12 ms·

YouTube addiction, one month sober

227 points by _xivi 3y ago

alienicecream 3y ago
Avoiding clickbait is easy, you just need to realize that some scumbag is trying to get you click on their trash so they can make money. So why would you do it?
- jjulius 3y ago
  >Avoiding [addictive thing] is easy, you just... That is not a true statement for an addict. What's easy to you may be complicated for an addict. Addiction is not necessarily straightforward.
- npteljes 3y ago
  It might be simple, but not easy.
nolongerthere 3y ago
yea, this is pretty extreme, but 8-10 hours a day is a lot. I did a version of this with facebook and reddit for a while, I noticed I was wasting a lot of time on them so I uninstalled the apps off my phone and blocked the websites with the 1blocker, for facebook it was easy bec they made the desktop site so unusable I tried to use a few times and now basically never go there. reddit was harder but once the api thing happened, that gave me the motivation to just stop scrolling endlessly, I still have it accessible on my pc bec it'll sometimes pop up in search results, but I no longer spend hours scrolling, reading comments and getting in stupid slap fights with strangers.
- wahnfrieden 3y ago
  Many people hit 5-7 hours of phone use a day just through morning, lunch, breaks, and bedtime use as part of daily rituals that add up astronomically over time
Waterluvian 3y ago
Not to downplay the levels of addiction and how challenging it can really be for many. But one thing I've done recently is use `AdGuard` on my iPhone to begin blocking specific domains that distract me too much, and it was amazing how in a few of those cases, the problem just went away immediately. I was expecting it to be a fools' errand to be my own gatekeeper. But just getting a "page won't load" error a few times, and suddenly I'm not scrolling Reddit etc. for an hour at bedtime. I also find myself gravitating towards more productive things to do. I'm equally as bored, but the quick jolt of brain drugs I get from Reddit now has to come from working on my purely-in-software microwave or whatnot.
- siver_john 3y ago
  I did this my first year of college, blocked all distracting websites with an extension on Chrome. I still had it so I could watch on phone or if I Incognito windowed but putting that extra amount of effort kept me from mindlessly browsing the moment I got bored with homework. I finished all my homework in record time and was well prepared for my classes, I think I stopped doing this because I ended up becoming very bored.
- tomlue 3y ago
  I made the habitbreaker chrome extension on this principle. It just blocks user selected websites for 30 seconds before loading. https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/habitbreaker/kgiobadfmpfbnjfnflkagaiglphnjplm https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/habitbreaker/kgioba... The idea is just to defuse instant gratification. Works pretty well for me.
  - diimdeep 3y ago
    found src, https://github.com/tomlue/habitbreaker https://github.com/tomlue/habitbreaker will see if it is compatible with firefox here is two more extensions, one for youtube and another to block social network feeds https://github.com/AlexisDrain/Less-Addictive-YouTube https://github.com/AlexisDrain/Less-Addictive-YouTube https://github.com/jordwest/news-feed-eradicator https://github.com/jordwest/news-feed-eradicator
- deleted 3y ago
nritchie 3y ago
YouTube, like the entire Internet, is such a mixed bag. There is some really first rate content but most of it is total junk. Like Little Richard says "It ain't what you do, it's the way how you do it."
- wahnfrieden 3y ago
  It’s not just a bag of many contents. It’s an ad board full of dark patterns to steal your focus and attention.
- RajT88 3y ago
  > There is some really first rate content but most of it is total junk. A lot of the gaming-related stuff is just pure garbage. "Secret gaming room" channels are especially egregious. Saw one where a kid bought a used boat (the kind with a below-deck area with a bed, kitchen, etc.), the kind you can get for ~20k or less if it is ~30 years old. Made a "secret gaming den", and then intentionally sunk the boat just to add some drama with the "secret den" filling up with water. There's so many of these idiots on YT, that I can't even find the video now among hundreds of pages of videos. Yes, they need to stay off my lawn.
  - mvdtnz 3y ago
    I just searched "secret gaming room" and watched the first result. That is one of the worst things I have ever watched. 5 million views. Unbelievable.
    - rightbyte 3y ago
      It seems like the Youtube algorithm somehow reinforces the spread of stupid videos. Like, people maybe watch them for an average of 15s instead of 10s before zapping since they are so stupid. I got the same theory about the Facebook feed. Where "car accident videos" or "disgusting things" get more spread than they should since people stop scrolling for 12% more time while blocking the poster or something ...
- PascLeRasc 3y ago
djha-skin 3y ago
I used to watch between 45 minutes and two hours a day of YouTube when bored at work. At my last place of employment, this skyrocketed though; I was very bored that that job. In January of 2022 I decided to take a YouTube "fast", kicking YouTube for a while. I couldn't bring myself to commit to more. It was waaaaaay hard to stop. I got on Nebula as a sort of Nicorette for a while, a month or two. I can recommend Nebula as a sort of sieve for really high quality content btw. I stopped my subscription, but it was great to only be able to watch videos that didn't feel like they were trying to hook me, all while getting some really good stuff out of it. I particularly liked Half as Interesting, RealLifeLore, and Johnny Harris, all of which were on Nebula. These videos didn't contribute to the "hooked" feeling, giving me something to use to wean myself off YouTube. After my fast was over, it was so hard to stop that I didn't start again. I will still watch the occasional YouTube, but it's usually either shared by friends or specifically searched for by me. I have gotten looser in the last few days, but I have regretted it. I started swearing in my head less when I stopped watching YouTube. I had fewer intrusive thoughts. I had a clearer head, and I want to keep that. My Psychiatrist has told me no screens two hours before bed. I started living by that too, and have found much more rest when I do. I discovered by doing this that I have a screen "budget", that I can't go over that without restless leg, twitching, and pain at the end of the day. Now that I know this, I am less inclined to use that budget on YouTube. I miss a lot of creators on there, but I went back to watch some of them recently and was disappointed. Other mediums simply provide better content. Blog posts seem to be the best for this. There are still some creators that are amazing, and I am truly missing out! I miss watching Primitive Technology videos for example. I still allow myself to specifically search for these, by I try to limit myself to one or two videos a day or less. I find that to be the sweet spot for keeping off of being hooked.
- steve_adams_86 3y ago
  One of the strange things about YouTube is you can get sucked into it and forget what good content actually looks like. It becomes a matter of what’s relatively good on YouTube, not overall. You’re right that there’s good content on there, but I’m not convinced someone would be missing out on 99.9% of it. Or more. I’ve used it far too much in the past as well. Today I feel like it was purely a vice and a distraction. My impression of various things being “good” was based on its ability to keep me watching without feeling immediate shame or being made too aware of how I was distracting myself from more important things. Had I never seen most of it, not much would be different. Things would likely be better for me.
srvaroa 3y ago
I haven't needed to be so drastic, but removed the YT app from my phone. There is a fair amount of good content that I find very worth consuming from YT (mainly educational videos) and would not like to miss. But, the mobile app makes a very strong effort to push you to shorts, which is the real danger. Shorts are proficiently engineered to just suck my brain into a doom scrolling comma. I tried removing shorts from the app, but it keeps pushing them in your face, so I ended up deleting it and watching via browser, logged out. I've heard several acquaintances having the same experience / solution. It's a pity the YT PMs insist on designing the app like a Vegas casino, I'd really like to use the YT app for healthy usage, but well.
- pxc 3y ago
  NewPipe lets you watch shorts but completely lacks the shorts-type UI, so it's not addictive. Also has no ads and lets you play things in the background or with the phone screen off.
  - autoexec 3y ago
    having recommendations and auto-play disabled is great too. I only see youtube videos that I choose to see and never see anything else unless I'm searching for something
    - pxc 3y ago
      Plus you can still 'subscribe' to channels you like without even logging in!
    - wonger_ 3y ago
      Turning off thumbnails has also helped me
- bcraven 3y ago
  Android users can use ReVanced to patch out many aspects of the official app, including shorts. A patchlist is here: https://revanced.app/patches https://revanced.app/patches
swozey 3y ago
I guess this is an adhd "superpower" of mine. I leave youtube on 24/7 and pay almost no attention to it. A big reason why I can ignore it though, when it's on 24/7.. mine plays the exact same documentaries, almost always WW2 or US Revolutionary War stuff over and over and over again. I watch a LOT of history documentaries but I have absolutely no interest in either of these time periods and have probably never searched for or liked any American history video. I'm a swords and shields guy. The last month straight it's been on a revolutionary war kick with some 3-5 hour long George Washington documentary in between another one about how Goebbels ran off to argentina and his wife wouldn't join him so he married his dead brothers widow. I know everything about the guys now. My theory is it plays the same stuff over again because it's already cached and saves them bw, them assuming you're not actually watching anyway but they can still pump viewership numbers for advertising. RE: Thread.. I'm awful at getting off the computer after work. I'll move on to personal projects and everything else and just sit here for the whole day. My adhd + being able to instantaneously get dopamine has me chained, I like to go camping to detox. Been forcing myself to go for a walk at 5pm now that it's not pitch black out then anymore.
- iamsomewalrus 3y ago
  ADHD-haver here. I do the same thing but with music. I created a playlist of albums I've heard hundreds of times. The songs are in album order and when I play the list I play from the start of an album somewhere in that list. It keeps that part of my brain occupied, but not focus, while I work on the task at hand.
  - swozey 3y ago
    I go through really weird phases with music. Music is a huge part of my life, sometimes I play piano, guitar, produce. There's points I'll realize I've gone 6mo+ without opening spotify except for when I'm driving. Just months and months of the news or youtube as background and no music.
  - deleted 3y ago
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data_ders 3y ago
I’m so addicted to the internet that when I block social media, I find I get quite the similar fix from work Slack. Like browsing channels I have no business being a part of and constantly checking for validation of my comments via emoji reactions. Does anyone know of ways to be a successful work-from-home knowledge worker while also locking down Slack to not be another slot machine?? Does anyone else feel conflicted about the internet as both a means to a comfortable/lucretive career but also the ultimate drug? I’ve thought of only allowing Slack for 10 min each hour to make it more like an IV drop of info, but what happens when I actually need to DM in real time? meta P.S. I’m refreshing this and reading the replies — what a rush! So much more rewarding than what I should be doing. :)
