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I've gotta share something -- so, I think I have a bit of an addiction with YouTube and I'd been thinking about how to shake it off. I didn't get round to it fo

by pen2l 2y ago

I've gotta share something -- so, I think I have a bit of an addiction with YouTube and I'd been thinking about how to shake it off. I didn't get round to it for whatever reason (blocks in modem settings maybe), but one day a month or so ago, if I went to YouTube, I saw this screen: https://i.imgur.com/OIL0jSE.png https://i.imgur.com/OIL0jSE.png Not extremely sure why this happens (I reckon it has to do with my use of adguard), but anyway I noticed I would just... move on, there were not icons to entice me that I could immediately click. And then sure enough, I found myself less hungry for it in the coming weeks. This all happened by accident but boy o' boy, it works. I'm wasting less time on YouTube. I similarly stopped going to reddit (the comments don't load on mobile, things become unclickable... I imagine this is a change recently made live to force users to login to increase engagement... ironic that it works out backwards to what their intent was). Reflecting more on this on a weary weekend morning, about how many are unable to shake off these addictions, I am increasingly convinced of the poisonous effects of these distractions and cannot help but think that dire action is needed to curb these addictions with gov't mandated regulations. I think price increase of tobacco products (with tax costs embedded in the price) were a great deterrent (better than the warning signs on the tobacco), so I suspect deterrents need be incredibly strong. Finding that balance and perspective, of weighing personal freedoms and recognizing the realities of addictions is going to be very hard, but I hope for the good of us we go somewhere with this and recognize the dangers for what they are.

NathanaelRea 2y ago
There's probably a few extensions that do this for YouTube. One is called Unhook.
zeta0134 2y ago
For YouTube, I pay for premium because I already block ads, and it feels proper to support creators that way. Then I use my content blocker to remove the sidebar and the end screen overlay, both of which are stuffed with distracting elements. I've bookmarked my subscriptions page, and if creators I like haven't uploaded anything I'm interested in watching, I just close the tab. This took some effort, but it works wonders. And really, there's only a handful of YouTube channels I actually want to follow anyway. A lot of the rest of it seems to be low effort humor. Nothing wrong with that, it's just mostly not my cup of tea.
- gmiller123456 2y ago
  Patreon is probably better, IMHO. From what I understand, Youtube Red pays out your subscription money proportionally based on how long you watch their videos. To me, that just seems to encourage them to waste your time, rather than focus information density. With Patreon you decide who gets how much.
jon_richards 2y ago
I put a rule in my adblocker to block the reddit homepage but not individual threads (because that's often where google takes me). Massively helpful, but also concerning how months later I still automatically try to go to the homepage every once in a while and run into my adblocker.
- nehal3m 2y ago
  Would you mind describing how you set up that filter? edit: Using AdGuard for Safari, the following works for me under custom filtering rules: ||reddit.com^$document ||old.reddit.com^$document @@||reddit.com/r/*/comments/* @@||old.reddit.com/r/*/comments/* @@||reddit.com/r/*/comments/*$document @@||old.reddit.com/r/*/comments/*$document
  - jon_richards 2y ago
    I just use: ||reddit.com/^$document,important @@||reddit.com/*$document
cornstalks 2y ago
> Not extremely sure why this happens It’s when you have no watch history.
- HeatrayEnjoyer 2y ago
  It's actually from the adblocker. Google is cracking down and making YouTube harder to use if you don't have ads or a premium subscription.
  - cornstalks 2y ago
    No, it’s when you are signed out and have no watch history (I can’t remember if it also does it when signed in but with no watch/search history). Try an incognito window with no ad blocker. Trust me on this one. Read about it here: https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/139222780?hl=en&msgid=229405279 https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/139222780?hl=en&ms...
    - archb 2y ago
      Yeah, I have watch and search history turned off. The former makes the dashboard empty. Turning on watch history brings suggestions back.
- exitb 2y ago
  I also have no watch history, but my screen only began to look like that when I subscribed to premium.
  - archb 2y ago
    Didn't realize it's a premium-specific thing. I have had watch history turned off for a long time now, and assumed that's all that one needed to do for dashboard to be empty.
    - cornstalks 2y ago
      It’s not a premium thing. It started last year and may have just coincidentally started around the time they signed up for premium.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
kolja005 2y ago
I use an app called Jomo to block YouTube, as well as about 10 other distracting applications. It runs on every device I have and makes it very challenging to use the app when I feel the urge to. For a long time I convinced myself that I needed to keep some access to YouTube because there is obviously some meaningful content on the platform. After having it completely blocked for a few months I have come to realize that there is nothing on the platform that is absolutely essential for me to be able to view, and that the downside of getting distracted was not at all worth it.
gr8r 2y ago
I just blocked YouTube using hosts file this week. Haven’t missed it. But no more random time sinks. I had offloaded YouTube on my phone since the phone is out of storage. Not going back.
adolph 2y ago
A technique that helped me (after started meditation/setting my intentions/etc) is turning off the autocomplete for “top sites” and “browsing history.” It doesn’t block anything but adds just enough friction that I can remember my intentions and make a non-automatic decision.
Aglartur 2y ago
I highly recommend extension for mobile browsers "SocialFocus: Hide Distractions" to replace YouTube and Instagram apps. It lets you block features and UX improvements that keep you on the platform, like thumbnails, feed and reels/shorts. I like to think to combat addictiveness of modern apps, you need to actively make it less convenient. It's hard to completely quit it, but if it's clunky to use you'll naturally use it less.
smithcoin 2y ago
If you turn off watch history, then that’s what the homepage has started to look like they don’t recommend anything that’s helped me shake it a bit; Works on Roku iOS and desktop.
7bit 2y ago
> I noticed I would just... move on That's kinda what happened to me and Reddit. After all the drama with the API (which I never used, btw) I decided to delete my Reddit account of 10 years. Something I never thought I would do, as I spent a significant amount of my internet time on it. I still go to Reddit from time to time just to browse, and still use it a lot to get viewpoints on specific topics (via Google site: ), but I never partake in discussion any longer. And I don't miss it at all. I still have the urge to punch someone to the face if they share factually wrong information, but I'm glad I have no account to write a comment any longer. It's truly weird how fast important things can become unimportant.

