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YouTube addiction, one month sober

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Re: YouTube addiction, one month sober

#161

Post by karaterobot »

futureshock wrote: post #46

It’s bit weird, but I feel like this conversation about screen time and digital addiction dropped out of the public consciousness during Covid, never to return. Apple released their screen time features in 2018, so this issue was just starting to hit critical mass right as Covid hit and dumped us all deep down the digital rabbit hole. Now I notice even more social proof to keep going deeper into the digital life. Pub…

Perhaps for self-serving reasons, I think of a Youtube addiction as being more like addiction to traditional TV than to things like twitter, instagram, or maybe even TikTok.

I say self-serving because my average daily phone use is <30 minutes, I'm not present on any social networks besides a reluctant LinkedIn account, but I do watch more Youtube than I should. I'd like to think it's unrelated to those things, because I only watch channels I'm already subscribed to, and am uninterested in being steered by recommendations.

Re: YouTube addiction, one month sober

#162

Post by bombcar »

ElevenLathe wrote: post #78
SamBam wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Also, maybe Dickens really is worse for the brain than Latin grammar?

That was basically my point but apparently I didn't make it clear enough - that we do and have had degradations, but they eventually become the new normal.

That may not be always bad, mind you, but it seems pretty obvious to me that it has occurred and is occurring.

I could rant much more about it, but suffice to say that just because we don't think something is a problem anymore doesn't mean it wasn't (and isn't) a problem.

Re: YouTube addiction, one month sober

#163

Post by B56b »

ipaddr wrote: post #80
SamBam wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Does that mean we should ignore teen depression, loneliness and suicides that happened in every 10 period before and pretend screentime is the cause. Social isolation starts with kids not being allowed to play unsupervised. Don't hear too many cries to increase unsupervised time we hear the opposite. A screen might be the one thing to help that.

Jonathan Haidt has researched this topic extensively and concluded that it was both, or rather that it was the replacement of play-based childhood with screen-based childhood. Particularly social media's effect on young girls was very strong, but boys have been negatively impacted too.

Re: YouTube addiction, one month sober

#164

Post by JohnBooty »

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…

    Does anyone else feel conflicted about the internet 
    as both a means to a comfortable/lucretive career but 
    also the ultimate drug?
yeah. it's like, hey, the only thing i'm good at (software engineering) is intimately tied to an always-on connection to an infinite distraction machine

i mean obviously i mitigate it as much as possible (blocking sites, etc) but daaaaaaaamn. what a fundamentally tricky tension.

Re: YouTube addiction, one month sober

#165

Post by phone8675309 »

asciimov wrote: post #126
futureshock wrote: post #46

It’s bit weird, but I feel like this conversation about screen time and digital addiction dropped out of the public consciousness during Covid, never to return. Apple released their screen time features in 2018, so this issue was just starting to hit critical mass right as Covid hit and dumped us all deep down the digital rabbit hole. Now I notice even more social proof to keep going deeper into the digital life. Pub…

> I wonder if we just started talking to each other less as well. We have. Sadly people aren't allowed to be bored long enough to decide that they should see what other people are up to. It used to be common to call or even drop by unannounced to check on people. Doing these things is now seen as some great sin. It's like we are all eating plain ramen every day, and aren't getting our vitamins. Sure we are full but w…

> It used to be common to call or even drop by unannounced to check on people.

This has been considered rude at least since my parents were kids in the 1950s.

I would imagine it was a lot more common before the telephone at home was widespread, but I've always found turning up unannounced to be rude.

Re: YouTube addiction, one month sober

#166

Post by ar_lan »

DarkCrusader2 wrote: post #27
srvaroa wrote: post #8

I haven't needed to be so drastic, but removed the YT app from my phone. There is a fair amount of good content that I find very worth consuming from YT (mainly educational videos) and would not like to miss. But, the mobile app makes a very strong effort to push you to shorts, which is the real danger. Shorts are proficiently engineered to just suck my brain into a doom scrolling comma. I tried removing shorts from…

I would highly recommend Youtube Revanced, even if you already have Premium or don't care to block ads. The Vanced Manager app can selectively apply patches to the official APK, removing shorts being one of them. I had a similar experience to yours. It's very hard to not get sucked into them. I would keep scrolling even when I am actively disliking the actual content being shoved into my face. It was a very sober rea…

On iOS, I've been using Vinegar with Safari.

I find my consumption to be way down because the YouTube site is... good, but not great, on Safari, but I can still readily consume what I like.

It also supports picture-in-picture and I've never seen an ad on YouTube in the past 3 years except when I load them on my TV. I didn't even know there was an adblock competition going on except for in the news because I've just never seen any.

Re: YouTube addiction, one month sober

#167

Post by xboxnolifes »

phone8675309 wrote: post #165
asciimov wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wonder if we just started talking to each other less as well. We have. Sadly people aren't allowed to be bored long enough to decide that they should see what other people are up to. It used to be common to call or even drop by unannounced to check on people. Doing these things is now seen as some great sin. It's like we are all eating plain ramen every day, and aren't getting our vitamins. Sure we are full but w…

> It used to be common to call or even drop by unannounced to check on people. This has been considered rude at least since my parents were kids in the 1950s. I would imagine it was a lot more common before the telephone at home was widespread, but I've always found turning up unannounced to be rude.

Very regionally dependent, and very relationship dependent.

Re: YouTube addiction, one month sober

#168

Post by flyinghamster »

futureshock wrote: post #46

It’s bit weird, but I feel like this conversation about screen time and digital addiction dropped out of the public consciousness during Covid, never to return. Apple released their screen time features in 2018, so this issue was just starting to hit critical mass right as Covid hit and dumped us all deep down the digital rabbit hole. Now I notice even more social proof to keep going deeper into the digital life. Pub…

It's not just the internet, and I'm increasingly finding the crap online and off to be insufferable. However, enshittification has been a great antidote to media addiction. No sense turning on the TV or going onto FaceTube if the experience is absolute crap.

I'd much rather actually do something that just veg out watching TV.

Re: YouTube addiction, one month sober

#169

Post by wahnfrieden »

the_af wrote: post #91
wahnfrieden wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only check it on a schedule, keep it closed, and turn off all notifications

> "Only check it on a schedule, keep it closed, and turn off all notifications"" Not possible at "remote first" workplaces.

Organize your peers to make it possible

Re: YouTube addiction, one month sober

#170

Post by johnny22 »

winternett wrote: post #146
futureshock wrote: post #46

It’s bit weird, but I feel like this conversation about screen time and digital addiction dropped out of the public consciousness during Covid, never to return. Apple released their screen time features in 2018, so this issue was just starting to hit critical mass right as Covid hit and dumped us all deep down the digital rabbit hole. Now I notice even more social proof to keep going deeper into the digital life. Pub…

It feels like I haven't logged onto it in ages... Chrome pushed an update that made me have to log in and do TFA each time I opened the browser, and that was a nail in the coffin. The best content on YouTube is berried behind a wall of Mr Beast and Pewdie Pie style fluffery that I can't find any real value in most of the time. They dictate what is favorable, and that ruins the entire experience for me. The search has…

I use the "don't recommend channel" a lot with youtube if i see stuff I don't like.
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