i love youtube, it has great videos and creators. BUT i lose like my entire day from that shit, and im tired of it.
on my latest holiday with my family i watched like minimum 7 hours a day on my phone (in my defence there was alot of time when we just drove? our boat). So i looked a little and found an app called detoxdroid (which is available on f-droid btw) and i blocked the apps that took all of my time and it works great
but the problem is that i dont really use my phone when im at home, cause i have a tv and a pc, so my screentime skyrockets. i dont even want to know how much it is. Im using smarttube on my tv and the browser on my pc, although im not watching youtube on my pc that much since i got the tv. Now i dont want to quit entirely since youtube is awesome, and since im a creator myself i get some fomo i guess
pls help 🥀
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Find a hobby. Youtube might be a good place to look.
i have hobbies but youtube is just so addicting 😭
There is a plugin called unhook that I find useful for this purpose. You can hide suggested, chat, comments, home feed, etc to really hone in on what you want to watch. Each option has a toggle so for days that you feel the need to just loaf you can still do so. I also uninstalled YouTube from my mobile devices so I am forced to use the browser which adds additional friction. I still watch a lot of YouTube, but I am much more intentional now.
i dont think there exists anything like that for my tv, but smarttube is open source so i could be wrong
This is why I use a PC (Linux) hooked up to my TV and not the TV. There is too little control in TV OS’s and there are many ways around that. Not using it is the easiest solution.
but MAN i just like the feeling of using the tv
i know its dumb but it just feels right, and there has to be some app i can sideload that helps with that
How about ignoring the home feed that’s designed to keep you hooked?
Limit yourself to the view with videos from channels you actually subscribe to. And curate your subscriptions to higher quality.
The end result is a list of videos that will run out every day, forcing you to get up and do something else instead of finding another related video to watch.
I did this during the pandemic and after a few days of friction it felt much healthier to me. YouTube became a secondary part of my hobby/media habits instead of an all-consuming one.
i have removed the home page on both my phone and my tv, but theres still recommended videos under the video im watching so that kinda makes that useless
I’ve found podcasts to be a good stepping stone. Lots of YouTubers have podcasts, too, so you don’t have to find entirely new creators. And it’s still a form of entertainment, but without tying your eyes to a screen.
So, you can do other stuff while listening to podcasts, like going on a walk / bike ride, cleaning your place, chopping veggies before cooking, doing the dishes, gardening, drawing etc…
On F-Droid, you can get AntennaPod for listening to podcasts.
eh, i know its probably because of youtube but im not really that interested in podcasts, i like music more so i can just listen to that instead
Are you watching or do you passive listed like me? Or are you on the reels because that’s magnitudes of more difficult to pull yourself back from.
Generally the best advice for most phone addictions is to have allotted times for phone use. If you’re on one of the former mentioned types of videos I personally would shift to one of the less absorbing kinds until you’re at a point where you can do a different activity.
Can you go for walks where you’re at? Garden? Crochet? What did you like doing before you liked youtube?
i thankfully quit reels, and yes i actually watch the videos and its not on my phone
its been a bit better today so ill try to replicate what i did different moving forward
when i open youtube, my bookmark only goes to subscribers, so i see what they have uploaded recently
I never ever go into any other section. I rarely search either, and ive hidden shorts from showing up, with BlockTube extension.
This means once ive seen my subscribed channels newest content, i am “done” and return tomorrow instead. Some days have a lot more content than others, and some creators upload pretty randomly
This works for me.
Of course i have seen all the clickbait shit and reaction video bullshit that show up on the YouTube front page, and i dont understand why anyone would waste their time
The channels i follow are hand picked by me. Not some retention seeking algorithm
I never watch it on my TV or whatever because i hate ads.
(smarttube doesnt have ads and has sponsorblock built in. its available on android tv but you need to sideload it) i have also turned of the homepage on both my phone and my tv, but the problem is that under the video i am watching theres a bunch of recommended videos
