Fighting against my YouTube addiction

This is my 2nd attempt at writing this

When I originally wrote this, it ended up complaining about the state of YouTube rather than focusing on the subject which is stopping myself from watching YouTube. Basically it was about to be another rant type of post that offer no value.

What I might do is have a separate post if anyone is curious on what I have to say about the platform. Or maybe I won't.

Here is my current state right now.

I want to showcase what I am dealing with and I also want to prove that I am not perfect.

What I used to watch in the past

Hmmm. It's a lot of junk when I think about it.

• Let's plays/Gameplay with commentary

• Commentary content about:

  • Gaming industry
  • Social media platforms
  • Animation industry
  • Influencers doing XYZ

• Product previews/reviews/impressions

  • Tech
  • Movies
  • Videogames

• Lists (ex:"Top 10" etc.)

• Archive streams (Usually long content)

• Long-form content such as documentaries and analysis

• Art related content (Haven't watched them in a long time.)

What about what I watched for the past year?

Not much other than two channels. One that focuses on consumerism and the other is a laid back technology channel that focuses on many subjects ranging from explaining basic subjects to making coverage on recent trends.

Have I at least quit overall?

Yeah I do remember trying that as a challenge. I don't think that is a good approach because how I do it is once the new month starts, the challenge begins. It's better if I just quit right away rather than just waiting it out.

What happened after that challenge?

The results ended up being interesting. What happened is that I've been in a state where I felt a bit brainwashed. Conditioned to watching content that has little to no new content. It's embarrassing at least. Glad I noticed after the challenge.

For example, I would watch multiple videos on the same subject matter. Awhile it seems great to catch different opinions on the current subject matter, most content creators if anything just seems to default to the same opinions, therefore I am not getting anything new.

Even worse are content creators being impatient by means of making too many videos on a slowly developing issue. Either we could wait and watch a very well produced story a month later or watch too many videos that has little or no new information right now. I'm getting a flash back to a TV broadcast that had to stop a show because "breaking news" had to happen ... and it was just a small information that needed to be showcased: a few photos, that's it.

List of issues on the videos I've watched

I am going to summarize what I've typed from my "rant," here I go:

• Quantity over quality
  • Weekly/daily uploads, lazy thumbnails, misleading/zero-context title of the videos
  • Videos are now more rushed than ever, creators can be exhausted and/or not do enough research
  • Video edits are more annoying, jumpcuts, sounds effects, captions baked-in, fancy transitions
  • More to add on editing, it can be manipulative to the point where creators can win with editing even though they have flawed talking points (example: emotional music in the background)
  • Instead of speaking oneself, creators rely on other peoples' opinions (example: reading comments from Reddit)
  • Balance is terrible, by that I mean only 20 to 40 percent of the videos are worth watching awhile the rest is either recap of old information or sponsored nonsense
  • Even though some of these content creators can get sick, they could hit the record button at a later time, but no, they must record now
  • Creators not even caring about the subject/topic they are talking about
  • Plagiarism
  • A.I. videos, I don't need to add more about this, it's self-explanatory
• Money driven and greed from channels, advertisers, and the platform itself
• There are videos that should of been shorter and there are videos that should of been longer, it's about finding balance

History-wise, a good chunk of YouTube videos have reached from Trolling, to Click-bait, to finally, Rage-bait.

If you think about it, YouTube and other websites are having war on emotions. They don't want you to think logically. Everything has to be reactionary. These websites love their users to be angry and/or sad. It's what keeps the users staying on the platform long term.

Let's speak about the website itself

I understand there are plug-ins to fight against the issues but allow me to at least list the issues:

• Recommended videos are distracting
• Trending section is questionable
• Advertisements forever annoying
• Short-form content is the norm now

My first attempt: Plug-ins and bookmarks

It's been a long time I've used the plug-in so I apologize in advance that I don't know what it's called. I just know the keywords is "distraction free" or something like that.

The goal is to have the recommend/related videos to be removed whenever I watch any videos on YouTube. And on top of that, I have the subscriptions feed be bookmarked so I don't enter into the dreaded front page of the website.

However, awhile this may have worked out at the start, I was still watching YouTube on mobile so that another obstacle. Later on I would download apps like NewPipe which allows me to have more freedom on both desktop and mobile.

By the way, the plug-ins, awhile nice, can always break after there is an update from the website.

Second attempt: Invidious and blocking YouTube.com

If I were to show you a screenshot of what my experience is for watching YouTube for the past few years, it would look like this: A search bar. That's it. Nothing more.

For those who don't know, Invidious is a third party method of watching YouTube without needing to providing your data. Users who are privacy conscious are already using this. And yes, no ads and you can download etc.

Whenever I access to new instant of Invidious, I go to settings and disable recommended videos and switch from trending videos at the front page to just a search bar.

I've managed to distance myself away from many of the content creators that I used to watch daily to never ever watching them ever again. Pretty much a lot content creators I see today make predictable content. The whole experience has become too artificial.

It's crazy that I went from having 200 plus channels I've subbed to and then ... zero. I haven't missed anyone, well except one which is a channel that speak about consumerism. And eventually I would find a tech channel that makes content is respectable towards the audience.

However there is another problem I am stumbling upon, blocking YouTube.com. Awhile I have the plug-in installed to block access to the website, there are times I would turn it off just to watch a single video ... only to watch five plus videos. You can tell it is not working. The reason why I go back to YouTube is because certain Invidious websites would go down sometimes, it's clear there is a war going on between YouTube vs Invidious. Awhile Invidious claims there is no rules being broken, YouTube does not care, they want Invidious down forever.

Another addition to add is that every time I restart Librewolf web browser, the settings for Invidious keeps restarting. Meaning I'll keep having treading videos at the front page and recommended videos on the side of the website.

Third attempt: Going offline

Awhile some will find this to be a rather desperate attempt, I think this is a necessary action.

The fact I lack self control whenever it comes to the video platform is indeed sad. But I have no one to blame but myself.

I can tell the amount of hours and days dominated from just watching pointless amount of videos. That amount of time could of been used towards making content instead.

So what I've done is remove the wi-fi chip inside the laptop and remove the wi-fi adapter from the computer. The only device that has access to the internet is the e-ink tablet.

If you think I'm trying to live like the 90s or early 2000s, then yes, that's the goal. I want to relive the old days when I was a kid and all I had was offline devices and books.

End goal? Quit watching YouTube?

I understand that YouTube used to be my only source of entertainment, I haven't watched movies in a long time. I don't even watch other video platforms such as uhhh--I know there is Netflix, ParamountPlus, DisneyPlus, Hulu, Vudu, and uhhh ... yeah that's all I know on the top of my head.

There is wonderful aspect that we all loved about YouTube, the connection between just ordinary people sharing content with other ordinary people. You can tell there is way too much production value when it comes to TV and Films, it becomes disconnecting, but YouTube? It's just a person in a bedroom hitting the record button and sharing what they've made. It's very easy when content creators make relatable content. However there does reach a point when it becomes parasocial, that's when the creators just have to know when to keep a distance.

Don't get me wrong, I'd be missing a lot of wonderful content but ... the real question is this: what have I been doing for the past decade? Nothing much. I want to change that.