- wahnfrieden 3y ago
  Only check it on a schedule, keep it closed, and turn off all notifications
  - hoherd 3y ago
    Keeping it closed is such a sobering experience. Sometimes I will close Slack to make an effort to get into focus mode, and run `sleep 3600 && open /Applications/Slack.app` to make sure I'm not leaving my coworkers hanging forever, but also let me get some time boxed focus time in.
  - data_ders 3y ago
    If knowledge were the only requirement, everyone would have six-pack abs and millions in the bank? I agree that your suggestion is rational, but the article brings up addiction and lack of control which I feel describes me. I’d love a “just block it”, escape hatch of a solution but maybe I’m SOL and have to learn mindfulness
    - wahnfrieden 3y ago
      One actionable thing is to organize your department and more widely to accept more async style communication and non-urgent/urgent style communications where you can comfortably disconnect without fear of missing out on something urgent
optimalsolver 3y ago
I just wish YT thumbnails were selected from a random point in the video.
- panick21_ 3y ago
  I think that sounds good compared to now, but if it actually happened, it would lead to a lot of unintended consequences.
- pzmarzly 3y ago
  Clickbait Remover extension may help you https://github.com/pietervanheijningen/clickbait-remover-for-youtube https://github.com/pietervanheijningen/clickbait-remover-for... Or you can write a userscript / custom CSS to hide thumbnails altogether. Or you can browse YouTube through RSS feeds (which afaik still work).
- gnopgnip 3y ago
  The extension dearrow will do that
- carleton 3y ago
  DeArrow is an extension by the SponsorBlock guy that does this.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
lm28469 3y ago
Youtube killed my addiction themselves, they removed any kind of recommendation to my account since I opted out of all tracking, now when I go to youtube.com I get an empty page, unless I know exactly what I want to watch I don't even bother
- RajT88 3y ago
  This! I know they think they are punishing you, but after a while I came to appreciate it.
  - PascLeRasc 3y ago
    Same thing with the ads every 5 minutes always interrupting a complex part of the woodworking video I'm half watching. Thanks for the reminder to focus on real work, State Farm.
    - lm28469 3y ago
      There are services that allow you to download videos for free. If you know what you want and you aren't in a rush (it's not slow but not instant either) it's a good solution
sph 3y ago
Good to see someone talking about it.. I used to spend my free time watching Youtube, these days it's only during dinner before I put on a TV show (and just before bed where very long LPs put me to sleep in minutes). What helped I only notice in retrospective: I got diagnosed and medicated for ADHD. Now I actually have the focus and drive to do the things I should be doing, rather than lazying my day off on YouTube with a hidden yet growing shadow of worthlessness and self-hate. In fact, now that I have improved focus, I don't have the patience to sit and watch Let's Plays any more. I either zone out, doze off or think about stuff I should be doing, and I just turn it off. YMMV.
- Aurornis 3y ago
  > YMMV. Very glad you found something that helped, but this is a good place to warn people that everyone is different. In some people, stimulant treatment can actually kindle problematic behaviors like the one you escaped. For some, they enhance focus but that results in more focusing on the hobbies, distractions, and side projects. I bring this up because while ADHD medication is great for some, there's a growing problem of people reading positive anecdotes and assuming it's quick fix for all things lifestyle related. In clinic practice there's a growing number of people showing up with everything from stimulant-exacerbated Dermatillomania (skin picking disorders) to problematic behaviors with porn consumption after seeking out stimulant treatment based on internet advice. Stimulants are powerful drugs, and there's an entire other conversation to be had about the excessive prescribing practices of some of the providers out there (my pharmacist friends are in disbelief at the size of some of the doses they're handing out to people these days).
  - sph 3y ago
    > Very glad you found something that helped, but this is a good place to warn people that everyone is different. In some people, stimulant treatment can actually kindle problematic behaviors like the one you escaped. For some, they enhance focus but that results in more focusing on the hobbies, distractions, and side projects. Certainly. On dexamfetamine, focus has a distinctive sticky quality to it. I need to be very careful where I direct it. Opening HN mid-morning means a productive session of commenting and getting into Internet arguments. It's a negative side effect that can be overcome with a good routine and schedule. I take my meds, sit at my desk and open Emacs at 9am every day, 7 days a week. Distractions are blocked, so the path of least-resistance is just doing work. But then again, good routine and schedule are relatively easy to set up once medicated.
richrichie 3y ago
This is an eye opening article. My list of vices: Youtube X Hacker news Telegram “news” channels
psyclobe 3y ago
YouTube is amazing, just stay away from content that encourages you to buy stuff. The free documentary channel is amazing (check out their Apollo series) but lately once you’ve seen all the amazing education videos (think vsauce, smarter every day, David butler) it does turn into a nervous tick constantly opening the app.
KptMarchewa 3y ago
For me, doing stuff like that only replaces one thing with another. If I block youtube, I'll be spending that time here. If I block HN, I'll stay on reddit. If I block reddit, I'll spend time on Skyscrapercity. The real solution seems to be having stuff in life that actually gives you self-actualization and spend least possible time at work fucking around.
- jimt1234 3y ago
  For me it's like trying to cut out junk food and replace it with healthy alternatives. I'll eat healthy for a while, then find myself returning to junk - youtube, imgur, reddit, x, instagram, etc.
- ivanjermakov 3y ago
  Happened to me. I stopped using Reddit completely once Apollo shut down and started reading HN a lot. Sometimes it's hard to find what to do and you still need some "filler" activities.
- xetplan 3y ago
  Totally agree. We are social creatures. The only way I would be able to completely stop would be to hang out more at a local bar. I already go to the gym as much as my body can recover from. At least with HN there is the possibility of something interesting and not just mindless bullshit. Everything is relative too. I think of my World War 2 vet grandfather. He worked a mindless job, then came home and drank beer until he went to bed while watching TV. We seem to pretend before the internet that the average person would clock out from their amazing, uplifting job and then head off to some Vienna Circle level discussion about the nature of reality. While often falling way short, my reality is much closer to that than any of my ancestors could have ever dreamed of.
TriangleEdge 3y ago
I have done the same thing with YT. Notice my first post on HN is adding this website to my hosts files because I found it too addicting. As of date, I have unblocked YT but kept almost all of the social media sites. I watch Twitch for background noise nowadays. I find it to be less addictive since it feels more ephemeral to me.
farleykr 3y ago
One thing that made a huge difference for me was turning of my watch history. If you do that you get a message on the homepage saying that it can't recommend videos until you turn on your watch history. Not very visually pleasing but it keeps me from scrolling through recommendations and now I only watch videos when a channel I follow puts out new content or when I choose to specifically search for something.
- cowsup 3y ago
  Another benefit is that the mobile app’s “Shorts” menu also stops working if watch history is disabled. Sometimes the app takes me there on launch, and now I’m greeted with a message saying I can’t explore an endless feed unless my watch history is active. Fine with me!
- cracoucax 3y ago
  Oooh yes thanks for this, instant disable. History could be convenient at times, but hey not as much as my sanity.
- havblue 3y ago
  I've also found that just deleting your history occasionally can be beneficial as it keeps you from going down a rabbit hole of repetitive but addictive content to watch new things.
- frabcus 3y ago
  This is my favourite YouTube feature! It makes the home page lovely.
- peterb0yd 3y ago
  Oh my, you just saved so much of my time! I had no idea you could control so much. YouTube is so clean now! Thank you.
- nomius10 3y ago
  I want to point out that you can do a similar thing on reddit too. There's a setting for disabling recommended posts on the home tab. Combine that with unsubscribing to all subreddits (maybe except /r/nosurf) and you get a detoxified home tab. I tried to do something similar with twitter (now known as X), but it doesn't seem to work.
ChrisArchitect 3y ago
Nice to see this post. With all the discussion and borderline obsession on here about ad-blocking and YouTube I can't help but think of the role addiction plays.
ChrisArchitect 3y ago
Related: YouTube dominates TV streaming in US, per Nielsen's latest report https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/20/youtube-dominates-tv-streaming-in-u-s-per-nielsens-latest-report/ https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/20/youtube-dominates-tv-strea... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39463296 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39463296)
matesz 3y ago
Just realized when I logged out from YouTube I got automatically logged out from Chrome as well. There is no other way. How is that even allowed, that google single-signon infiltrated my browsing experience. Something has to change.
futureshock 3y ago
It’s bit weird, but I feel like this conversation about screen time and digital addiction dropped out of the public consciousness during Covid, never to return. Apple released their screen time features in 2018, so this issue was just starting to hit critical mass right as Covid hit and dumped us all deep down the digital rabbit hole. Now I notice even more social proof to keep going deeper into the digital life. Public shaming over green chat bubbles and genuine confusion if I tell someone I’m on not on a Meta owned social network. I wonder if we’re all so addicted now that it’s no longer social acceptable to talk about our addiction. I wonder if we just started talking to each other less as well.
- bombcar 3y ago
  Covid and work-from-home normalized screen time. The same thing has happened in the past (an old Wodehouse school-story has a kid being yelled at for reading "trash" (David Copperfield) during class instead of the Latin he was supposed to be working on.
  - SamBam 3y ago
    I think that suggesting it's no different from people thinking that reading books was going to rot people's minds ignores the very real increases in teen depression, loneliness, and suicides over the past decade, as well as increases in adult depression and isolation, and the credible research that says that social media and screens are probably strongly contributing to it.
    - ElevenLathe 3y ago
      Also, maybe Dickens really is worse for the brain than Latin grammar?
      - bombcar 3y ago
        That was basically my point but apparently I didn't make it clear enough - that we do and have had degradations, but they eventually become the new normal. That may not be always bad, mind you, but it seems pretty obvious to me that it has occurred and is occurring. I could rant much more about it, but suffice to say that just because we don't think something is a problem anymore doesn't mean it wasn't (and isn't) a problem.
ChuckMcM 3y ago
