Episode 10 – This week i bring back Tech Support to talk about some browser extensions I’ve been trying for dealing with my social media problems. Nicely done tbh
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So, we begin with some announcements.
First of all, shoutout to longtime listener Dr. Kane Bidwell, who recently completed his move from London to Perth. He’s now listening from a different time zone, and I can see it show up in my analytics—so thanks for that.
Shoutout to Gordon White of runesoup.com for publicly shaming me over my lack of podcasts during the two weeks I took off. Really appreciate that, as always.
Also, thanks to Alex Fradera of Farmer vs Fox for his encouragement and for always being on the other end of the GChat box. And, of course, to Eve—for always being amazing and for a great holiday. Cheers.
Now, I think it’s about time for the semi-regular feature: Tech Support.
A while ago, I did a whole show complaining about social media—how it was affecting my life and how I didn’t like it. So, I took some steps to change that, and now I’m going to review a few things I tried.
The first is a Chrome extension called DF YouTube (Distraction Free YouTube). With it, you can basically remove parts of the YouTube UI—suggested videos, playlists, comments, trending videos. I switched off everything, and it has made my whole YouTube experience much cleaner. I definitely don’t find myself falling down YouTube spirals anymore because, well, there’s literally no way of doing so.
The next two extensions kind of go together.
The first is Hide Twitter Guff. It removes all the unnecessary clutter from Twitter’s web player—things like Who to Follow, trends, promotions, and definitions. Basically, all the extra noise. I highly recommend it; it really streamlines the page.
The second is Twitter Demetricator, an extension created by artist Benjamin Grosser. It removes all visible metrics on Twitter—how many followers you have, how many people you’re following, how many tweets you’ve sent, retweet counts, like counts. It even removes timestamps on tweets, which can get a little confusing.
What this does, though, is completely change how Twitter works. It breaks the whole three-part logic of the platform—“Please read this, pass it on, I have more.” Without metrics, you can only evaluate a tweet on its own merits as a self-contained block. Not that many tweets have merit, but, you know—that’s how the cookie crumbles.
I’ve been using these extensions for about six weeks on my desktop. The result? Twitter is a lot less interesting. I’m less likely to engage with it for likes or retweets and instead use it purely for information or to push stuff out. Then, I close the tab.
The problem? I immediately pick up my phone and check Twitter there. So, the real answer is probably to remove Twitter from my phone entirely.
YouTube is another issue. I subscribe to a lot of vloggers and other channels, which means I keep checking the app for notifications about new videos. It’s the same dopamine loop that everyone’s familiar with when it comes to social media. I’m not sure what to do about that, but at least the experience of using it has improved.
I’ve also noticed something interesting about the loop—especially on mobile. You see it all the time on public transport: someone opens Instagram, no notifications. Then they check Facebook, no notifications. Then WhatsApp, no notifications. And then they cycle back around—Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, again and again.
It’s muscle memory as much as it is psychological. So, I’m going to investigate ways to break that habit.
I can hear some of you already screaming, “Why don’t you just use one of those ‘block this shit’ apps?” And, yeah, I might have to. But I’d like to figure out how to stop through sheer force of will first—rather than relying on a hard block. We’ll see.
And now, the last piece of news for Tech Support: this entire episode has been recorded using a Boya BY-MM1 Compact Camera Shotgun Mic. It plugs straight into your phone, and you’re good to go. If this sounds alright, then I’m set for field recordings.
So, there you go—I’m good to go for that.
Thanks for listening! This has been episode 10. You can find this episode at permanentlymoved.online, or check me out at zexulo.xyz.
Permanently Moved
Permanently Moved (dot) Online is a quarterly audio personal podcast, written, recorded and edited by by @thejaymo
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