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YouTube Addiction

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Re: YouTube Addiction

#251

Post by jacooper »

One thing I can certainly recommend is using the subscription page instead of the home page.

The algorithm is certainly the cause of the addiction, and minimizing it certainly will help.

I personally use Libretube, which just fetches a list of your subscriptions stored locally or on the piped instance you use, and it will save you time by blocking ads and sponsorship segments(it auto skips, the extension is called sponsor block on the desktop)

Libretube and newpipe are android only, if you're on iOS you may use this https://github.com/yattee/yattee

Or a PWA of piped/invidious

Re: YouTube Addiction

#252

Post by tokumei »

SoftTalker wrote: post #163

I fall asleep to YouTube -- not watching, I just put on a boring documentary with a monotone narrator, just loud enough that I can hear the voice. I don't even really discern the words. And it distracts my brain from whatever else I'd be thinking about and I fall asleep more easily. Not sure why this is, I guess it's like having someone read a bedtime story to a kid. I have a premium account so there are no ads.

Falling asleep with ASMR videos is really amazing. So cozy~

Re: YouTube Addiction

#253

Post by dathinab »

pmg102 wrote: post #245
aimor wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've struggled with this, probably not to the extent you have, but enough that I recognize my decisions over the last two decades hurt myself mentally, socially, and career wise. I've tried to quit various things and of course eventually return to old habits (quitting does help though, I encourage everyone to at least try). The only method that really works for me is to have other constructive things I genuinely want…

"Just ONE MORE YouTube video, and then I will stop!"

It's worse with shorts as you don't even think "just one more" as consuming a single short is so "effortless"/"short" that you might not think about them in singularity and instead think "just a few more".

Which makes it even harder to set boundaries.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#254

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

knaik94 wrote: post #71
TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is some crazy shit. Only you can decide if a behavior is addictive. People can suggest it but it's only an opinion. They dont live your experience. Having said that, your watch patterns are shocking to me.

Disordered behavior and addiction is dependent on the specific action having a meaningfully detrimental impact on one's life. Addiction is not a subjective thing, this is why I don't like when people use that word the way the author did. It's a clinically defined thing. I appreciate that it lets me live my life with less struggles. I am far from an outlier in any way. I would recommend looking up average watch time s…

It’s possible for an entire society can be misled into thinking something is normal or healthy when it’s not. Doctors in the 1940s and 1950s smoked and were in advertisements for Camel cigarettes. It was normal and ubiquitous. Was it healthy?

There are other examples of this. Is too much video watching another instance? That’s for you to decide. At least consider it a possibility and then move on.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#255

Post by dathinab »

nostromo wrote: post #222
unsupp0rted wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm addicted to the internet the way I'm addicted to electricity. It powers my quality of life: I don't feel any shame about it. Wanting and expecting to use electricity and being reliant on having it available to me doesn't make me pathetic (although arguably it does make me weak).

Good, people need to stop feeling bad about not always being productive.

It's not about productivity.

It's about going back to it even if you don't really want to and have better (potentially not productive fun) things to do.

It's when you sleep time gets (regular) reduced noticable because you couldn't stop.

It's when you make excuses to yourself why it's fine to watch more all the time.

It's when you end up spending hours consuming media even through it overall doesn't make you feel better or good at all and you know that.

*It's when it reduces you quality of live and you still do it without being forced to.*

Re: YouTube Addiction

#256

Post by ChildOfChaos »

Ugh.

I have such a problem with this and the internet in general, I spend hours refreshing, trying to find something that might be useful in my life. I guess some of it comes out of a desire for self improvement, I watch videos, read articles etc, hoping to find an interesting idea, product, service, book, app etc that will improve my life, but in general there is just so much filler, however it's not like I haven't found semi cool/intreasting things, so there is enough there that really makes me feel like I will miss out if I cut too much of it off.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#257

Post by wyre »

procinct wrote: post #214
suzumer wrote: 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.

I really wish there were options like this for mobile (iPhone specifically). Most of my YouTube browsing is done on mobile or chromecasted. I go through phases of deleting the app, which works really well, but then I’m not able to chromecast for the odd time I want to watch the occasional video with my partner. I’d also still like to be aware of when videos from certain creators come out, so deleting the app just cut…

I’ve been using Invidious/yewtu.be instead of YouTube so I’m not falling into a recommendation hole. I manually search for the creator I want to watch and decide if their video is worth watching.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#258

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

dathinab wrote: post #253
pmg102 wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Just ONE MORE YouTube video, and then I will stop!"

It's worse with shorts as you don't even think "just one more" as consuming a single short is so "effortless"/"short" that you might not think about them in singularity and instead think "just a few more". Which makes it even harder to set boundaries.

The youtube/tictok shorts are a genius form of getting the human brain hooked.

It's similar to how eating a piece of cake can make you feel guilty so instead you switch to a bag of M&Ms or other such small sweets thinking it's better for you as "I'll only have a few", and before you know it, you've eaten the whole bag in one go which is worse than the single piece of cake would have been.

I've found watching long content is better to keep such addictions in check. When I've finished watching a 2h long movie, I feel also "done" and ready for bed vs the endless stream of streaming shows, youtube videos and other social media shorts can keep you hooked for days on end.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#259

Post by delecti »

metasaval wrote: post #228
criley2 wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pro pro tip: Creating content on the internet is not free and if a creator says you can watch their video in exchange for watching ads OR paying for premium, if you care about those creators you'll honor that request.

Ignore the dissenters, I agree. people will pay $15 for Netflix and use it once a month but won't pay $11 for YouTube that they use every day. the insistence that YouTube should be a service that just houses all of our videos for free in perpetuaty never made sense to me.

Agreed. Youtube Premium has got to be the most efficient subscription I have, by far. Also, I like that it provides more support to the creators I follow than ads would, because I appreciate the effort they put into the videos I enjoy.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#260

Post by jacooper »

procinct wrote: post #212
jdthedisciple wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pro tip: uBlock origin - no ads for no cost :)

This doesn’t really help you with mobile and chrome cast

If you are on android, use Libretube or newpipe

There is this on iOS haven't tried it though

https://github.com/yattee/yattee

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