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YouTube Addiction

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Re: YouTube Addiction

#101

Post by booyah_achieved »

vibrolax wrote: post #38

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.

> harm reduced alternative to actually playing games.

I don't quite see your logic here. How is it "harm-reduced"? Playing a game can be quite enriching and stimulating, whereas watching a video you're just sitting completely idle. To me, it sounds like you're just irrationally worried about playing a game for some reason.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#103

Post by Waterluvian »

halkony wrote: post #100
Waterluvian wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

On this topic, what do people recommend for mobile adblocking? I've been using AdAway which redirects ads to your phone's loopback in non-root mode.

On iOS I use AdGuard and Hush. These don’t affect ads in apps though.

There might be more involved solutions that work better but I’m not interested in accumulating stuff I have to maintain.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#104

Post by dtech »

booyah_achieved wrote: post #101
vibrolax wrote: post #38

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.

> harm reduced alternative to actually playing games. I don't quite see your logic here. How is it "harm-reduced"? Playing a game can be quite enriching and stimulating, whereas watching a video you're just sitting completely idle. To me, it sounds like you're just irrationally worried about playing a game for some reason.

It read it as 30 minutes of LP allows him not to spend hours on gaming, which he does not want.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#105

Post by steve_adams_86 »

cl3misch wrote: post #98

> 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.

Would it make sense to say that the pattern of behaviour (zoning out) is coping rather than addiction, and that addiction is what manifests when we lose control over coping strategies?

They seem like different things to me. Coping strategies are normal and can be healthy. Harmful strategies we depend on without much agency are more so what I’d classify as addiction within this lens.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#106

Post by halkony »

gatonegro wrote: post #41
RSHEPP wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Watching Gophercon videos this morning, majority of my suggestions were Jordan B Peterson, Andrew Huberman and JRE. How the hell does it make that jump. I only watch software related videos at this point.

> majority of my suggestions were Jordan B Peterson I'm interested in psychology and philosophy, so I'll watch videos on those subjects every so often. Naturally, the Algorithm™ becomes obsessed with recommending me Peterson videos soon after. I'm 98% sure the "Do not recommend" and "Not interested" buttons are just there for show, because I keep seeing those suggestions whenever I wander off into psychology and phil…

Peterson's direct and indirect presence on social media is so varied it must be hard to get rid of him.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#107

Post by BizarreByte »

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 missed out on too many oppertunities.

People will call me weak, or pathetic, or say I haven't tried hard enough, but as someone who did use tabacco I have found Internet 'addiction' a much tougher beast to deal with.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#108

Post by pythonguython »

TexanFeller wrote: post #29

I'm the type to become addicted and I had a big problem with spending vastly too much time on YT. A few months ago I cleared my search and watch history and subscriptions to start fresh. Now I only allow myself to watch videos about math, science, or playing instruments I'm interested in learning to play. If I ever see a politically leaning recommendation I tell YT to never show it to me again. If I slip up and watch…

I likely have some degree of YouTube addiction as well. While I hope your tactic is working well for you, I believe this way of thinking can be a deceiving. Almost all the YouTube content I consume is related to science, engineering, math or chess (I’ve watched many of Susskinds’s lectures too). I used to rationalize my excessive use by telling myself that the content I watched was useful. In reality, my time would be FAR better reading a book, doing a project, socializing, doing chores, or really anything other than just being a YouTube zombie.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#109

Post by kzrdude »

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.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#110

Post by okdood64 »

c7b wrote: post #97

The intro feels like it's also from around 2011, the time OP described first noticing having a problem. In 2023, I think few people will doubt that you can get addiction-like problems with social media. It's actually become such a common trope, especially post-lockdowns, that I've read some arguments trying to rein in the debate a bit (not everything that releases dopamine will get you hooked, it basically just means…

By OP's standard I'm what you would consider a YouTube addict. I can spend hours just watching it in a single day. And I do this regularly. It doesn't warp my view of the real world, or disconnect me from my work/social circle/ability to keep myself healthy. 90% of what I watch is educational anyways.

What I disagree with overall is that notion that doing something a lot & compulsively is an addiction. If you're doing something that knowingly causes you or other around you harm and then doing it anyways because you can't help yourself, only then is it really an addiction.

I can think of tons of other harmless interests/hobbies that people spend hours of their day on, in lieu of doing other activities, but no one considers those addictions.

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