141–150 of 417 posts
step 1) install libredirect (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/libredirect/?...)
step 2) on invidious go to settings and uncheck show related videos, set default homepage and feed menu to "search"
on your phone you can install newpipe (https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.schabi.newpipe/) and do the same.
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
> It's scary to think about having a hole and not being able to fill it with that comfortable "zoning out" feeling. That is exactly my experience. I've also rather recently came to the revelation that this behavior and dependence on "zoning out" is addiction. It doesn't matter that the object of addiction is a website with silly popular videos. The pattern of behavior _is_ addiction.
For me, one of the unexpected hard things was that zoning out to watch youtube or a movie was no longer entertaining! I could do it for an hour or so and that was it.
Now I read, work on projects or otherwise am more "engaged". I still enjoy youtube but my ability to be entertained by it has dwindled dramatically.
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.
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Is it just me or is Google quietly in serious distress? Ads have been getting a LOT worse very quickly. Almost every ad I saw in a day when my UBlock wasn’t working was advertising an actual fraud. Whether crypto or recession get rich quick or “aluminum is giving you cancer.” Advertising frequency is cranked way up. On mobile 5 second unskippables are 6-7 now. I’ll do a search and my ENTIRE screen is advertising unti…
Same nonsense on Facebook. It’s all payday loans, crypto scams, and magic mushrooms. People say it’s based on your history, but I don’t buy that as none of what it shows me is even slightly relevant. It just seems like they don’t have enough relevant ads to show, so they throw shit at the wall.
Jokes aside, if you do your data request from FB you should see your advertising selectors come back. Before I deleted my account, FB thought I was a 17 year old girl interested in boy bands and makeup.
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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 fallin…
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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 fallin…
Look at how folks who successfully quit porn do it.
> a week or two before falling into old habits
You need to replace old habits with new habits.
Also, as a random aside, get your hormones checked. An imbalance of sex hormones can make things like concentration exceedingly difficult.
> any progress
You've fallen victim of the "fuck it"s. You assume if you fail you might as well not try. A habit is that behavior we return to, and this goes for things we don't habitually do, too. Just because you fuck up doesn't mean you should quit. That nagging voice in your head, the one that says "why even bother, you'll just screw up again" is a liar.
You must get up. You must try again. If you listen to that voice you won't even try. Don't believe the inner labeling of "I'm just a failure", if you believe that you'll be right.
> comfort / a distraction
And there it is. You are dependant on the internet for a dopamine dump.
Now the algorithm isn't targeting me enough to serve attention-grabbing content. And the time it takes to get gratification with pre-video ads has broken up my habit of clicking through videos.
It's interesting to note that YouTube is still surprisingly good at suggesting relevant content to me, even on the home page. But much, much worse now than how it used to be.
If there was some way to slow down the internet speed back to around 1mbps, I think that it would cure a lot of internet addiction without much effort from the addicted. The habit-forming craving -> action -> random reward/outcome loop has to happen quickly for the habit to be formed. If it becomes craving -> action ->1 0-20 second delay -> random outcome, I think the brain soon decides it's going to take too much effort and time (maybe hours) to get the favorable outcome, and other things are better for a dopamine boost - like exercise (10 minutes of work and then the dopamine rush is guaranteed).
The same thing worked for me with food - I ended my snacking habit by not keeping unhealthy food in the house. It is just too much effort to go to a convenience store (10 minutes) for a little 10-second dopamine boost.
The brain is good at this algebra. An outcome's correctly or incorrectly estimated value needs to be higher than the effort to get that outcome. Otherwise, the effort becomes unappealing.
Nope. Stop using the medical word addiction in contexts where it's highly inappropriate. Youtube isn't even a single thing . It's just a video hosting service. The types of videos on it are extremely wildly varying. Video addiction is not a thing. See how stupid it sounds when you say it like it is?
> Stop using the medical word addiction in contexts where it's highly inappropriate. Youtube isn't even a single thing You're playing with semantics in a context where 1) everyone understands what the author is saying when talking about addiction, making it appropriate to convey what they mean 2) the word pre-dates DSM, the fact that DSM defines that in a medical sense doesn't change the definition from the dictionar…
2: This is a legit argument. In the past people may have used the word addiction to cover many things. But it is no longer the year 1900.
3: I guess we better wait till your prediction additions to the DSM6 happen then. I think it more likely that gambling disorder will be removed than additional behavioral "addiction" disorders put in. I'm not sure what the folding of aspergers into autism spectrum disorders has to do with this?
4: Claiming that there are psysiological withdrawl symptoms from watching youtube is absurd. There are not. Show me the journal article supporting such an outlandish claim. Dependency also has a meaning in this context and merely missing something psychologically isn't it. Psychological dependence is not physiological dependence and neither are addiction. Just like how no one is addicted to benzodiazapines: they become physiologically dependent and experience widthdrawl but addiction requires more.
5: Personal anecdotes and emotional appeals are not valid arguments. I'm sorry the person is having psych troubles but "youtube" is not the cause.
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.
i can’t believe how effective this has been for me. I’ve noticed that instead of being continually “interested” in youtube and going down the rabbit hole constantly, i actually get bored of youtube pretty quickly once i have watched all the content my subscriptions have put out. i still spend way too much time on my phone, but i guess i need to have the phone equivalent
An addict in denial. Sad.