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YouTube Addiction

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131–140 of 417 posts

Re: YouTube Addiction

#131

I am seriously addicted to the internet in general and while it may not be an addiction in the physical sense, it has caused major issues in my life. The amount of time I spend on the Internet is insane and no matter how hard I try to will power through it and cut down my usage I always fail. If I ever figure out how to overcome it I'll have to write a book or something, because I've wasted years of my life and misse…

You can't willpower through it if it's a defense mechanism employed by your brain to hide underlying pain. Maybe it's time to try something new. Check out Gabor Maté: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=74DDEDmHDvw

While I believe that’s good advice, I find it hard to ignore the irony here.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#132

I am seriously addicted to the internet in general and while it may not be an addiction in the physical sense, it has caused major issues in my life. The amount of time I spend on the Internet is insane and no matter how hard I try to will power through it and cut down my usage I always fail. If I ever figure out how to overcome it I'll have to write a book or something, because I've wasted years of my life and misse…

You can't willpower through it if it's a defense mechanism employed by your brain to hide underlying pain. Maybe it's time to try something new. Check out Gabor Maté: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=74DDEDmHDvw

The irony of it all is that the "help" to beat this addiction is another youtube link...

Re: YouTube Addiction

#133
post #97

The intro feels like it's also from around 2011, the time OP described first noticing having a problem. In 2023, I think few people will doubt that you can get addiction-like problems with social media. It's actually become such a common trope, especially post-lockdowns, that I've read some arguments trying to rein in the debate a bit (not everything that releases dopamine will get you hooked, it basically just means…

By OP's standard I'm what you would consider a YouTube addict. I can spend hours just watching it in a single day. And I do this regularly. It doesn't warp my view of the real world, or disconnect me from my work/social circle/ability to keep myself healthy. 90% of what I watch is educational anyways. What I disagree with overall is that notion that doing something a lot & compulsively is an addiction. If you're doin…

Not sure who downvoted you, not me, but if you're interested in the debate of what counts as addiction this might be a good starting point: https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/internet-gaming

In general, yes, keeping doing something despite it having negative consequences is generally required in most definitions of addiction.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#134

I am seriously addicted to the internet in general and while it may not be an addiction in the physical sense, it has caused major issues in my life. The amount of time I spend on the Internet is insane and no matter how hard I try to will power through it and cut down my usage I always fail. If I ever figure out how to overcome it I'll have to write a book or something, because I've wasted years of my life and misse…

What extensions have you tried to limit your usage?

Extensions don't work as I can disable them too easily. Even router level restrictions are too easy for me to bypass, it takes all of a few seconds.

The only thing that has ever provided me mild success was locking my devices in my gun cabinet after a certian time of day. It was easy to get them out, but it took long enough that I could at least reconsider.

I was only able to matinain that a week or two before falling into old habbits. Inevitabily I'll have a particularly bad day at work and any progress will go out the window as I look for comfort/a distraction.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#135
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please define addiction for me. My point was not to say that all addictions are equal (they are not), and they act differently, but I think it's too simplistic to flippantly state that Internet addiction is not a thing.

Addiction is when the motivation for a stimuli is divorced from reward from the stimuli and the animal keeps exposing itself to the stimuli regardless. But socially in humans this is acceptable until the addiction begins to have detrimental effects on the person being able to care for themselves. In almost all cases the simuli capable of doing this are drugs that bypass actual perception and internally/chemically twe…

Why is this specific behavioral addiction recognized by the DSM-5?

Re: YouTube Addiction

#136
I experienced the same thing during middle/high school. In three years I watched a fourth of a year of YouTube on my main account. I broke it by asking my dad to block youtube on the dns level and disable it using screen time on my iPhone (I still had to stop myself from using TOR and free VPNs). Ever since I have spent my free moments on HN or working on personal projects - I have learned so much. I also have friends now.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#137
post #8

I used to be addicted to youtube, and the most effective method I found to limiting my consumption was using an extension called Unhook. It removes all recommendations and the shorts and trending tabs, so the only videos I can watch are those from channels I'm subscribed to, or videos that I search for.

Unhook is great even if you’re not addicted! I used it to clean all the fluff to a minimal YouTube and suddenly it felt all like before Google had bought it! :) But now I think I understand why the extension is named Unhook?

Re: YouTube Addiction

#138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't willpower through it if it's a defense mechanism employed by your brain to hide underlying pain. Maybe it's time to try something new. Check out Gabor Maté: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=74DDEDmHDvw

While I believe that’s good advice, I find it hard to ignore the irony here.

Don't ignore it. Laugh about it! It wasn't lost on me writing the comment either. Isn't it great that the very thing that brings us pain can also be the vehicle for our healing?

Re: YouTube Addiction

#139
post #120

People are (and should be) questioning the use of the word addiction. One of the components of addiction is: is it causing a harmful, unwanted effect on one's life? OP laid out his: > I've been struggling with my mental health during the summertime, a time I traditionally have fewer problems. I wasn't recharging like I should. I was waking up tired, napping during the day, and generally not feeling at all prepared wh…

> People are (and should be) questioning the use of the word addiction. One of the components of addiction is: is it causing a harmful, unwanted effect on one's life? Meriam Webster's second definition doesn't mention causing harm: > a strong inclination to do, use, or indulge in something repeatedly So, according to the way people typically use the word "addiction" and the literal dictionary definition of the word,…

People typically also say things like watching youtube gives them dopamine hits and they will get rid of their addiction with a dopamine fast. The problem with using the word addiction is that there are two possible outcomes. Either the word becomes weak and stops having the seriousness it should, similar to how OCD now can mean liking organation or people associate the action with all of the negative connotations of addiction. The second happens more often, as observed in this thread, and people start shaming you, and casting and projecting their moral judgement on you based on an inconsequential fact.

Fundamentally it prepetuates the older generation mentality that screen use is the causes depression, dismissing the underlying struggle people face. If someone comes out and says they are depressed, someone will respond, "oh, you're watching too much youtube, you'll stop being depressed once you stop." It happens with every shift in the most popular mainstream technology.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#140
Something that really helped me with YouTube was installing the Unhook browser extension https://unhook.app/ Unhook can remove all 'suggested' videos. The home page will just be blank, and when watching a video, there will be no other video links on the page. This means I can still use YouTube, but I have to search for what I'm looking for. This alone has completely solved the endless video merry-go-round sessions.
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