It contributed to tendon issues that I’ve been recovering from for 9 months. I’ve definitely started limiting phone use and it has had multiple benefits, including discovering books again!
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Already there. Haven’t seen a YouTube video in over 4 months.
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your suggestion for a workaround is brilliant! I never thought of that, and to think it’s worked for 4 months already
Bunch of quitters.
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I replaced my youtube browsing with twitch… sounds bad, right?
well, it’s not. I WFH most of the time and I do get bored looking at the monitor all the time, so I’ve found couple of streamers who are a nice background noise and what I do is I use IINA (mac video player like VLC) to play these videos, that way it’s not in the browser and the tab is not distracting me and I just leave it playing on low volume as a background noise generator.
believe it or not, that literally killed my urge to browse youtube, only when I’m looking for something specific.
btw the same thing works for youtube, you can play playlists of stuff from IINA, so I sometimes use videos where people film just walking in various cities and it’s really nice.
I used to binge clips and I just don’t anymore.
also I made it really hard to watch youtube on the phone, by removing the app and only using Firefox Focus (a mobile browser that does not remember anything) I sometimes watch but it’s very tedious process so I only do it when I must find something.
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If you’re struggling with a YouTube addiction, here are some pro tips that have helped me:
- Try using an alternative interface like yewtu.be or any other Invidious instance to watch specific videos without being bombarded by the addictive recommendation feed.
- Delete the YouTube app from all your devices.
- Block YouTube on your computer’s host files.
- Use Screen Time or a similar tool to block YouTube on your phone.
Personally, I’ve found it helpful to limit my YouTube use to once or twice a month. I download the app onto my iPad, log in, and spend an hour checking for anything interesting, and then delete it immediately. This approach has been effective in breaking my addiction and regaining control over my screen time.
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THIS.
i (almost) exclusively watch/listen tutorials, lectures and that sort of stuff, so never had to considered youtube a problem.
yes. it is entertaining educational.
PS. using Brave browser on all platforms and can highly recommend it to everyone who’s watching youtube regularly.
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Watch with the volume down?
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Hell no…I’m not gonna spend 40 days using lame ass Vimeo.
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I uninstalled YT app because of this. I can’t stand ads.
Use Brave browser. No ads at all.
Edit: like @chaocrator said.
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I won’t negotiate with terrorists
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I actually came to the same conclusion… i realized that i use it to an even larger extent then Netflix and all them others. So why should I torture myself with ads? If I find Netflix worth it, why isn’t YouTube (which I consume even more) worth it?
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the distraction free safari extension works great for me on Mac
it breaks the viewing loop
I totally agree. I use it as background music on my TV almost all day long: jazz mixes, obscure albums, background ambient sounds and images. It’s worth it for that alone.
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Heads up if anyone’s not aware that as well as advert blocking that you can do in a variety of ways there are also things like SponsorBlock for Firefox which you can set to automatically skip sponsor segments, intros/outros, begging for likes/subs etc.
It works very well, I’ve only really noticed it not working when the video is very obscure or fresh out of the oven since at least one person has to have flagged the sections to skip.
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Apologies to anyone who was upset by my post. It was insensitive and I will try to read through topics before trying to be ‘funny’.
I absolutely need this.
I don’t care about ‘thread rules’ - as with the NYNG thread, its obvious people need to do what works for them.
My rule would be 99% abstinence unless I absolutely must find a video to make something work that is creating a barrier to whatever task aim trying to achieve. That shouldn’t be often but it helps.
I also think it’s worth pointing out that no one should feel like they have FAILED COMPLETELY if the succombe and look at YouTube. You wouldn’t tell someone who is addicted to gambling, alcohol, drugs, porn etc, to just a dept they failed and carry on with the damaging behaviour. So I think there is value in seeing what can be achieved in the time period, with trying at all times not to look at YouTube… Even if there are hiccups.
Anyway…
I’m in. I’m going to try and apply some actual barriers like deactivation/blocking, after work.
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I haven’t seen a YouTube advert in years - Vanced Manager for Android (from their website, not the Play Store) and a decent Chrome extension add up to an ad-free experience across multiple platforms.
Oh shit, it’s happening!
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No way. I need YouTube to listen to while doing work around the house 
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