Great post and parts really resonate with me. I got addicted to World of Warcraft. It was contrary to my own self image that my brain could do something to me that I didn't endorse, but post WoW I recognized that it did exactly that. I started sliding down that slope with No Man's Sky but have since corrected (fortunately NMS isn't as well put together as WoW or it might have been worse). The key for me is running away from something you feel you have no control over feels like a better solution than dealing with the pain. Escaping into a world that has expected behaviors that you can understand is, for me, less painful than a world with people advancing bad agendas for self serving reasons. The pain is real, the fight doesn't stop, every day you shoot for "well I didn't give in to my fears today, on to tomorrow."
- NoPicklez 3y ago
  I think it's important to not forget that video games (in particular WoW) are fun to play. They're fun to play like its fun to play sport, exercise etc etc. They are fun to play and that on its own is a good reason to play them. Everyone has things they feel like they should be or need to be doing every day. We are allowed to do things that give us joy that take us out of the day to day, it's just whether or not these things start to consume so much of your time that you negate other important areas.
  - ChuckMcM 3y ago
    You are correct, they are fun to play. The challenge is knowing that the activity has become unhealthy. Every addict that I personally know thought they had their issue under control until something helped them realize they didn't. I didn't go downstairs at my daughter's birthday when everyone there was singing and she was blowing out the candles. I didn't go because I was 'healing the raid' and me leaving probably would have resulted in a wipe. That was my "wait, what am I doing" moment.
  - pimlottc 3y ago
    They can be fun to play, but you do have to check in with yourself occasionally to make sure you’re still enjoying it. It’s surprisingly easy to fall into a rut and just keep doing what you’ve been doing even when it’s not really doing it for you anymore.
addicted 3y ago
In 2015 or so I quit Facebook. I had also quit smoking and drinking about 3 months earlier. The feelings and withdrawal I went through were exactly the same. Ever since I’ve been convinced that social media are not passive or even active sources of content. They’re much better viewed as addictions like smoking or drinking. And just like smoking or drinking some people may be able to use social media responsibly, but many others are gonna be badly addicted and even the ones who do it responsibly will largely be worse off for it.
latentcall 3y ago
One of my best friends is definitely addicted to YouTube. I am starting to suspect my wife is too. YouTube is great for music and educational videos, but let's be honest the bulk of content is not that. In the early days of YouTube I would say I was addicted, or spent a lot of time on there. At one point I realized how much of a waste of time it was and now only look up car repair videos. I hope everyone can get out of the YT rut.
endisneigh 3y ago
I wish I could block shorts. Christ sake I’m already paying for premium. Let me block it, and not just from the mobile client - everywhere.
xyst 3y ago
I can put away social media. But I can’t put away my phone due to how everything is digital now - bank, health, travel.
- standardUser 3y ago
  Half of what I use my phone for is in service of other aspects of life. Finances, travel plans, communicating with friends, work, research, etc. It's the other half - the scrolling mostly - that provides little value. But I'm not about to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
- jjulius 3y ago
  Genuinely curious - aside from, say, 2FA, what do you need your phone for for those services that you can't do via the web on a laptop or desktop? I'm not trying to be confrontational, I'm just thinking through how I use bank/health/travel services and am struggling to think of something that can only be done via a mobile app. I've forced myself to go laptop/desktop-only with most services and have found that I can keep my phone away from my person for most of the day, save for moments where a service requires 2FA.
mmorearty 3y ago
I've had good results recently by deleting all my social media apps from my phone, BUT allowing myself to use them through Mobile Safari. And I did not bookmark them; e.g. for Instagram I type "in" and then Enter. This gives me some friction, without having to go cold turkey. All the popular social media sites have mobile websites that are "good enough", but slightly clunkier than the apps, and also they can't send me notifications. My phone screentime per day has dropped by about 1/3rd.
- r9295 3y ago
  I did the same, and additionally set my display to grayscale. I don't even want to open social websites unless I actually wish to browse them. The compulsive fix these apps provided when I was bored or waiting was taken away and my habit subsided.
garrisonj 3y ago
If you are using Arc, I created a boost to block Youtube. You can add a custom message to yourself in the CSS settings. https://arc.net/boost/208CA384-0BC8-4EEF-A944-BC551D4AD48D https://arc.net/boost/208CA384-0BC8-4EEF-A944-BC551D4AD48D
deleted 3y ago
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alphazard 3y ago
The problem I see with YouTube is that I always start on low-regret content like lectures, or a news clip about a current event I want a summary of. Or a video that a friend said was funny (that's good signal). But then rather than recommending more content along the same lines (which I would probably bookmark but not be encouraged to click), there is a short low quality video that somehow slides under the radar of "not worth my time". And then this chains together, and what started out as a low-regret interaction has spiraled into a high-regret one. uBlock rules for the shorts, recommendations, etc. basically solved this problem for me. I think there is a ton of potential with the alternative YouTube frontends too. We have access to an unprecedented amount of information, it's just hidden behind malicious interfaces.
- ThemboMcBembo 3y ago
  I had the same problem. Blocking those elements helped, but was a pain to set up on each device I used. Switching entirely to alternative front-ends like Invidious was what finally helped me stop getting sucked in by those.
- nomius10 3y ago
  I highly recommend the Unhook extension. It's highly customizable, and personally I have it set to remove all recommendations. Sometimes I also disable the comments. It's been a year since I've used it, and I definitely see an improvement as the platform is no longer pushing content down to me, but at times I find myself frantically searching channels I used to watch, to see if there is a new video since I last checked. I only remember a dozen at most, way fewer than the ~100 channels I was subscribed to. Overall an improvement, but I don't consider myself cured.
al2o3cr 3y ago
The counsellor... well, let's say they have a specific task at hand. LOL I assume this went like the scene from "Half Baked": "You ever SUCK COCKS for YouTube? Get outta here!"
deleted 3y ago
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zeitlupe 3y ago
To me, the most difficult part about quitting youtube, twitter or reddit is that these websites are incredibly rewarding and an incredible waste of time at the same time. Reddit has great discussions on careers, hobbies, whatever you do not stumble upon elsewhere, but the rewarding content unfortunately always comes in packs with some mindless scrolling and mediocre memes – I've never managed to have one without the other. Quitting them means to forfeit a huge, valuable chunk of input and I am yet not sure what's better.
- throwaway277432 3y ago
  Honestly Reddit has never been that great for me. In my experience a lot of content even in niche hobby subreddits is regurgitated opinions presented as authorative facts or baseless speculation disguised as professional insight. In the few hobby subreddits that I frequented, non-mainstream opinions or new ideas were often drowned out by the hivemind and people with less experience or knowledge. In short, a real discussion rarely came up or was even possible. And in the case of questions I realized that so many people have no clue but still feel compelled to answer. I'll omit my rant on career advice subreddits here. For my hobbies specifically, I've reverted back to forums. You can have a relaxed discussion over the span of weeks, and interesting threads might remain active for months. You can get to know the users by their signatures, and the average age of users is also higher. Some of the users might even be professionals instead of just hobbyists, where I feel that was rare on Reddit.
drcongo 3y ago
Absolutely baffled by this.
frabcus 3y ago
My favourite extension for customising YouTube right now is Unhook. https://unhook.app/ https://unhook.app/ I hide all recommendations and suggestions, so basically all I can do on YouTube is look at channels I've subscribed to, or search for videos I need. I use it on mobile (Firefox on Android) too.
kirill5pol 3y ago
The YouTube addiction is definitely real... but it's quite sad since mixed in with the entertainment it's one of the best sources in the world for education (video lectures, how tos, etc) One thing that worked well for me is having two separate profiles, one for educational and one for everything else. That way the education one didn't get as polluted with the most addictive recommendations (little self-promotion) One thing I found to be useful was to try to focus on learning more actively, so I built a tool that turns educational videos into mini-courses where it will ask you questions about the content and then use spaced repetition to help you actually remember the information. One of the other parts is to ensure that the suggestions/feed is focused solely on education, and that you don't fall into the addicting videos trap... (I have the v1 but still working to make this better) But I think if the addiction is bad enough as in the post, it's probably a better idea to go cold turkey (link is https://www.platoedu.org https://www.platoedu.org)
add-sub-mul-div 3y ago
Youtube is not a big thing for me, but Reddit and Twitter shutting down the respective clients I used for each got me off both platforms permanently. Enshittification can be a good thing.
- webdoodle 3y ago
  Reddit's enshittification was a driving force for me as well. If fact, they might be the golden standard of enshittification: they killed there warrant canary, crap interface changes, took money from Peter Thiel and Jack Ma, ignored mod pleas for help with bots, went closed source, killed 3rd party apps and scrapers, sells user data to anyone, censored anyone that didn't parrot there politics, and finally suspended and cancelled thousands of dedicated Reddit users who protested any of the above. I hope there IPO sinks to the bottom of the stock market and is delisted.
pxeger1 3y ago
My solution has been to redirect the YouTube home page to the subscriptions page. This prevents me from watching recommendations. I also created a new YouTube account (note this doesn’t require you to create a new Google account), and manually added all my subscriptions. This means it has no data on what to recommend me and so the recommendations are terrible and I never even want to click them. This encourages me to carefully curate my subscriptions, so I only watch high-quality videos from consistently high-quality channels. I also have nebula but I find increasingly many of the channels are too low-quality for me. I think this is because my standards have been raised and my detection of low quality has improved. I’m now not sure that it’s worth it for me though.
Accacin 3y ago
Anyone else use YouTube as basically background noise? When I'm working I live putting on some ASMR and just listening to it in the background. I find it less distracting then music or podcasts.
timeforcomputer 3y ago