by pen2l 2y ago

NathanaelRea 2y ago

There's probably a few extensions that do this for YouTube. One is called Unhook.

zeta0134 2y ago

For YouTube, I pay for premium because I already block ads, and it feels proper to support creators that way. Then I use my content blocker to remove the sidebar and the end screen overlay, both of which are stuffed with distracting elements. I've bookmarked my subscriptions page, and if creators I like haven't uploaded anything I'm interested in watching, I just close the tab. This took some effort, but it works wonders. And really, there's only a handful of YouTube channels I actually want to follow anyway. A lot of the rest of it seems to be low effort humor. Nothing wrong with that, it's just mostly not my cup of tea.

gmiller123456 2y ago
Patreon is probably better, IMHO. From what I understand, Youtube Red pays out your subscription money proportionally based on how long you watch their videos. To me, that just seems to encourage them to waste your time, rather than focus information density. With Patreon you decide who gets how much.

jon_richards 2y ago

I put a rule in my adblocker to block the reddit homepage but not individual threads (because that's often where google takes me). Massively helpful, but also concerning how months later I still automatically try to go to the homepage every once in a while and run into my adblocker.

nehal3m 2y ago
Would you mind describing how you set up that filter? edit: Using AdGuard for Safari, the following works for me under custom filtering rules: ||reddit.com^$document ||old.reddit.com^$document @@||reddit.com/r/*/comments/* @@||old.reddit.com/r/*/comments/* @@||reddit.com/r/*/comments/*$document @@||old.reddit.com/r/*/comments/*$document
- jon_richards 2y ago
  I just use: ||reddit.com/^$document,important @@||reddit.com/*$document

cornstalks 2y ago

> Not extremely sure why this happens It’s when you have no watch history.

HeatrayEnjoyer 2y ago
It's actually from the adblocker. Google is cracking down and making YouTube harder to use if you don't have ads or a premium subscription.
- cornstalks 2y ago
  No, it’s when you are signed out and have no watch history (I can’t remember if it also does it when signed in but with no watch/search history). Try an incognito window with no ad blocker. Trust me on this one. Read about it here: https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/139222780?hl=en&msgid=229405279 https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/139222780?hl=en&ms...
  - archb 2y ago
    Yeah, I have watch and search history turned off. The former makes the dashboard empty. Turning on watch history brings suggestions back.
exitb 2y ago
I also have no watch history, but my screen only began to look like that when I subscribed to premium.
- archb 2y ago
  Didn't realize it's a premium-specific thing. I have had watch history turned off for a long time now, and assumed that's all that one needed to do for dashboard to be empty.
  - cornstalks 2y ago
    It’s not a premium thing. It started last year and may have just coincidentally started around the time they signed up for premium.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

kolja005 2y ago

I use an app called Jomo to block YouTube, as well as about 10 other distracting applications. It runs on every device I have and makes it very challenging to use the app when I feel the urge to. For a long time I convinced myself that I needed to keep some access to YouTube because there is obviously some meaningful content on the platform. After having it completely blocked for a few months I have come to realize that there is nothing on the platform that is absolutely essential for me to be able to view, and that the downside of getting distracted was not at all worth it.

gr8r 2y ago

I just blocked YouTube using hosts file this week. Haven’t missed it. But no more random time sinks. I had offloaded YouTube on my phone since the phone is out of storage. Not going back.

adolph 2y ago

A technique that helped me (after started meditation/setting my intentions/etc) is turning off the autocomplete for “top sites” and “browsing history.” It doesn’t block anything but adds just enough friction that I can remember my intentions and make a non-automatic decision.

Aglartur 2y ago

I highly recommend extension for mobile browsers "SocialFocus: Hide Distractions" to replace YouTube and Instagram apps. It lets you block features and UX improvements that keep you on the platform, like thumbnails, feed and reels/shorts. I like to think to combat addictiveness of modern apps, you need to actively make it less convenient. It's hard to completely quit it, but if it's clunky to use you'll naturally use it less.

smithcoin 2y ago

If you turn off watch history, then that’s what the homepage has started to look like they don’t recommend anything that’s helped me shake it a bit; Works on Roku iOS and desktop.

7bit 2y ago

> I noticed I would just... move on That's kinda what happened to me and Reddit. After all the drama with the API (which I never used, btw) I decided to delete my Reddit account of 10 years. Something I never thought I would do, as I spent a significant amount of my internet time on it. I still go to Reddit from time to time just to browse, and still use it a lot to get viewpoints on specific topics (via Google site: ), but I never partake in discussion any longer. And I don't miss it at all. I still have the urge to punch someone to the face if they share factually wrong information, but I'm glad I have no account to write a comment any longer. It's truly weird how fast important things can become unimportant.