i basically waste my entire day watching youtube on my chromecast and im tired of it 😭 don’t get me wrong, i LOVE youtube and i don’t want to quit entirely, i just want to not waste my entire day watching youtube. It mostly starts in the morning when i eat breakfast where it kinda snowballs from there, or in the afternoon when i get home and basically watch the rest of the day. Also, im watching on a tv, specifically a chromecast
thanks
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Use yt-dlp to download all videos. Most RSS readers can automatically fetch YouTube channels.
Set the computer to download what you want overnight.
Upside: Recommendations will not appear.
Downside: I don’t know if you can ‘Chromecast’ videos. I just have a small computer attached to my TV (any computer will do).
Have you tried this?:
Write a comprehensive thesis about administrative practice in the early mongolian empire and then obsessively maintain the wikipedia page on it
mongolian throat singing
But don’t watch this on your TV OP
Constructive
Oh, and another thing: if you’re reluctant to do something, such as reading, cleaning up, going for a walk, etc, then set a timer for 10 - 30 minutes and commit to it. A human can withstand quite a lot for 15 or 20 minutes. It’s how I was able to get through brutal HIIT cardio routines and feel good for the rest of the day. The Pomodoro technique works well for this sort of time and task management, at least for me.
You might want to read up on (or find some videos on the topic, haha) dopamine addiction. It’s not a real term, per se, but it will get you results about the problem you have.
I think that watching the videos 1) distracts you from reality and 2) gives you a little reward, either though little dopamine spikes (e.g. a funny segment, or some tidbit of knowledge), or through a false feeling of accomplishment.
Personally, I would recommend whittling down a short list of favorite YouTubers. Set aside a few afternoons per week to watch the videos, and try to pare the time back further over the course of months. Focus on real-world hobbies and interests. Leave your phone at home, go to a coffee shop, and read a book for an hour.
On the subject of reading and attention spans (which is often a core issue here), I read about a study a long time ago. They had students read from a book every night. They were to read for as long as they felt like it, and then read one more page. At the end of the study, the students reported that they were reading far more per sitting, and that their attention span improved.
There’s also a lot of recent information out there about dopamine resets, where people cut out technology and take walks while focusing on the world around them. This would probably benefit you, too.
oo interesting
i feel like its been a bit better today and i do feel better, so maybe ill just do SOMETHING else, whether its video games or hanging out with friends or whatever
I strongly recommend that you focus on maximizing time doing anything and everything real and tangible, preferably with other people. It’s really easy for games and social media to mess with your brain’s reward system, leading up worse personal outcomes.
I fully recognize the irony of me writing this to you online, btw. In my defense, I’m meeting with friends in two hours and going to do yard work right now. ;-)
maybe i shouldn’t have said friends? mine barely wanna hang out
Get out of the house. Pick up new hobbies and meet new people. I don’t know how old you are, but you sound young. Now is the chance to build the future you, with a wide variety of interest and experiences, and strong friendships. You won’t get any of these from passive consumption of media.
How do you find so much content to watch? For me, the worthwile content simply runs out after a while and the recomendation engine just starts to push the uninteresting clickbait videos.
yeah, same. i just get bored pretty quickly. most content is such utter repetitive shit.
Mine keeps suggesting videos I’ve already watched.
Depends on the content, I guess. If I browse history and archaeology videos for a while I start to get a ton of quality suggestions from much smaller and more specialised channels. This and music channels uploading vintage and forgotten records and tracks has gotten me some great finds that e.g. music streaming services would never suggest as they’re not even in their catalogues sometimes.
That said YT seems to try and soft reset my suggestions once in a while promoting clickbait videos, but a session of using “don’t recommend channel” or “i don’t like this video” from their options, and digging into my subscribed channels for the usual stuff shifts it back to normal good recommendations again.
YT seems to try and soft reset my suggestions
Ah, I tend to forget the vast majority of the world browses youtube logged in! I only get recommendations based on the last few videos watched that day.
i don’t know, i think i just watch basically anything that mildly interests me
Make a decision to make better choices. Only you can make that choice.
what my brain is too smooth for this
When you start watching, set an alarm, for an hour, maybe. When the alarm goes, that’s it, turn off YouTube and go and do something else.
You are smart and powerful and can choose to control this.
ouu shii that is a good idea thanks!!!