I feel like something bad is happening and I am unsure how much of this is me being negative. I "quit" the internet in late 2018 due to severe addiction and years-long disengagement in my hobbies (reading, programming, thinking, music, art, ...) and only recently have started reintroducing it into my life, for example, catching up with what people do on YouTube, trying to get an idea of "what people are talking about". It feels like a fever dream and I am unsure whether this is due to me picking up my extremely unhealthy internet browsing habits that I had pre-2018, and I wonder whether there is a "healthy" internet that I am not seeing. I made a twitter account recently and followed Jonathan Blow, Sebastian Lague, and 3blue1brown. I just scrolled through the default twitter page and I got karen videos, a naked woman in a car caught cheating, israeli soldiers harassing someone, a police dog mauling someone. I made an instagram account to see 3blue1brown videos on my phone and went to the default page (I assume it knows nothing about me) and I was given videos of disabled people doing sports which are clearly meant to be "funny", with extremely hateful comments apparently from children, spelling out the N-word with separate letters, etc. That was in 3 minutes of using Instagram and I gave up. I am interested in game development and a google search of "game development" gives me absurd "industry knowledge" youtube videos and r/gamedev. r/gamedev is just "meta-commentary" pointing out "societal problems" of game developers, you won't make money, noob assumptions, angry at the world, even mixing in discussions of depression, self-hate. It is a mess. Where are the people talking about neat collision detection tricks? I am aware that this is the "surface level" and I will eventually need to find and curate a variety of incoming "feeds", such as group chats with good engaged people, great forums, etc., but I just don't feel like it is "natural" to find them. I feel like I need to start a project for myself to intentionally build my own "algorithm" which leads me to find enriching content. I feel though that that is actively going against what "the internet" wants me to do. It is so easy to find such hateful things, and I am worried it will bring me back to being as depressed as I was before quitting the internet.
- edg5000 3y ago
  With the larger platforms, the more you use the platform the more specific the feed or recommendations become. What you describe sounds indeed like the surface level feed that a new or logged out account would get. Ignore all feeds and search for specific things, such as collision detection. Then you will come across genuinely good channels which you can subscribe to. The feed will then no longer show those crappy superficial popular topics. However the YouTube Shorts has an insanely addictive nature, I regret every second spent in that feature. To contrast, the rest of youtube contains so much useful educational content. I really learned a lot thanks to these videos. In the last two years I stopped watching regular videos and started watching Shorts, which I find truly regrettable.
graeme 3y ago
Everyone will have their own solution dependent on their own habits and brain quirks. But, some things which worked for me which you might wish to try. I found some things are useful to have, but distracting in other contexts. As an example, people often text me a tweet. I want to be able to read the tweet, or look up certain sources of information. So I don't want to block twitter. And being logged out prevents reading a thread. But I also don't want to scroll my feed. Solution --> stay logged in, but with my work account which has a dull feed. Instagram is a waste of time on my phone. But I need to login occasionally to check messages and I like seeing the odd update. Solution --> use nextdns to block on my phone, check on computer in browser. So on my phone I identified instagram, youtube and twitter as the things where I waste the most time. NextDNS blocks youtube and instagram entirely, and the for twitter I use the login solution above. On my mac I'm most likely to waste time checking various websites. So I just put anything I want to check into Netnewswire. It gathers it all, it's quick to go through, and then when it's done there's nothing else to check. I also catalogued "what do I actually want to do on my phone" down to the level of even reviewing the modqueue on reddit in the browser. Then I made homescreen shortcuts for any of it, so I have an easy thing to tap which lowers friction for doing something I want, rather than something aimless. Also sounds funny but I made an effort to close all tabs and open loops on my mac before starting my day. Have always been the type to have too many tabs, and it sort of takes up mental RAM. There's no single big solution, but by chipping away at the problem and checking "what do I find unsatisfying" and "what do I want to do, where?" I've made a system that actually works pretty well for me. I've tried cold turkey before, and it works great, especially if it's only for a single service. But the thing is it's kind of inconvenient to totally block youtube or twitter or anything as they often have useful info. Corraling them has been more sustainable for me.
atum47 3y ago
Are you addicted to YouTube or everything else kinda sucks? That's the case for me. I've been watching a lot of YouTube cause I can still find things worth watching over there, no matter how hard they try to push shitty content and shorts down my throat.
cynicalsecurity 3y ago
I'm sorry, but this is nonsense. An addition to information in the informational age sounds really nonsensical.
- jjulius 3y ago
  >An addition [sic] to information... That's not what they are addicted to.
  - cynicalsecurity 3y ago
    Then it's not problem with youtube. Youtube is simply a tool, a media platform. The guy has problem with watching junk, not with youtube or the internet.
    - jjulius 3y ago
      YouTube designs itself to keep users (a word often used for addicts) glued (read, "engaged") to the platform. It is built to draw people in and keep them there, thereby encouraging addictive behaviors. It is absolutely a problem with YouTube.
      - cynicalsecurity 3y ago
        Damn that candy store on the street corner. They deliberately put candy on the shelves, can you imagine it! So you would want to buy more! What a bunch of rascals. And don't even get me started on the fast food... It's not my fault.
        Bellend 3y ago
        Honestly, part of me wants to agree with you whole heartedly but I don't think I can. I started off saying that things like Crack, Nicotine, Alcohol... consumables are addictions. Then what about gambling though... it's not really a physical consumable. Also I have been short-term-addicted to some games, or wanted to binge watch a series, or finish a book despite knowing I have work tomorrow. As someone who used to smoke, I can't believe that anything is as difficult as stopping smoking, but then Heroin Addicts enter the chat. So whereas to me, it seems incredible that people are addicted to content, it doesn't mean that how they feel about said content doesn't constitute a problem and where that lies on the scale for an individual is impossible to quantify from my narrow viewpoint and experience.
_xivi 3y ago
Once I was aware of the amount of psychology tactics that goes behind youtube channels, I've come to the realization that I'm not "chilling" while on Youtube, more like being targeted by psychopaths. I heard MrBeast on a podcast (the flagrant) describing the formula they developed to manufacture `captivating` content, how they make multiple thumbnails and A/B tests which one is more engaging, and all the effort and psychology manipulation that goes behind the scene. It was a huge turn off. I never watched MrBeast content personally but I've since noticed the same patterns implemented by 'Education' channels like Veritasium who I previously pictured as innocent & informal. They actively hunt and bray on you consuming their content.
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 3y ago
  Vsauce is the saddest one for me. It used to be really interesting long form(at least back then it was "long form", now several hours long videos are fairly common in that space) educational content, now it's just spamming shorts in order to sell their subscription boxes full of toys.
deleted 3y ago
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purpleblue 3y ago
I deleted TikTok and Instagram, and my screen time dropped by 4 hours a day. That's 28 hours a week. I didn't realize how much time I spent on it, but it makes sense because I would watch it as soon as I woke up and before I went to sleep. I was gobsmacked at how much time I saved. Now I spend all that time playing Baldur's Gate 3.
gherkinnn 3y ago
YouTube's excessive ads (disabling adblock serves as a forcing function) and them no longer recommending stuff with the right settings applied solved the YT problem for me. While I've never shared OP's state, I too sunk too much time and attention on that platform. It is still there for those rare occasions I need it. But I no longer get pulled in.
Siecje 3y ago
I wish I could disable shorts on Android. I have a watch later playlist that I want to get through but I find myself scrolling on shorts.
GaryNumanVevo 3y ago
Does anyone else not seem to be super susceptible to the dopamine/attention hacking that plagues modern social media? I watch YouTube occasionally, but I often run out of interesting stuff to watch, so I just go read a book or something. I have ADHD (non-medicated) so you think that this would be a nightmare for me.
oliwarner 3y ago
I'm tempted to follow. Doomscrolling YouTube Shorts seems fun at the time, but wastes hours of my life. When I stop, I feel like I've lost control; regret. Google want my eyeballs for 2 solid hours, but I wish they'd let users focus their viewing time with a few basic controls. I'd disable Shorts in a heartbeat. What an I waiting for? There's still plenty of long format content I genuinely enjoy. Perhaps it's time for an alternative client.
dcchambers 3y ago
I am beginning to go on a tirade against short-form and never-ending-video content/social media. TikTok, Insta/FB Reels, YouTube Shorts, etc. This stuff is dangerous for a large percentage of individuals. And AI generated video content is only going to make it worse. Imagine you're wearing your Apple Vision Pro or Meta Quest or future VR headset, watching a 180 degree "immersive" AI generated video. The eye tracking system notices your eyes fatigue slightly and it determines your attention is lacking. The algorithm instantly tweaks some settings and modifies the inputs to the AI video generation tool based on what it thinks (knows) will make you pay more attention, as it inserts subtle adverts here and there. AI video generation isn't free after all. Five years ago this sounded like dystopian science fiction - but it's basically already possible with today's technology.
aequitas 3y ago
One issue for me is that everything leads me back to YouTube. When I want to cook a meal, there was this great YouTube video with a recipe from a while back I need to rewatch. Do some crafting work? Gotta check these videos about woodworking first to make sure I know what I’m doing. Somehow the visual content can bring the right information and nuances that a cookbook or manual can’t. Especially with food, like when does it look done. A video is like the picture of a thousand words, but times a thousand frames.
- jimmysong 3y ago
  I like Unhook, a browser plugin that takes out recommendations for YouTube. The YouTube home page then becomes more like a search engine and you can use it for that, but you won't keep going by watching more videos that are similar or related.
stevage 3y ago
I'm so glad he wrote this. I wish more people would talk about it. YouTube and especially TikTok are totally designed to fuel addiction and there must be a lot of people deeply affected by it.
francoispon 3y ago
the only thing that has been stopped me watching youtube is stopping my premium sub and seeing all those ads every 5s, drives me crazy enough to stop watching all together
pimlottc 3y ago
YouTube has been getting really aggressive about recommendations lately. They’re easily the majority of my homepage, and you can’t watch a single video on a new topic without getting flooded with related suggestions. Never mind there’s dozens of channels and topics I have enjoyed in the past, they rarely show up in the suggestions. It’s gotten to the point that I use incognito mode for random video links to avoid wild swings in recommendations.
gobbez 3y ago
[dead]

