261–270 of 417 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This doesn’t really help you with mobile and chrome cast
On mobile there's still unmaintained Vanced until Youtube breaks it by changing the API, and also Blokada 5 and a few others for general app/web ad blocking.
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 about the existential dread route (sorry!). "If I don't quit this, then I'll never do X.. and my life amounts to nothing". It might be blocking a lot of life goals that will never come to be.
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…
There may be internet detox camps you can go to as well.
Also try therapy it can help, you are not alone in your struggles ..
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…
> 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. Interestingly it still can have physical effects. I have seen a case of an person who got addicted to web novels (like every day another short chapter; hit their quirky humor; not porn; clinically depressed). And that person showed effects of withdrawal in their inter…
It's a peaceful ocean, an escape. It's enjoyable, it's numbing. It's starting to affect my work.
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…
> and no matter how hard I try to will power through it and cut down my usage I always You can't make it impossible to access the internet, but you can make it super inconvenient. For instance, one thing that worked for me was blocking HN and Reddit on my router. Obviously I can get around it but the inconvenience to circumvent makes the habit feel like it's not worth the payoff. Or, it at least makes you more aware…
An alternative to this that I've found more effective is to prescribe which modes of interaction are allowed.
For example, in this case, the author JT has a YouTube channel, so he could say that he's allowed to post to the channel, interact with the comments, etc. But then also say that he's not allowed to go to the frontpage and browse recommended videos (or whatever habit it is that he finds leads to problematic overuse).
I've used an approach like this when I find internet overuse detracting from the things I want to do. For example, I'll say I'm not allowed to just aimlessly browse my reddit homepage, but I am allowed to read a reddit thread if I came from Google search looking for specific information. That way I can still get the benefits without losing too much time.
I occasionally watch "let's play" videos as a harm reduced alternative to actually playing games. A half hour spent watching someone play a game/sim totally relieves my FOMO. It also dissipates my urge to build a gaming PC. As a maker and musician, there's tons of inspiring and informative content on YT. I feel that I'm quite net positive on my use of YT to enrich my life.
Watching twitch increased my game playing and urges to play
However... I have a little cousin in my family, and all she does it watch twitch. I've asked before "Don't want to play the games you're watching?" and she looks at me like I asked to solve fusion.
So, there is a hand shake meme of people who play because of twitch and people who just want to watch twitch... Good for twitch. Bad for humans.
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.
Adam Smith wrote of it hundreds of years ago; extreme division of labor will make humans as dumb as the lowest creature.
To reduce screen time during covid I ditched my TV, bought a guitar. Not saying everyone should pick up music; I already knew how to play saxophone and piano; it was evolving my current state. The point is I cut passive consumption to infrequent mentorship via YT tutorials, rather than endless staring, to focus on mechanical skill building.
Our society needs to let go of career memes, which IMO are coupled to historical memes like “A man named Farmer is a farmer for life” which forces us to relinquish our dynamism in deference to memes of greater good. But I should qualify; I grew up in farm land, building barns, fixing big machines (programming machines all night), cutting wood in January, managing livestock, was routine in my teens. Diverse hands on experience was baked in early (only in my 40s now). Someone without that will have a harder time.
The only evidence human agency must serve aristocratic vision is being told as much from birth.
While the author compares his problem to Alcohol addiction I was struck by the sentence: "It's gotten to the point where I don't really enjoy the video as much as the numb hypnotic state from consuming that much content." This to me matches up most with gambling addiction. There is a great book on the subject that I recommend to the Author called "Addiction by Design" by Natasha Schull. The main thrust of her argumen…
>This to me matches up most with gambling addiction. There is a great book on the subject that I recommend to the Author called "Addiction by Design" by Natasha Schull. The main thrust of her argument is that machine gambling addicts don't care about winning at all but have found gambling machines (slots, video poker mostly) as a reliable way to activate that "flow" state where the rest of the world falls away. Maybe…
I got into a great flow state earlier this week the day after seeing my relative in hospice care. I didn’t have to think about the pain of that for a day and it was pretty great.