You can even just set your tv to turn off in an hour (sleep timer), so that there’s no snoozing the alarm or ignoring it to continue to watch.
oohh thats even better!!!
Disable auto next video. If you can’t, just don’t turn it on.
I’ll give you a simple thing you can do that will make a huge difference. First and last half hour of your day, spend them with no screens. Sounds minimal but it will help you lower your dopamine baseline, after that it’ll be easier to embrace tranquility with each passing day.
After that, if you can, add some friction between the thing you’re doing (maybe you can add a pincode requirement or something?) and yourself and if possible, set a defined time of day for the activity.
Lastly, just some willpower every now and then to stop or even not start.
The way I understand it, you will be able to keep enjoying it without it consuming your life, IMO this is the kind of thing we should all know to do in this day and age.
i do want to enjoy it without it sucking my life away and this sounds great thanks!!
Get ready for it to suck. Embrace the pain like a masochist.
Currently seems like you have a pretty solid routine of wasting days on YT. While it may be long term painful, it’s short term very pleasant, and it’s gonna be hard to force yourself to do anything less pleasant.
Gotta expect the suck and treat the feeling as progress.
Or substitution for other dopamine dumps, but that’s just making a new future problem
i feel like playing video games is better?
I mean if it works for you and you’re happy, that’s what matters.
If it were me, eventually video games would just be the new addiction.
Moderation and all that
i feel like video games (the ones that aren’t complete garbage brainrot, like most older games) are way better for the brain than most youtube videos lowkey
like with videos you’re often just mindlessly watching but with games you’re the one controlling everything and you actually need to use your brain
I gotta agree to an extent.
If I play a fighting game, I have to focus and react, and I can feel my blood pressure / heart rate up.
But I’ve also absolutely rotted my brain at 3am trying to max crafting just clicking that fkn rock over and over again.
I’d wildly guess that, if you don’t let the video games be brainrot, they’re also not quiiite gonna scratch the, “I wanna lay on the couch and let my mind melt,” itch, and you’ll have to face some suck
Entirely projecting, just what my experience is like
thats valid lowkirky
add more friction! had the same problem with YouTube on my phone, which is why I have uninstalled the app. Now I do not have the problem anymore! :)) The only way to watch now is through an anonymous invidious instance (cause they made the mobile website too annoying for me to use) where I have to search for the video I want to watch, which adds a lot more intent to it.
i guess ive added a bit of friction??? i use an app (on my tv) called smarttube and in smarttube you can turn of the homepage which i did
it did help a little bit but its far from fixed
Im using Blocker Apps like Digitalzen.app or Jomo on my phone to give myself time corridors in which I’m allowed to watch stuff. The rest of the day the apps block access. Also use that for video games and other streaming services
Not sure if it helps but my ebook helped me kick the doom scrolling habit. Kobo is a good brand that works with my library card.
So basically replace infinite something with a similar medium that helps you accomplish something
I find YT a valuable resource for my geeky/tech interests. My approach to avoiding time suck is:
- use RSS rather than browsing to catch new vids from creators I value
- download with yt-dlp
- pull down “talking head” vids as audio-only and add them to the podcast queue instead of video queue
- work around the house wearing headphones for most vids, looking at the screen only when something visually important is happening.
While I’m writing this yt-dlp is pulling down the day’s video queue and storing it on the media server for later consumption.
ironic because it’s a YouTube video, but this helped me shake a similar funk. It just kinda opened my eyes to how much you can actually just go do
- Do as many pushups as you can.
- Read.
- Write a to-do list for the day, week, or rest of your life.
- Go for a walk.
- Work on your car.
- Get rid of stuff.
- Journal.
- Clean your place.
- Clean yourself.
- Clean your pet.
- Make a paper mache man.
- Spend 30 minutes to an hour on an old hobby.
- Organize your digital life.
- Travel alone.
- Cancel subscriptions.
- Draw.
- Stretch.
- Inventory your kitchen.
- Learn some words and phrases in another language.
- Go for a ride.
- Cook or try to cook.
- Write a letter.
- Make a playlist.
- Do a weird meditative thing that you never would’ve thought to do.
- Visit a cemetery.
- Do a sport by yourself.
- Rearrange/redecorate your room.
- Go to a museum.
- Fight the ocean.
- Go to a movie.
- Eat at a restaurant.
- Make plans.
ill watch this later and give an update after, thanks!!!