227 points by _xivi 3y ago

Avoiding clickbait is easy, you just need to realize that some scumbag is trying to get you click on their trash so they can make money. So why would you do it?

jjulius 3y ago
>Avoiding [addictive thing] is easy, you just... That is not a true statement for an addict. What's easy to you may be complicated for an addict. Addiction is not necessarily straightforward.
npteljes 3y ago
It might be simple, but not easy.

nolongerthere 3y ago

yea, this is pretty extreme, but 8-10 hours a day is a lot. I did a version of this with facebook and reddit for a while, I noticed I was wasting a lot of time on them so I uninstalled the apps off my phone and blocked the websites with the 1blocker, for facebook it was easy bec they made the desktop site so unusable I tried to use a few times and now basically never go there. reddit was harder but once the api thing happened, that gave me the motivation to just stop scrolling endlessly, I still have it accessible on my pc bec it'll sometimes pop up in search results, but I no longer spend hours scrolling, reading comments and getting in stupid slap fights with strangers.

wahnfrieden 3y ago
Many people hit 5-7 hours of phone use a day just through morning, lunch, breaks, and bedtime use as part of daily rituals that add up astronomically over time

Waterluvian 3y ago

Not to downplay the levels of addiction and how challenging it can really be for many. But one thing I've done recently is use `AdGuard` on my iPhone to begin blocking specific domains that distract me too much, and it was amazing how in a few of those cases, the problem just went away immediately. I was expecting it to be a fools' errand to be my own gatekeeper. But just getting a "page won't load" error a few times, and suddenly I'm not scrolling Reddit etc. for an hour at bedtime. I also find myself gravitating towards more productive things to do. I'm equally as bored, but the quick jolt of brain drugs I get from Reddit now has to come from working on my purely-in-software microwave or whatnot.

siver_john 3y ago
I did this my first year of college, blocked all distracting websites with an extension on Chrome. I still had it so I could watch on phone or if I Incognito windowed but putting that extra amount of effort kept me from mindlessly browsing the moment I got bored with homework. I finished all my homework in record time and was well prepared for my classes, I think I stopped doing this because I ended up becoming very bored.
tomlue 3y ago
I made the habitbreaker chrome extension on this principle. It just blocks user selected websites for 30 seconds before loading. https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/habitbreaker/kgiobadfmpfbnjfnflkagaiglphnjplm https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/habitbreaker/kgioba... The idea is just to defuse instant gratification. Works pretty well for me.
- diimdeep 3y ago
  found src, https://github.com/tomlue/habitbreaker https://github.com/tomlue/habitbreaker will see if it is compatible with firefox here is two more extensions, one for youtube and another to block social network feeds https://github.com/AlexisDrain/Less-Addictive-YouTube https://github.com/AlexisDrain/Less-Addictive-YouTube https://github.com/jordwest/news-feed-eradicator https://github.com/jordwest/news-feed-eradicator
deleted 3y ago

nritchie 3y ago

YouTube, like the entire Internet, is such a mixed bag. There is some really first rate content but most of it is total junk. Like Little Richard says "It ain't what you do, it's the way how you do it."

wahnfrieden 3y ago
It’s not just a bag of many contents. It’s an ad board full of dark patterns to steal your focus and attention.
RajT88 3y ago
> There is some really first rate content but most of it is total junk. A lot of the gaming-related stuff is just pure garbage. "Secret gaming room" channels are especially egregious. Saw one where a kid bought a used boat (the kind with a below-deck area with a bed, kitchen, etc.), the kind you can get for ~20k or less if it is ~30 years old. Made a "secret gaming den", and then intentionally sunk the boat just to add some drama with the "secret den" filling up with water. There's so many of these idiots on YT, that I can't even find the video now among hundreds of pages of videos. Yes, they need to stay off my lawn.
- mvdtnz 3y ago
  I just searched "secret gaming room" and watched the first result. That is one of the worst things I have ever watched. 5 million views. Unbelievable.
  - rightbyte 3y ago
    It seems like the Youtube algorithm somehow reinforces the spread of stupid videos. Like, people maybe watch them for an average of 15s instead of 10s before zapping since they are so stupid. I got the same theory about the Facebook feed. Where "car accident videos" or "disgusting things" get more spread than they should since people stop scrolling for 12% more time while blocking the poster or something ...
PascLeRasc 3y ago

djha-skin 3y ago

I used to watch between 45 minutes and two hours a day of YouTube when bored at work. At my last place of employment, this skyrocketed though; I was very bored that that job. In January of 2022 I decided to take a YouTube "fast", kicking YouTube for a while. I couldn't bring myself to commit to more. It was waaaaaay hard to stop. I got on Nebula as a sort of Nicorette for a while, a month or two. I can recommend Nebula as a sort of sieve for really high quality content btw. I stopped my subscription, but it was great to only be able to watch videos that didn't feel like they were trying to hook me, all while getting some really good stuff out of it. I particularly liked Half as Interesting, RealLifeLore, and Johnny Harris, all of which were on Nebula. These videos didn't contribute to the "hooked" feeling, giving me something to use to wean myself off YouTube. After my fast was over, it was so hard to stop that I didn't start again. I will still watch the occasional YouTube, but it's usually either shared by friends or specifically searched for by me. I have gotten looser in the last few days, but I have regretted it. I started swearing in my head less when I stopped watching YouTube. I had fewer intrusive thoughts. I had a clearer head, and I want to keep that. My Psychiatrist has told me no screens two hours before bed. I started living by that too, and have found much more rest when I do. I discovered by doing this that I have a screen "budget", that I can't go over that without restless leg, twitching, and pain at the end of the day. Now that I know this, I am less inclined to use that budget on YouTube. I miss a lot of creators on there, but I went back to watch some of them recently and was disappointed. Other mediums simply provide better content. Blog posts seem to be the best for this. There are still some creators that are amazing, and I am truly missing out! I miss watching Primitive Technology videos for example. I still allow myself to specifically search for these, by I try to limit myself to one or two videos a day or less. I find that to be the sweet spot for keeping off of being hooked.

steve_adams_86 3y ago
One of the strange things about YouTube is you can get sucked into it and forget what good content actually looks like. It becomes a matter of what’s relatively good on YouTube, not overall. You’re right that there’s good content on there, but I’m not convinced someone would be missing out on 99.9% of it. Or more. I’ve used it far too much in the past as well. Today I feel like it was purely a vice and a distraction. My impression of various things being “good” was based on its ability to keep me watching without feeling immediate shame or being made too aware of how I was distracting myself from more important things. Had I never seen most of it, not much would be different. Things would likely be better for me.

srvaroa 3y ago

I haven't needed to be so drastic, but removed the YT app from my phone. There is a fair amount of good content that I find very worth consuming from YT (mainly educational videos) and would not like to miss. But, the mobile app makes a very strong effort to push you to shorts, which is the real danger. Shorts are proficiently engineered to just suck my brain into a doom scrolling comma. I tried removing shorts from the app, but it keeps pushing them in your face, so I ended up deleting it and watching via browser, logged out. I've heard several acquaintances having the same experience / solution. It's a pity the YT PMs insist on designing the app like a Vegas casino, I'd really like to use the YT app for healthy usage, but well.

pxc 3y ago
NewPipe lets you watch shorts but completely lacks the shorts-type UI, so it's not addictive. Also has no ads and lets you play things in the background or with the phone screen off.
- autoexec 3y ago
  having recommendations and auto-play disabled is great too. I only see youtube videos that I choose to see and never see anything else unless I'm searching for something
  - pxc 3y ago
    Plus you can still 'subscribe' to channels you like without even logging in!
  - wonger_ 3y ago
    Turning off thumbnails has also helped me
bcraven 3y ago
Android users can use ReVanced to patch out many aspects of the official app, including shorts. A patchlist is here: https://revanced.app/patches https://revanced.app/patches

swozey 3y ago

I guess this is an adhd "superpower" of mine. I leave youtube on 24/7 and pay almost no attention to it. A big reason why I can ignore it though, when it's on 24/7.. mine plays the exact same documentaries, almost always WW2 or US Revolutionary War stuff over and over and over again. I watch a LOT of history documentaries but I have absolutely no interest in either of these time periods and have probably never searched for or liked any American history video. I'm a swords and shields guy. The last month straight it's been on a revolutionary war kick with some 3-5 hour long George Washington documentary in between another one about how Goebbels ran off to argentina and his wife wouldn't join him so he married his dead brothers widow. I know everything about the guys now. My theory is it plays the same stuff over again because it's already cached and saves them bw, them assuming you're not actually watching anyway but they can still pump viewership numbers for advertising. RE: Thread.. I'm awful at getting off the computer after work. I'll move on to personal projects and everything else and just sit here for the whole day. My adhd + being able to instantaneously get dopamine has me chained, I like to go camping to detox. Been forcing myself to go for a walk at 5pm now that it's not pitch black out then anymore.

