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YouTube Addiction

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281–290 of 417 posts

Re: YouTube Addiction

#281

Post by toyg »

OwlsParlay wrote: post #278

AS someone who watches a lot of YouTube, like the Let's Play content mentioned, I recognise and sympathise with the OP. But I think the problem isn't necessarily YouTube - thats just the drug of choice. It could be Twitch, it could be podcasts, or television, or any other form of entertainment offering a parasocial relationship. One that fill the gaping lonely hole in so many people's lives.

Yeah but television doesn't give you the choice that YT provides. If it's 2am and all available tv programs are shit, you go to bed. With YT, there is always a decent video a search away.

(This obviously changed with streaming sites - but that's tv turning into YT rather than traditional broadcasting)

Re: YouTube Addiction

#282

Post by layer8 »

kzrdude wrote: post #109
BizarreByte wrote: post #107

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 can still quit tomorrow though.”

Re: YouTube Addiction

#283

Post by zupa-hu »

vorpalhex wrote: post #145
cpsns wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Maybe there's a "HN User" stamp on your ad profile? 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.

That’s not as shocking as you’d think. While FB may not know you well, we don’t either. :)

Re: YouTube Addiction

#284

Post by dudul »

BizarreByte wrote: post #107

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 do you do on the internet?

The best way to not do X is to do Y instead. Find another activity that you enjoy and spend your time there instead.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#285

Post by 411111111111111 »

toyg wrote: post #281
OwlsParlay wrote: post #278

AS someone who watches a lot of YouTube, like the Let's Play content mentioned, I recognise and sympathise with the OP. But I think the problem isn't necessarily YouTube - thats just the drug of choice. It could be Twitch, it could be podcasts, or television, or any other form of entertainment offering a parasocial relationship. One that fill the gaping lonely hole in so many people's lives.

Yeah but television doesn't give you the choice that YT provides. If it's 2am and all available tv programs are shit, you go to bed. With YT, there is always a decent video a search away. (This obviously changed with streaming sites - but that's tv turning into YT rather than traditional broadcasting)

That's true for online media in general, it's not specific to YouTube

Re: YouTube Addiction

#286

Post by namaria »

edgyquant wrote: post #227
nostromo wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

No they don’t. It’s bad to be a workaholic sure, but the universe is an unforgiving place and we’re here only to be productive. This is a truth regardless of your metaphysical beliefs. What people need is to make sure they’re not being overly productive at one thing while letting other things drift away.

>but the universe is an unforgiving place

yes

>and we’re here only to be productive

how did you make this jump? the universe doesn't care in the slightest how you spend your time or what you do. we're not here to anything. we're utterly insignificant and our life is devoid of meaning. you can choose to fill it with fulfillment by some definition of producing something. I really don't care. I just think it's sad to define your life in relation to some arbitrary definition of your externally bounded output. but by all means, if that's what you want...

just don't say it's The Way of The Universe. That's just wrong.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#287

Post by dudul »

I watch a lot of YouTube, mostly Let's Plays, but it's just in the background while I do other stuff. Sometimes I work, sometimes I game (either the same game or another one).

It's kind of listening to music I guess. I dont retain a lot of the content. No clue if it's harmful or not, but I wouldn't call it an addiction because I dont miss it.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#288

Post by anteloper »

namaria wrote: post #280
anteloper wrote: post #279

Been there - still am. self-control ( https://selfcontrolapp.com/ ) is the nuclear tool in my anti-scrolling arsenal. If you figure out how to get around it please do not tell me - it's the best thing I've found for completely shutting myself out of youtube (and chess websites - bullet chess is a similar drug for me). Disclosure - I'm full time working on software that arms people with better tools for fighting compu…

I think it's incredibly misguided and crass to plug websites and apps in a discussion about people sharing struggles with addiction to websites and apps.

I don't think I plugged anything. I shared the best thing I've found to partially solve this problem in my own life (open source software I have no relationship to), shared that my full time job is working on this problem (because it's the largest obstacle in my life, not because I am trying to grift) and what I've built so far, with the explicit note that I would not recommend as a single magic bullet for addiction, because it happens to be a really hard problem. And then shared what I am trying next - to address this problem in my own life and ideally as many others as I can.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#289

Post by Apocryphon »

clnq wrote: post #159
jjj123 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> so all we can do is learn to recognize it, and learn how to it responsibly Or we can regulate it.

If there were only a way to slow down the internet connection to 1mbps or so, a lot of that instant-gratification habit-forming engagement psychology wouldn't be very effective anymore. Even before YouTube, people could have spent 9 hours a day watching rented VHS and DVDs. It just took too much effort to form a habit based on instant gratification with that. So not many people did. And people were much more selectiv…

Your second paragraph is a rose-colored view of history. People simply watched television. No need to rent when you had hundreds of cable channels to endlessly scroll through. It wasn’t as curated as streaming but then it also helped to avoid the decision fatigue of streaming (and makes me wonder if Netflix and co. could reintroduce “channels” to funnel user selection and reduce analysis paralysis.)

Re: YouTube Addiction

#290

Post by mertd »

jdthedisciple wrote: post #183
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.

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

Pro tip: instead of paying, discretely sneak out of restaurants. Dinner for no cost :)
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