does not mean it was the latest addition to that list.
On this page, you can unsubscribe to channels that you are not interested in anymore. Also, you can set up alerts, so you don’t miss any video from a channel that you really like. That gives you some control over how YouTube presents content to you on your Home screen.
However, keep in mind that you can’t turn the notification bell on for channels labeled as “Made for Kids.”
Reviewing YouTube Subscription History Using My Google Activity Page
Suppose you want to see all the channels you are subscribed to on YouTube. At the same time, you want to learn how long you have been subscribed to that content creator.
As mentioned earlier, no native YouTube tool can give you what you want. But, you can get that using another Google product. Remember, YouTube is a subsidiary of Google.
That product would be My Google Activity. Open an internet browser, go to its webpage, and then sign into the Google account associated with your YouTube channel.
Once logged in, there should be a list of options on the left side of the screen. If it is not there, click or tap on the hamburger menu at the top-left corner of the screen.
Next, select “Other Google Activity.” That will redirect you to the “Activity controls” page. Scroll down until you find “YouTube Channel Subscriptions.”
Click on “View Subscriptions.” If you do this, a new browser tab will open. Click on that tab to see the channels you are subscribed to on the largest video-sharing website in the world.
Unlike the previous method, you can see when you click that subscribe button on each channel. It will show you not just the date but also the exact time when you subscribed. Unfortunately, it will not tell you exactly how many months or days you have been subscribed. If you want to know, you have to do the computation yourself.
You can delete your subscriptions activity on My Google Activity. That will effectively unsubscribe you to the channel that you deleted. However, it may take a few hours before Google can fully remove the data on YouTube.
What you can’t do, though, is activate or deactivate the notification bell. So, you can’t use this method to set alerts. You have to do that on the YouTube app or website.
Using Third-Party Apps to Review Your Subscription History
You can also use third-party apps to review your YouTube subscription history. You have to set your YouTube subscription visibility to “Public” for this to work. Therefore, it’s not for people who see privacy as an issue.
Here’s how you adjust your subscription visibility setting.
Log into YouTube. Then, tap or click on your profile photo. Select “Settings.”
On the Settings page, locate “Privacy” and click on that. Then look for the option that says, “Keep all my subscriptions private.” Toggle that off.
Now, you can use third-party apps/websites. Most of these will only need you to paste your channel’s URL into the textbox. Then, click the “Continue” button or any equivalent of that.
After that, you should see a list of all channels you are subscribed to. And as with My Google Activity, you’ll see the date and time when you subscribed.
Unlike doing it on YouTube, you can’t set or stop alerts. Likewise, unlike dong it on YouTube or My Google Activity, you can’t unsubscribe to any channels through that preview.
So, this method does not offer anything the official methods do not provide. And it also offers less than them. So, there’s really no reason to choose this. You also have to make your subscriptions’ visibility public. It’s best not to do that.
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