iamsomewalrus 3y ago
ADHD-haver here. I do the same thing but with music. I created a playlist of albums I've heard hundreds of times. The songs are in album order and when I play the list I play from the start of an album somewhere in that list. It keeps that part of my brain occupied, but not focus, while I work on the task at hand.
- swozey 3y ago
  I go through really weird phases with music. Music is a huge part of my life, sometimes I play piano, guitar, produce. There's points I'll realize I've gone 6mo+ without opening spotify except for when I'm driving. Just months and months of the news or youtube as background and no music.
- deleted 3y ago
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3y ago

data_ders 3y ago

I’m so addicted to the internet that when I block social media, I find I get quite the similar fix from work Slack. Like browsing channels I have no business being a part of and constantly checking for validation of my comments via emoji reactions. Does anyone know of ways to be a successful work-from-home knowledge worker while also locking down Slack to not be another slot machine?? Does anyone else feel conflicted about the internet as both a means to a comfortable/lucretive career but also the ultimate drug? I’ve thought of only allowing Slack for 10 min each hour to make it more like an IV drop of info, but what happens when I actually need to DM in real time? meta P.S. I’m refreshing this and reading the replies — what a rush! So much more rewarding than what I should be doing. :)

wahnfrieden 3y ago
Only check it on a schedule, keep it closed, and turn off all notifications
- hoherd 3y ago
  Keeping it closed is such a sobering experience. Sometimes I will close Slack to make an effort to get into focus mode, and run `sleep 3600 && open /Applications/Slack.app` to make sure I'm not leaving my coworkers hanging forever, but also let me get some time boxed focus time in.
- data_ders 3y ago
  If knowledge were the only requirement, everyone would have six-pack abs and millions in the bank? I agree that your suggestion is rational, but the article brings up addiction and lack of control which I feel describes me. I’d love a “just block it”, escape hatch of a solution but maybe I’m SOL and have to learn mindfulness
  - wahnfrieden 3y ago
    One actionable thing is to organize your department and more widely to accept more async style communication and non-urgent/urgent style communications where you can comfortably disconnect without fear of missing out on something urgent

optimalsolver 3y ago

I just wish YT thumbnails were selected from a random point in the video.

panick21_ 3y ago
I think that sounds good compared to now, but if it actually happened, it would lead to a lot of unintended consequences.
pzmarzly 3y ago
Clickbait Remover extension may help you https://github.com/pietervanheijningen/clickbait-remover-for-youtube https://github.com/pietervanheijningen/clickbait-remover-for... Or you can write a userscript / custom CSS to hide thumbnails altogether. Or you can browse YouTube through RSS feeds (which afaik still work).
gnopgnip 3y ago
The extension dearrow will do that
carleton 3y ago
DeArrow is an extension by the SponsorBlock guy that does this.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

lm28469 3y ago

Youtube killed my addiction themselves, they removed any kind of recommendation to my account since I opted out of all tracking, now when I go to youtube.com I get an empty page, unless I know exactly what I want to watch I don't even bother

RajT88 3y ago
This! I know they think they are punishing you, but after a while I came to appreciate it.
- PascLeRasc 3y ago
  Same thing with the ads every 5 minutes always interrupting a complex part of the woodworking video I'm half watching. Thanks for the reminder to focus on real work, State Farm.
  - lm28469 3y ago
    There are services that allow you to download videos for free. If you know what you want and you aren't in a rush (it's not slow but not instant either) it's a good solution

sph 3y ago

Good to see someone talking about it.. I used to spend my free time watching Youtube, these days it's only during dinner before I put on a TV show (and just before bed where very long LPs put me to sleep in minutes). What helped I only notice in retrospective: I got diagnosed and medicated for ADHD. Now I actually have the focus and drive to do the things I should be doing, rather than lazying my day off on YouTube with a hidden yet growing shadow of worthlessness and self-hate. In fact, now that I have improved focus, I don't have the patience to sit and watch Let's Plays any more. I either zone out, doze off or think about stuff I should be doing, and I just turn it off. YMMV.

Aurornis 3y ago
> YMMV. Very glad you found something that helped, but this is a good place to warn people that everyone is different. In some people, stimulant treatment can actually kindle problematic behaviors like the one you escaped. For some, they enhance focus but that results in more focusing on the hobbies, distractions, and side projects. I bring this up because while ADHD medication is great for some, there's a growing problem of people reading positive anecdotes and assuming it's quick fix for all things lifestyle related. In clinic practice there's a growing number of people showing up with everything from stimulant-exacerbated Dermatillomania (skin picking disorders) to problematic behaviors with porn consumption after seeking out stimulant treatment based on internet advice. Stimulants are powerful drugs, and there's an entire other conversation to be had about the excessive prescribing practices of some of the providers out there (my pharmacist friends are in disbelief at the size of some of the doses they're handing out to people these days).
- sph 3y ago
  > Very glad you found something that helped, but this is a good place to warn people that everyone is different. In some people, stimulant treatment can actually kindle problematic behaviors like the one you escaped. For some, they enhance focus but that results in more focusing on the hobbies, distractions, and side projects. Certainly. On dexamfetamine, focus has a distinctive sticky quality to it. I need to be very careful where I direct it. Opening HN mid-morning means a productive session of commenting and getting into Internet arguments. It's a negative side effect that can be overcome with a good routine and schedule. I take my meds, sit at my desk and open Emacs at 9am every day, 7 days a week. Distractions are blocked, so the path of least-resistance is just doing work. But then again, good routine and schedule are relatively easy to set up once medicated.

richrichie 3y ago

This is an eye opening article. My list of vices: Youtube X Hacker news Telegram “news” channels

psyclobe 3y ago

YouTube is amazing, just stay away from content that encourages you to buy stuff. The free documentary channel is amazing (check out their Apollo series) but lately once you’ve seen all the amazing education videos (think vsauce, smarter every day, David butler) it does turn into a nervous tick constantly opening the app.

KptMarchewa 3y ago

For me, doing stuff like that only replaces one thing with another. If I block youtube, I'll be spending that time here. If I block HN, I'll stay on reddit. If I block reddit, I'll spend time on Skyscrapercity. The real solution seems to be having stuff in life that actually gives you self-actualization and spend least possible time at work fucking around.

jimt1234 3y ago
For me it's like trying to cut out junk food and replace it with healthy alternatives. I'll eat healthy for a while, then find myself returning to junk - youtube, imgur, reddit, x, instagram, etc.
ivanjermakov 3y ago
Happened to me. I stopped using Reddit completely once Apollo shut down and started reading HN a lot. Sometimes it's hard to find what to do and you still need some "filler" activities.
xetplan 3y ago
Totally agree. We are social creatures. The only way I would be able to completely stop would be to hang out more at a local bar. I already go to the gym as much as my body can recover from. At least with HN there is the possibility of something interesting and not just mindless bullshit. Everything is relative too. I think of my World War 2 vet grandfather. He worked a mindless job, then came home and drank beer until he went to bed while watching TV. We seem to pretend before the internet that the average person would clock out from their amazing, uplifting job and then head off to some Vienna Circle level discussion about the nature of reality. While often falling way short, my reality is much closer to that than any of my ancestors could have ever dreamed of.

TriangleEdge 3y ago

I have done the same thing with YT. Notice my first post on HN is adding this website to my hosts files because I found it too addicting. As of date, I have unblocked YT but kept almost all of the social media sites. I watch Twitch for background noise nowadays. I find it to be less addictive since it feels more ephemeral to me.

farleykr 3y ago

One thing that made a huge difference for me was turning of my watch history. If you do that you get a message on the homepage saying that it can't recommend videos until you turn on your watch history. Not very visually pleasing but it keeps me from scrolling through recommendations and now I only watch videos when a channel I follow puts out new content or when I choose to specifically search for something.

cowsup 3y ago
Another benefit is that the mobile app’s “Shorts” menu also stops working if watch history is disabled. Sometimes the app takes me there on launch, and now I’m greeted with a message saying I can’t explore an endless feed unless my watch history is active. Fine with me!
cracoucax 3y ago
Oooh yes thanks for this, instant disable. History could be convenient at times, but hey not as much as my sanity.
havblue 3y ago
I've also found that just deleting your history occasionally can be beneficial as it keeps you from going down a rabbit hole of repetitive but addictive content to watch new things.
frabcus 3y ago
This is my favourite YouTube feature! It makes the home page lovely.
peterb0yd 3y ago
Oh my, you just saved so much of my time! I had no idea you could control so much. YouTube is so clean now! Thank you.
nomius10 3y ago
I want to point out that you can do a similar thing on reddit too. There's a setting for disabling recommended posts on the home tab. Combine that with unsubscribing to all subreddits (maybe except /r/nosurf) and you get a detoxified home tab. I tried to do something similar with twitter (now known as X), but it doesn't seem to work.

ChrisArchitect 3y ago

Nice to see this post. With all the discussion and borderline obsession on here about ad-blocking and YouTube I can't help but think of the role addiction plays.

ChrisArchitect 3y ago

Related: YouTube dominates TV streaming in US, per Nielsen's latest report https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/20/youtube-dominates-tv-streaming-in-u-s-per-nielsens-latest-report/ https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/20/youtube-dominates-tv-strea... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39463296 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39463296)

matesz 3y ago

Just realized when I logged out from YouTube I got automatically logged out from Chrome as well. There is no other way. How is that even allowed, that google single-signon infiltrated my browsing experience. Something has to change.

futureshock 3y ago

It’s bit weird, but I feel like this conversation about screen time and digital addiction dropped out of the public consciousness during Covid, never to return. Apple released their screen time features in 2018, so this issue was just starting to hit critical mass right as Covid hit and dumped us all deep down the digital rabbit hole. Now I notice even more social proof to keep going deeper into the digital life. Public shaming over green chat bubbles and genuine confusion if I tell someone I’m on not on a Meta owned social network. I wonder if we’re all so addicted now that it’s no longer social acceptable to talk about our addiction. I wonder if we just started talking to each other less as well.

bombcar 3y ago
Covid and work-from-home normalized screen time. The same thing has happened in the past (an old Wodehouse school-story has a kid being yelled at for reading "trash" (David Copperfield) during class instead of the Latin he was supposed to be working on.
- SamBam 3y ago
  I think that suggesting it's no different from people thinking that reading books was going to rot people's minds ignores the very real increases in teen depression, loneliness, and suicides over the past decade, as well as increases in adult depression and isolation, and the credible research that says that social media and screens are probably strongly contributing to it.
  - ElevenLathe 3y ago
    Also, maybe Dickens really is worse for the brain than Latin grammar?
    - bombcar 3y ago
      That was basically my point but apparently I didn't make it clear enough - that we do and have had degradations, but they eventually become the new normal. That may not be always bad, mind you, but it seems pretty obvious to me that it has occurred and is occurring. I could rant much more about it, but suffice to say that just because we don't think something is a problem anymore doesn't mean it wasn't (and isn't) a problem.

