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YouTube addiction, one month sober

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Re: YouTube addiction, one month sober

#101

Post by r9295 »

mmorearty wrote: post #71

I've had good results recently by deleting all my social media apps from my phone, BUT allowing myself to use them through Mobile Safari. And I did not bookmark them; e.g. for Instagram I type "in" and then Enter. This gives me some friction, without having to go cold turkey. All the popular social media sites have mobile websites that are "good enough", but slightly clunkier than the apps, and also they can't send m…

I did the same, and additionally set my display to grayscale. I don't even want to open social websites unless I actually wish to browse them. The compulsive fix these apps provided when I was bored or waiting was taken away and my habit subsided.

Re: YouTube addiction, one month sober

#102

Post by swatcoder »

SamBam wrote: post #63
bombcar wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Covid and work-from-home normalized screen time. The same thing has happened in the past (an old Wodehouse school-story has a kid being yelled at for reading "trash" (David Copperfield) during class instead of the Latin he was supposed to be working on.

I think that suggesting it's no different from people thinking that reading books was going to rot people's minds ignores the very real increases in teen depression, loneliness, and suicides over the past decade, as well as increases in adult depression and isolation, and the credible research that says that social media and screens are probably strongly contributing to it.

And really, even the historical sweating over pulp novels or TV addiction wasn't entirely unfounded.

If people are invited to spend tens of hours a week in soaking in media, that time is being borrowed from somewhere and in the modern historical context that's the time being stolen from home care, crafts and extra labor, sports and physical activity, third place social time in the community, etc -- changes that can dramatically alter society if taken up by enough people and can impact personal wellness even just for one person.

Constant, widespread social media immersion is absolutely having an impact on social and personal wellness and we can actually look to those previously normalized shifts as our evidence that it does.

What we aren't justified do, even as some here try, is assume that this impact of social media immersion will be harmless or beneficial just because pulp novels and couch potato living haven't yet destroyed modern society.

As you note, innocuous/harmless doesn't seem to be where the evidence is pointing so far.

Re: YouTube addiction, one month sober

#103

Post by timeforcomputer »

SamBam wrote: post #63
bombcar wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Covid and work-from-home normalized screen time. The same thing has happened in the past (an old Wodehouse school-story has a kid being yelled at for reading "trash" (David Copperfield) during class instead of the Latin he was supposed to be working on.

I think that suggesting it's no different from people thinking that reading books was going to rot people's minds ignores the very real increases in teen depression, loneliness, and suicides over the past decade, as well as increases in adult depression and isolation, and the credible research that says that social media and screens are probably strongly contributing to it.

Yes, I do not follow that argument comparing modern tech to past changes. It feels like people are assuming a weird technological inevitability. The printing press was amazing, it had a huge effect on society, of course, leading down the line to some kid reading trash in class. But it is just marks on paper, while digital technology forms a "place", and a direct line of effect from tech companies to the daily habits of billions of people, overnight. I think it is completely different...

Re: YouTube addiction, one month sober

#104

Post by [deleted] »

iamsomewalrus wrote: post #33
swozey wrote: post #9

I guess this is an adhd "superpower" of mine. I leave youtube on 24/7 and pay almost no attention to it. A big reason why I can ignore it though, when it's on 24/7.. mine plays the exact same documentaries, almost always WW2 or US Revolutionary War stuff over and over and over again. I watch a LOT of history documentaries but I have absolutely no interest in either of these time periods and have probably never search…

ADHD-haver here. I do the same thing but with music. I created a playlist of albums I've heard hundreds of times. The songs are in album order and when I play the list I play from the start of an album somewhere in that list. It keeps that part of my brain occupied, but not focus, while I work on the task at hand.

[deleted]

Re: YouTube addiction, one month sober

#105

Post by standardUser »

PascLeRasc wrote: post #86
nritchie wrote: post #4

YouTube, like the entire Internet, is such a mixed bag. There is some really first rate content but most of it is total junk. Like Little Richard says "It ain't what you do, it's the way how you do it."

