If I want to share a YouTube video with someone while on my phone, here is what I need to do:

  1. Click the ‘Share’ button on the YouTube app
  2. Click ‘copy link’
  3. Paste it into a textbox where I can edit the URL (so if I am using iMessages on the iphone, I have to use a text editor app in the middle)
  4. Delete the ?si=ajflsdkjf at the end of the URL added by Google so it can establish a relationship between me and whoever I am sharing it to (THIS IS CREEPY AS FUCK)
  5. Share it with the other person.

I’m tired of doing this, but I also feel a little angry each time I do it. Millions of dollars of engineering time have gone into building the infrastructure and UX for this si stuff, and it also exists as a response to regulatory crackdown on creepy tracking.

So every time I do it, the emotion I feel is ’this technology hates me, it is fighting me, and I have to fight back’. I don’t think that’s quite right, but that’s how I feel, and I do not like it.

I do pay for YouTube premium, because the ability to background play videos on mobile is gated behind that. So I can’t really just use a browser, where I can use extensions to do this automatically for me.

I just want to not fight the ’tools’ I am trying to use every day. I want them to serve me. Is that too much to ask for?