ChuckMcM 3y ago

Great post and parts really resonate with me. I got addicted to World of Warcraft. It was contrary to my own self image that my brain could do something to me that I didn't endorse, but post WoW I recognized that it did exactly that. I started sliding down that slope with No Man's Sky but have since corrected (fortunately NMS isn't as well put together as WoW or it might have been worse). The key for me is running away from something you feel you have no control over feels like a better solution than dealing with the pain. Escaping into a world that has expected behaviors that you can understand is, for me, less painful than a world with people advancing bad agendas for self serving reasons. The pain is real, the fight doesn't stop, every day you shoot for "well I didn't give in to my fears today, on to tomorrow."

NoPicklez 3y ago
I think it's important to not forget that video games (in particular WoW) are fun to play. They're fun to play like its fun to play sport, exercise etc etc. They are fun to play and that on its own is a good reason to play them. Everyone has things they feel like they should be or need to be doing every day. We are allowed to do things that give us joy that take us out of the day to day, it's just whether or not these things start to consume so much of your time that you negate other important areas.
- ChuckMcM 3y ago
  You are correct, they are fun to play. The challenge is knowing that the activity has become unhealthy. Every addict that I personally know thought they had their issue under control until something helped them realize they didn't. I didn't go downstairs at my daughter's birthday when everyone there was singing and she was blowing out the candles. I didn't go because I was 'healing the raid' and me leaving probably would have resulted in a wipe. That was my "wait, what am I doing" moment.
- pimlottc 3y ago
  They can be fun to play, but you do have to check in with yourself occasionally to make sure you’re still enjoying it. It’s surprisingly easy to fall into a rut and just keep doing what you’ve been doing even when it’s not really doing it for you anymore.

addicted 3y ago

In 2015 or so I quit Facebook. I had also quit smoking and drinking about 3 months earlier. The feelings and withdrawal I went through were exactly the same. Ever since I’ve been convinced that social media are not passive or even active sources of content. They’re much better viewed as addictions like smoking or drinking. And just like smoking or drinking some people may be able to use social media responsibly, but many others are gonna be badly addicted and even the ones who do it responsibly will largely be worse off for it.

latentcall 3y ago

One of my best friends is definitely addicted to YouTube. I am starting to suspect my wife is too. YouTube is great for music and educational videos, but let's be honest the bulk of content is not that. In the early days of YouTube I would say I was addicted, or spent a lot of time on there. At one point I realized how much of a waste of time it was and now only look up car repair videos. I hope everyone can get out of the YT rut.

endisneigh 3y ago

I wish I could block shorts. Christ sake I’m already paying for premium. Let me block it, and not just from the mobile client - everywhere.

xyst 3y ago

I can put away social media. But I can’t put away my phone due to how everything is digital now - bank, health, travel.

standardUser 3y ago
Half of what I use my phone for is in service of other aspects of life. Finances, travel plans, communicating with friends, work, research, etc. It's the other half - the scrolling mostly - that provides little value. But I'm not about to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
jjulius 3y ago
Genuinely curious - aside from, say, 2FA, what do you need your phone for for those services that you can't do via the web on a laptop or desktop? I'm not trying to be confrontational, I'm just thinking through how I use bank/health/travel services and am struggling to think of something that can only be done via a mobile app. I've forced myself to go laptop/desktop-only with most services and have found that I can keep my phone away from my person for most of the day, save for moments where a service requires 2FA.

mmorearty 3y ago

I've had good results recently by deleting all my social media apps from my phone, BUT allowing myself to use them through Mobile Safari. And I did not bookmark them; e.g. for Instagram I type "in" and then Enter. This gives me some friction, without having to go cold turkey. All the popular social media sites have mobile websites that are "good enough", but slightly clunkier than the apps, and also they can't send me notifications. My phone screentime per day has dropped by about 1/3rd.

r9295 3y ago
I did the same, and additionally set my display to grayscale. I don't even want to open social websites unless I actually wish to browse them. The compulsive fix these apps provided when I was bored or waiting was taken away and my habit subsided.

garrisonj 3y ago

If you are using Arc, I created a boost to block Youtube. You can add a custom message to yourself in the CSS settings. https://arc.net/boost/208CA384-0BC8-4EEF-A944-BC551D4AD48D https://arc.net/boost/208CA384-0BC8-4EEF-A944-BC551D4AD48D

deleted 3y ago

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alphazard 3y ago

The problem I see with YouTube is that I always start on low-regret content like lectures, or a news clip about a current event I want a summary of. Or a video that a friend said was funny (that's good signal). But then rather than recommending more content along the same lines (which I would probably bookmark but not be encouraged to click), there is a short low quality video that somehow slides under the radar of "not worth my time". And then this chains together, and what started out as a low-regret interaction has spiraled into a high-regret one. uBlock rules for the shorts, recommendations, etc. basically solved this problem for me. I think there is a ton of potential with the alternative YouTube frontends too. We have access to an unprecedented amount of information, it's just hidden behind malicious interfaces.

ThemboMcBembo 3y ago
I had the same problem. Blocking those elements helped, but was a pain to set up on each device I used. Switching entirely to alternative front-ends like Invidious was what finally helped me stop getting sucked in by those.
nomius10 3y ago
I highly recommend the Unhook extension. It's highly customizable, and personally I have it set to remove all recommendations. Sometimes I also disable the comments. It's been a year since I've used it, and I definitely see an improvement as the platform is no longer pushing content down to me, but at times I find myself frantically searching channels I used to watch, to see if there is a new video since I last checked. I only remember a dozen at most, way fewer than the ~100 channels I was subscribed to. Overall an improvement, but I don't consider myself cured.

al2o3cr 3y ago

The counsellor... well, let's say they have a specific task at hand. LOL I assume this went like the scene from "Half Baked": "You ever SUCK COCKS for YouTube? Get outta here!"

deleted 3y ago

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zeitlupe 3y ago

To me, the most difficult part about quitting youtube, twitter or reddit is that these websites are incredibly rewarding and an incredible waste of time at the same time. Reddit has great discussions on careers, hobbies, whatever you do not stumble upon elsewhere, but the rewarding content unfortunately always comes in packs with some mindless scrolling and mediocre memes – I've never managed to have one without the other. Quitting them means to forfeit a huge, valuable chunk of input and I am yet not sure what's better.

throwaway277432 3y ago
Honestly Reddit has never been that great for me. In my experience a lot of content even in niche hobby subreddits is regurgitated opinions presented as authorative facts or baseless speculation disguised as professional insight. In the few hobby subreddits that I frequented, non-mainstream opinions or new ideas were often drowned out by the hivemind and people with less experience or knowledge. In short, a real discussion rarely came up or was even possible. And in the case of questions I realized that so many people have no clue but still feel compelled to answer. I'll omit my rant on career advice subreddits here. For my hobbies specifically, I've reverted back to forums. You can have a relaxed discussion over the span of weeks, and interesting threads might remain active for months. You can get to know the users by their signatures, and the average age of users is also higher. Some of the users might even be professionals instead of just hobbyists, where I feel that was rare on Reddit.

drcongo 3y ago

Absolutely baffled by this.

frabcus 3y ago

My favourite extension for customising YouTube right now is Unhook. https://unhook.app/ https://unhook.app/ I hide all recommendations and suggestions, so basically all I can do on YouTube is look at channels I've subscribed to, or search for videos I need. I use it on mobile (Firefox on Android) too.

kirill5pol 3y ago

The YouTube addiction is definitely real... but it's quite sad since mixed in with the entertainment it's one of the best sources in the world for education (video lectures, how tos, etc) One thing that worked well for me is having two separate profiles, one for educational and one for everything else. That way the education one didn't get as polluted with the most addictive recommendations (little self-promotion) One thing I found to be useful was to try to focus on learning more actively, so I built a tool that turns educational videos into mini-courses where it will ask you questions about the content and then use spaced repetition to help you actually remember the information. One of the other parts is to ensure that the suggestions/feed is focused solely on education, and that you don't fall into the addicting videos trap... (I have the v1 but still working to make this better) But I think if the addiction is bad enough as in the post, it's probably a better idea to go cold turkey (link is https://www.platoedu.org https://www.platoedu.org)

add-sub-mul-div 3y ago

Youtube is not a big thing for me, but Reddit and Twitter shutting down the respective clients I used for each got me off both platforms permanently. Enshittification can be a good thing.

webdoodle 3y ago
Reddit's enshittification was a driving force for me as well. If fact, they might be the golden standard of enshittification: they killed there warrant canary, crap interface changes, took money from Peter Thiel and Jack Ma, ignored mod pleas for help with bots, went closed source, killed 3rd party apps and scrapers, sells user data to anyone, censored anyone that didn't parrot there politics, and finally suspended and cancelled thousands of dedicated Reddit users who protested any of the above. I hope there IPO sinks to the bottom of the stock market and is delisted.

pxeger1 3y ago

My solution has been to redirect the YouTube home page to the subscriptions page. This prevents me from watching recommendations. I also created a new YouTube account (note this doesn’t require you to create a new Google account), and manually added all my subscriptions. This means it has no data on what to recommend me and so the recommendations are terrible and I never even want to click them. This encourages me to carefully curate my subscriptions, so I only watch high-quality videos from consistently high-quality channels. I also have nebula but I find increasingly many of the channels are too low-quality for me. I think this is because my standards have been raised and my detection of low quality has improved. I’m now not sure that it’s worth it for me though.