Deleted for an annoying reply

I have no idea what that second sentence means, but unless there has been mass removal of content on YouTube, then it stands to reason that there is at least as much good content now as previously.

Re: YouTube addiction, one month sober

#106

Post by jimt1234 »

KptMarchewa wrote: post #30

For me, doing stuff like that only replaces one thing with another. If I block youtube, I'll be spending that time here. If I block HN, I'll stay on reddit. If I block reddit, I'll spend time on Skyscrapercity. The real solution seems to be having stuff in life that actually gives you self-actualization and spend least possible time at work fucking around.

For me it's like trying to cut out junk food and replace it with healthy alternatives. I'll eat healthy for a while, then find myself returning to junk - youtube, imgur, reddit, x, instagram, etc.

Re: YouTube addiction, one month sober

#107

Post by mvdtnz »

RajT88 wrote: post #37
nritchie wrote: post #4

YouTube, like the entire Internet, is such a mixed bag. There is some really first rate content but most of it is total junk. Like Little Richard says "It ain't what you do, it's the way how you do it."

> There is some really first rate content but most of it is total junk. A lot of the gaming-related stuff is just pure garbage. "Secret gaming room" channels are especially egregious. Saw one where a kid bought a used boat (the kind with a below-deck area with a bed, kitchen, etc.), the kind you can get for ~20k or less if it is ~30 years old. Made a "secret gaming den", and then intentionally sunk the boat just to a…

I just searched "secret gaming room" and watched the first result. That is one of the worst things I have ever watched. 5 million views. Unbelievable.

Re: YouTube addiction, one month sober

#108

Post by lm28469 »

PascLeRasc wrote: post #77
RajT88 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This! I know they think they are punishing you, but after a while I came to appreciate it.

Same thing with the ads every 5 minutes always interrupting a complex part of the woodworking video I'm half watching. Thanks for the reminder to focus on real work, State Farm.

There are services that allow you to download videos for free. If you know what you want and you aren't in a rush (it's not slow but not instant either) it's a good solution

Re: YouTube addiction, one month sober

#109

Post by standardUser »

xyst wrote: post #69

I can put away social media. But I can’t put away my phone due to how everything is digital now - bank, health, travel.

Half of what I use my phone for is in service of other aspects of life. Finances, travel plans, communicating with friends, work, research, etc. It's the other half - the scrolling mostly - that provides little value.

But I'm not about to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Re: YouTube addiction, one month sober

#110

Post by reaperman »

Aurornis wrote: post #64
data_ders wrote: post #11

I’m so addicted to the internet that when I block social media, I find I get quite the similar fix from work Slack. Like browsing channels I have no business being a part of and constantly checking for validation of my comments via emoji reactions. Does anyone know of ways to be a successful work-from-home knowledge worker while also locking down Slack to not be another slot machine?? Does anyone else feel conflicted…

You won't get very far by only playing whack-a-mole with negative behaviors. You have to start introducing deliberate, positive behaviors. Structure your home, workspace, and workday around what you choose to be doing. The little tricks to limit things and set timers can help, but the root problem is that you're describing yourself as being on autopilot: You get magnetically pulled to the next time waster. Work on be…

Yeah this is probably the most true thing in this stack. You cannot "un-learn" something, including bad habits. Once you've learned something, it's part of your brain. You can only build a different pathway and strengthen it so that it becomes the default, and then the old habit/learning will slowly atrophy and fade away -- but it never completely goes away.

Positive reinforcement is the only way to train yourself new complex behaviors. Preferably using back-chaining for new environments. To reprogram existing behaviors you need to find the points where the "wrong" behavior is triggered and identify something that always occurs just before that trigger point. Then program/train yourself to do the new behavior based on the preceding trigger. That way you start down the path of the new desired behavior before the old undesired behavior gets triggered. Eventually it will atrophy and rarely get triggered any more (but still sometimes).

We share >80% of our DNA with any other arbitrary mammal, so you can use any book on dog training for this. I recommend Sophia Yin.

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