YouTube Addiction • Hacker News Board

Re: YouTube Addiction

#391

Post by steve_adams_86 » Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 4:54 PM UTC

annyeonghada wrote: post #380

pcthrowaway wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to be doing some kind of software dev (I skimmed your comment history). Curious if you got into that despite "feeling stupid" and not challenging yourself, and the IQ test came as a surprise in spite of that, or if you only decided to get into software after being confronted with being "not stupid"? For what it's worth, I don't actually think IQ is a canonical measure of intelligence, and the narrative peopl…

>For what it's worth, I don't actually think IQ is a canonical measure of intelligence, and the narrative people have of "being stupid" is often driven by society valuing certain kinds of intelligence more than others. Not only IQ is correlated with every positive prosocial behavior we, in general, value but every seemingly disparate form of intelligence is correlated to the others so we can, in fact, talk about a si…

This is actually what made it so disturbing to me. I think people with high g factor are innately advantaged by no merit of their own. According to my personal philosophy, I’d say these people (assuming they experience inordinate success in life in a career which leverages features of high g factor) are obligated to some degree to use that ability to uplift other people who struggle due to low g factor.

After some consideration I was left with the sense that I’d squandered something because I was too busy mired in egoism, navel gazing, insecurity, and helplessness driven by the sense that I’m less fortunate. And yet I’ve had a lot of good fortune which clearly stemmed from mental characteristics I believed I didn’t have.

I suppose I always felt like such an imposter. As though I was only ever hours or days away from being found out, then being relegated to a life more suited to someone as incompetent as I was.

Now I try to be less self absorbed and think more about what I can do for other people — people who can’t thrive in a technology-driven world due to innate disabilities, for example. Statistically it’s known that this is a staggering portion of our population, and these people deserve to get as much out of life as anyone. Living in poverty because you can’t understand how to apply for a job online, perform many basic jobs, navigate state or provincial websites to obtain disability assistance, or manage personal finances and so on is such an egregious offence to humanity in my mind.

In summary, I should have spent less time feeling sorry for myself and more time helping people with real problems.

I suspect I will never manage to meaningfully help people more than I would have when I thought I was stupid. I believed in pro social behaviour before the test. For that reason I’m not sure it helped me to see the IQ score.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#392

Post by steve_adams_86 » Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 5:14 PM UTC

pcthrowaway wrote: post #349

steve_adams_86 wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose the gist of it was that I felt stupid all my life and never challenged myself as a result. Then I found out I’m not, at least according to that scale. I had aspirations I didn’t pursue because I thought I wasn’t capable, for example. Lacked confidence because I believed I wasn’t competent. Suddenly I was faced with the notion that I wasn’t failed by genetics or something I couldn’t control, but rather, I’d…

You seem to be doing some kind of software dev (I skimmed your comment history). Curious if you got into that despite "feeling stupid" and not challenging yourself, and the IQ test came as a surprise in spite of that, or if you only decided to get into software after being confronted with being "not stupid"? For what it's worth, I don't actually think IQ is a canonical measure of intelligence, and the narrative peopl…

I’ve been a software dev for about 15 years, and did the assessment about 2 years ago.

I got into software because it was the single thing I cared about that could earn me money. I really had no idea what I was doing and constantly went from frying pans into fires, learning what I needed in a frantic race to avoid being “found out”, so to speak. The last 7 or 8 years has been a lot better now that my foundations are better and I have a bit more confidence. My career would definitely benefit from more confidence.

> the kind of intelligence it takes to do software dev

This is true, but I suppose at the time I didn’t believe I was actually doing it. I’d endlessly compare myself to genius-level developers, or simply others with skills I didn’t have. If someone at work could do something better than I could, well, it was obviously because I’m incompetent. How could I be 10 years in and this person who’s 5 years in understands debugging and testing so comprehensively? Man, everyone’s going to realize I’m a fraud soon. I better cram in testing and debugging research this week.

The IQ definitely did come as a surprise in spite of that. I can mechanically shovel software knowledge into my brain, but I don’t do anything novel or interesting with it. I write okay software, but it’s largely just a feat of mimicking the work of intelligent people. I can make the thing that makes the company money, but I can’t make a thing that others would mimic as I do.

As I mentioned in another comment though, a lot of this was me being insecure, indulging that to excess, and being quite neurotic about it to the point that I was clearly overlooking significant advantages I had over others who truly did and still do experience disadvantages due to lower intelligence. That was a well deserved blow to my ego, to realize I was so self absorbed as to ignore values I believed were important to me. I didn’t think I was like that, but in fact I was — extremely so — for decades.

If I can live comfortably with a job in software, why am I spending time feeling sorry for myself while other people, some I know personally, live with less because society values their minds less?

I suppose though that the reason I didn’t want to see the IQ score is because I suspect it was too late in life for me to respond in a meaningful way that would be aligned with my values. I have the sense that I squandered something. Rather than feel sorry for myself about it, I’ll do my best to turn things around.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#393

Post by mindslight » Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 5:57 PM UTC

escapedmoose wrote: post #389

mindslight wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Siloing the concepts seems like a bad idea. Let's say someone has bad life circumstances, bad reinforcing patterns of behavior, plus a chemical imbalance in their brain. If they seek medical help for "depression", should treatment focus on the chemical imbalance? It could be that chemical imbalance is entirely due to their life circumstances, and addressing those would be much more appropriate than medicating them.