Accacin 3y ago

Anyone else use YouTube as basically background noise? When I'm working I live putting on some ASMR and just listening to it in the background. I find it less distracting then music or podcasts.

timeforcomputer 3y ago

I feel like something bad is happening and I am unsure how much of this is me being negative. I "quit" the internet in late 2018 due to severe addiction and years-long disengagement in my hobbies (reading, programming, thinking, music, art, ...) and only recently have started reintroducing it into my life, for example, catching up with what people do on YouTube, trying to get an idea of "what people are talking about". It feels like a fever dream and I am unsure whether this is due to me picking up my extremely unhealthy internet browsing habits that I had pre-2018, and I wonder whether there is a "healthy" internet that I am not seeing. I made a twitter account recently and followed Jonathan Blow, Sebastian Lague, and 3blue1brown. I just scrolled through the default twitter page and I got karen videos, a naked woman in a car caught cheating, israeli soldiers harassing someone, a police dog mauling someone. I made an instagram account to see 3blue1brown videos on my phone and went to the default page (I assume it knows nothing about me) and I was given videos of disabled people doing sports which are clearly meant to be "funny", with extremely hateful comments apparently from children, spelling out the N-word with separate letters, etc. That was in 3 minutes of using Instagram and I gave up. I am interested in game development and a google search of "game development" gives me absurd "industry knowledge" youtube videos and r/gamedev. r/gamedev is just "meta-commentary" pointing out "societal problems" of game developers, you won't make money, noob assumptions, angry at the world, even mixing in discussions of depression, self-hate. It is a mess. Where are the people talking about neat collision detection tricks? I am aware that this is the "surface level" and I will eventually need to find and curate a variety of incoming "feeds", such as group chats with good engaged people, great forums, etc., but I just don't feel like it is "natural" to find them. I feel like I need to start a project for myself to intentionally build my own "algorithm" which leads me to find enriching content. I feel though that that is actively going against what "the internet" wants me to do. It is so easy to find such hateful things, and I am worried it will bring me back to being as depressed as I was before quitting the internet.

edg5000 3y ago
With the larger platforms, the more you use the platform the more specific the feed or recommendations become. What you describe sounds indeed like the surface level feed that a new or logged out account would get. Ignore all feeds and search for specific things, such as collision detection. Then you will come across genuinely good channels which you can subscribe to. The feed will then no longer show those crappy superficial popular topics. However the YouTube Shorts has an insanely addictive nature, I regret every second spent in that feature. To contrast, the rest of youtube contains so much useful educational content. I really learned a lot thanks to these videos. In the last two years I stopped watching regular videos and started watching Shorts, which I find truly regrettable.

graeme 3y ago

Everyone will have their own solution dependent on their own habits and brain quirks. But, some things which worked for me which you might wish to try. I found some things are useful to have, but distracting in other contexts. As an example, people often text me a tweet. I want to be able to read the tweet, or look up certain sources of information. So I don't want to block twitter. And being logged out prevents reading a thread. But I also don't want to scroll my feed. Solution --> stay logged in, but with my work account which has a dull feed. Instagram is a waste of time on my phone. But I need to login occasionally to check messages and I like seeing the odd update. Solution --> use nextdns to block on my phone, check on computer in browser. So on my phone I identified instagram, youtube and twitter as the things where I waste the most time. NextDNS blocks youtube and instagram entirely, and the for twitter I use the login solution above. On my mac I'm most likely to waste time checking various websites. So I just put anything I want to check into Netnewswire. It gathers it all, it's quick to go through, and then when it's done there's nothing else to check. I also catalogued "what do I actually want to do on my phone" down to the level of even reviewing the modqueue on reddit in the browser. Then I made homescreen shortcuts for any of it, so I have an easy thing to tap which lowers friction for doing something I want, rather than something aimless. Also sounds funny but I made an effort to close all tabs and open loops on my mac before starting my day. Have always been the type to have too many tabs, and it sort of takes up mental RAM. There's no single big solution, but by chipping away at the problem and checking "what do I find unsatisfying" and "what do I want to do, where?" I've made a system that actually works pretty well for me. I've tried cold turkey before, and it works great, especially if it's only for a single service. But the thing is it's kind of inconvenient to totally block youtube or twitter or anything as they often have useful info. Corraling them has been more sustainable for me.

atum47 3y ago

Are you addicted to YouTube or everything else kinda sucks? That's the case for me. I've been watching a lot of YouTube cause I can still find things worth watching over there, no matter how hard they try to push shitty content and shorts down my throat.

cynicalsecurity 3y ago

I'm sorry, but this is nonsense. An addition to information in the informational age sounds really nonsensical.

jjulius 3y ago
>An addition [sic] to information... That's not what they are addicted to.
- cynicalsecurity 3y ago
  Then it's not problem with youtube. Youtube is simply a tool, a media platform. The guy has problem with watching junk, not with youtube or the internet.
  - jjulius 3y ago
    YouTube designs itself to keep users (a word often used for addicts) glued (read, "engaged") to the platform. It is built to draw people in and keep them there, thereby encouraging addictive behaviors. It is absolutely a problem with YouTube.
    - cynicalsecurity 3y ago
      Damn that candy store on the street corner. They deliberately put candy on the shelves, can you imagine it! So you would want to buy more! What a bunch of rascals. And don't even get me started on the fast food... It's not my fault.
      - Bellend 3y ago
        Honestly, part of me wants to agree with you whole heartedly but I don't think I can. I started off saying that things like Crack, Nicotine, Alcohol... consumables are addictions. Then what about gambling though... it's not really a physical consumable. Also I have been short-term-addicted to some games, or wanted to binge watch a series, or finish a book despite knowing I have work tomorrow. As someone who used to smoke, I can't believe that anything is as difficult as stopping smoking, but then Heroin Addicts enter the chat. So whereas to me, it seems incredible that people are addicted to content, it doesn't mean that how they feel about said content doesn't constitute a problem and where that lies on the scale for an individual is impossible to quantify from my narrow viewpoint and experience.

_xivi 3y ago

Once I was aware of the amount of psychology tactics that goes behind youtube channels, I've come to the realization that I'm not "chilling" while on Youtube, more like being targeted by psychopaths. I heard MrBeast on a podcast (the flagrant) describing the formula they developed to manufacture `captivating` content, how they make multiple thumbnails and A/B tests which one is more engaging, and all the effort and psychology manipulation that goes behind the scene. It was a huge turn off. I never watched MrBeast content personally but I've since noticed the same patterns implemented by 'Education' channels like Veritasium who I previously pictured as innocent & informal. They actively hunt and bray on you consuming their content.

mtlmtlmtlmtl 3y ago
Vsauce is the saddest one for me. It used to be really interesting long form(at least back then it was "long form", now several hours long videos are fairly common in that space) educational content, now it's just spamming shorts in order to sell their subscription boxes full of toys.

deleted 3y ago

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purpleblue 3y ago

I deleted TikTok and Instagram, and my screen time dropped by 4 hours a day. That's 28 hours a week. I didn't realize how much time I spent on it, but it makes sense because I would watch it as soon as I woke up and before I went to sleep. I was gobsmacked at how much time I saved. Now I spend all that time playing Baldur's Gate 3.

gherkinnn 3y ago

YouTube's excessive ads (disabling adblock serves as a forcing function) and them no longer recommending stuff with the right settings applied solved the YT problem for me. While I've never shared OP's state, I too sunk too much time and attention on that platform. It is still there for those rare occasions I need it. But I no longer get pulled in.

Siecje 3y ago

I wish I could disable shorts on Android. I have a watch later playlist that I want to get through but I find myself scrolling on shorts.

GaryNumanVevo 3y ago

Does anyone else not seem to be super susceptible to the dopamine/attention hacking that plagues modern social media? I watch YouTube occasionally, but I often run out of interesting stuff to watch, so I just go read a book or something. I have ADHD (non-medicated) so you think that this would be a nightmare for me.

oliwarner 3y ago

I'm tempted to follow. Doomscrolling YouTube Shorts seems fun at the time, but wastes hours of my life. When I stop, I feel like I've lost control; regret. Google want my eyeballs for 2 solid hours, but I wish they'd let users focus their viewing time with a few basic controls. I'd disable Shorts in a heartbeat. What an I waiting for? There's still plenty of long format content I genuinely enjoy. Perhaps it's time for an alternative client.

dcchambers 3y ago

I am beginning to go on a tirade against short-form and never-ending-video content/social media. TikTok, Insta/FB Reels, YouTube Shorts, etc. This stuff is dangerous for a large percentage of individuals. And AI generated video content is only going to make it worse. Imagine you're wearing your Apple Vision Pro or Meta Quest or future VR headset, watching a 180 degree "immersive" AI generated video. The eye tracking system notices your eyes fatigue slightly and it determines your attention is lacking. The algorithm instantly tweaks some settings and modifies the inputs to the AI video generation tool based on what it thinks (knows) will make you pay more attention, as it inserts subtle adverts here and there. AI video generation isn't free after all. Five years ago this sounded like dystopian science fiction - but it's basically already possible with today's technology.

aequitas 3y ago

One issue for me is that everything leads me back to YouTube. When I want to cook a meal, there was this great YouTube video with a recipe from a while back I need to rewatch. Do some crafting work? Gotta check these videos about woodworking first to make sure I know what I’m doing. Somehow the visual content can bring the right information and nuances that a cookbook or manual can’t. Especially with food, like when does it look done. A video is like the picture of a thousand words, but times a thousand frames.

jimmysong 3y ago
I like Unhook, a browser plugin that takes out recommendations for YouTube. The YouTube home page then becomes more like a search engine and you can use it for that, but you won't keep going by watching more videos that are similar or related.

stevage 3y ago

I'm so glad he wrote this. I wish more people would talk about it. YouTube and especially TikTok are totally designed to fuel addiction and there must be a lot of people deeply affected by it.

francoispon 3y ago

the only thing that has been stopped me watching youtube is stopping my premium sub and seeing all those ads every 5s, drives me crazy enough to stop watching all together

pimlottc 3y ago

YouTube has been getting really aggressive about recommendations lately. They’re easily the majority of my homepage, and you can’t watch a single video on a new topic without getting flooded with related suggestions. Never mind there’s dozens of channels and topics I have enjoyed in the past, they rarely show up in the suggestions. It’s gotten to the point that I use incognito mode for random video links to avoid wild swings in recommendations.

gobbez 3y ago

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