Treatment should focus on both. That doesn’t mean that bad life circumstances are depression though; rather they can be a factor contributing to depression. If you went to a doctor for type 2 diabetes, they would tell you to eat healthier and exercise as well as to take medications when needed. Your eating and activity habits are not themselves diabetes, even though they contribute directly to your diabetes. Another…

The medical community doesn't own the entire term. An individual should be able to say "I think I'm depressed" when reflecting on their own mental state, without that implying a narrow medical condition. Or worse, some paternalistic doctor attacking them for self-diagnosing.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#394

Post by Kamq » Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 6:14 PM UTC

annyeonghada wrote: post #381

Kamq wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> by all traditional measures Is there a reason to assume the traditional measures are, in fact, the correct ones to be using?

Maybe the fact that they were used by seemingly very different society for thousand of years and society who did enforce them were more stable and successful? The hubris of modern people to think they are so enlightened they can engineer society to fit they ideological views as if humans were mere economical units.

> seemingly very different society for thousand of years and society who did enforce them were more stable and successful

Ahh, so a bias for values that were evolutionarily successful? I can kind of see the utility there.

Would this hypothetical system take into account the dominance of the societies in question, or is it just specifically how long they've survived/been stable?

Re: YouTube Addiction

#395

Post by RMPR » Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 6:38 PM UTC

smlavine wrote: post #277

As suzumer also commented, the extension Unhook has also been very helpful to me in curbing the amount of time I spend watching YouTube. I have it set to block the front page suggestions, sidebar suggestions, after video cards, etc. Everything except a particular video I'm searching for. And of course I always view youtube logged out. The first thing I did to try to curb my...addiction to YouTube was to consume the v…

I have to double down on this. Switching over my content consumption over to RSS has been proven to be beneficial. Every once in a while, I'll log in to the webapp to discover some new content creator (YouTube recommendation algorithm, despite all its flaws, is quite good). But more importantly, now I can spend days without feeling the urge to go on a YouTube rabbit hole, I can watch a video without the UI constantly pushing me to watch more.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#396

Post by P0l83q4p1Hw3Ul » Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 7:31 PM UTC

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've found it's too easy to re-enable the home page, so I also deleted and disabled watch history. This makes the recommendation system much less effective.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#397

Post by namaria » Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 8:18 PM UTC

helmholtz wrote: post #378

namaria wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd argue passive consumption of content is worse then playing video games. I have no horses in this race, I admittedly spend way too much time streaming content. But at least with games you're doing something. Actively using your brain. There are studies showing games can improve dexterity and problem solving abilities. I doubt watching stuff does the same.

Depends who you're talking about. Those of us who've literally skipped work to play video games definitely find it easier to watch others play rather than dip our toes in ourselves.

I'm sure people will also have skipped work to spend all day scrolling or streaming...

Re: YouTube Addiction

#398

Post by Jakob-G » Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 9:16 PM UTC

I was also spending way too much time on YouTube, but found a way to cut down on the time. I made my own YouTube app that simply removes the recommendations. Those recommendations get you to watch video after video, without them, YouTube turns from an addiction machine into a useful tool to learn new things. If anyone is interested you can download the app here: watchless-app.github.io

Re: YouTube Addiction

#399

Post by nagonago » Mon, Jan 16, 2023, 12:51 AM UTC

thenerdhead wrote: post #111

ryandrake wrote: post #64

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…

If you are using a word by its most common definition then sure. Addiction has more casual definitions in the dictionary. Language evolves and the word addiction has evolved. It's used casually all the time like this blog post although there's no formal diagnosis. Your examples bring up a good point. Many parents have the TV on all day in the background because they were raised with it. Many kids today will likely ha…

I personally like the definition of addiction from David Foster Wallace. I couldn't manage to find the exact quote, but it's something like:

Addiction is when something purports to solve the very problems it creates.

Certainly not a standard definition, and might not be true in every case, but an interesting way to think about it. In the case of Youtube, watching videos might seem to solve the problem of loneliness and disconnect with the world, while actually exacerbating those problems.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#400

Post by HomeDeLaPot » Mon, Jan 16, 2023, 3:27 AM UTC

Fellow YouTube/Internet addict here. I'm trying a few things:

- Disable the YouTube app on my Android.

- Use Newpipe from F-Droid instead when I really need to watch a tutorial or something (very rare). I find it a little less addictive.

- Leechblocker extension (available on Firefox on desktops & Android).

- Use uBlock Origin filters to hide the YouTube feed and recommendations on my laptop.

- Using a feed reader with selected feeds instead of binging HN/reddit/blogs.

- Not using YouTube for music or background noise. Instead, use mynoise.net and download music from Amazon/Bandcamp/etc and build a music library.

- Find alternative stuff to do. In my case, anything from hobby projects to trying to walk 10K steps per day to meeting up with friends to trying a new journal/knowledge base app (Logseq) to organizing/rearranging my apartment and shopping for furniture.

- On a related note, take care of your health so you have energy to do the right things. Get an exercise routine, eat better, sleep at the right time, get enough time outdoors and with other people.

I don't feel like I've really kicked my bad habits yet. But maybe the vulnerability never goes away entirely, and the important thing is to always keep trying.