That’s the catch, everyone knows we won’t. But we can fully enjoy the idea of doing so, while making us feel that this is so easy to do, that you can do it…you know…LATER
Other content creators HATE, LOATHE us for telling people consistently consuming social media is unhealthy and you'll end up with false hope like us till you're brainwashed you can make it on this platform. Being a failure REALLY made me realize I have a duty to show who I really am and to discourage people from making the same mistake we did. Watching youtuber till you become one HARD NO, do NOT do this
The hardest part is filling the time man. I'm at a point where UA-cam really bores me which is good, but nothing feels as stimulating as it once did which makes it SO hard to build better habits that come with delayed rewards. Everyone says to start small and it sounds great but if you start small there's so much time left to fill. And when I don't distract myself and have too much time to think, I get depressed again.
I'll add that this is just an approach that worked for me but I'm currently in a "stumble" phase, spending less time outside and in community and more time with screens. But I know why I'm doing it and I'm steadily working through that each week by going to therapy, journaling once a day, meditating most days, and keeping in touch to some degree with my community. I don't feel completely lost in the way that I did before all of the things I recommended to you. Just wanted to be genuine that I certainly have not solved my problems, but I have healed a bit. edit: How annoying, youtube removed my first comment that I spent a long time on. I don't have the energy to do it over right now, but flark you, youtube. I can't imagine why it would get removed except that it was potentially a realistic guide to getting off the platform...
well thats a good first step, isn’t it? if you find that when you have time and breathing room to think you’re depressed, that means that you were always depressed but pushing away any chance of a thought happening with cheap easy dopamine. which im sure you knew, but this isnt the end result; it’s the START. that might seem daunting and exhausting, but it’s hopeful too, isn’t it? you could start with exploring. driving to the library or thrift store or a national park walking to the library or down the street. collecting rocks, or taking pictures, or starting a creative project even if it’s something small. when your mind is running in circles, your body needs something to do to match it. and sometimes it feels like u dont have the energy to even start, but sometimes just taking a walk to the corner store to buy gatorade makes you feel more settled in your body than you’d realize.
If all else fails, it may also be worth trying just brute forcing your way out of this habit. Like, if you don't have another thing to fill your time with, then just don't do anything for now. Eventually, something will come around, but for the start, it's enough to beat the habit. I feel like I have the best ideas on how to spend my time when I'm bored.
Thanks for the shorts blocking suggestion. That's something I've wanted without realizing it. I don't really have a problem with regular videos, but with shorts I'll just keep scrolling if I'm not careful.
I put it this way jokingly for dramatic flavor, but I've always said that if I'm not careful shorts will suck the soul right out of me. Infinite, short, mildly entertaining at times, useless and still kinda boring most of the time, and just rage bait the rest of the time. You get nothing out of it but a cheap way to turn your brain off, and in return you get a shorter attention span, emotional congestion, and a subtle dose of dissociation from ramping overexposure to increasingly vapid and unrealistic subject matter. I really think in a more just world, where product/content supply and distribution was humane and worked with human psychology rather than exploiting it for profit, shorts would not exist. The layers of psychological manipulation at play make you nauseous to become aware of, with how prevalent and admissible it all is seemingly because it causes no physical harm the way say lead paint does. I'm not sure if it gets more condensed, more captivating and mind numbing, more subversively hypnotic than shorts, and no wonder almost every platform has them now. I'll be using the blocking suggestion as well, a resource I believe elevates this video to at least some degree of usefulness.
broo that screen at 1:05 is veryy accurate. like wtf does a 18 yr old teach me about life and how to be charismatic . liki lolo like lol. seriously tho
My guy. Ive been addicted to UA-cam since i was 12 years old. It's been a burden to me ever since, and ive been averaging about 4-8 hours a day. I lost hobbies, people, and events because UA-cam is damn good at stimulating my brain and it's incredibly easy. I will try your method for the next month. I'll give an update at the end if it worked or not.
Loved the suggestions of app and extensions btw. Ngl adblock helps so much with the addiction because if there were unskippable ads every single video i tried to watch i wouldn't be here
It's all about our decisions and what we do. Discipline is about making decisions that are aligned with our intentions. Inspiration may get us started, but it's the habit that keeps us going. Habits stay with us even when we don’t have the inspiration. All of it I grabbed from the book Unveiling Your Hidden Potential
Nice video. What helped me was when i see a video i want to watch, I dont watch it immediately but put it in a "plan to watch" list and wait till the end of the day or at least an hour or several. What happens is when after some time I take a look at that list of videos i realize that i lost the desire to watch most of them quite often. The Initial impulse is gone by them, no FOMO, i just choose the best videos to watch out of that list and ignore the rest.
this will probably be what will happen when i go to actually watch videos in my watch later list and my “important” playlist which is becoming watch later 2 basically but with videos i felt were important to watch when i can. i watched none of the videos in it and im also putting videos i want to keep in it so
Just don’t fall into the trap of trying to “work through” your watchlist. Instead let it sit there, knowing that you’ll have more than enough interesting stuff to watch when you finally decide to.
let’s be honest, we all know “how” to quit watching youtube and there’s more than enough tips and hacks out there on how but i think a lot of us deep down don’t want to…even though we need to. kinda like “i can quit vaping whenever i want” but never does 😅 also i hate reading so youtube is my way of digestible education. so i have a seperate account where i only watch educational content and youtube’s algorithm only suggests that type of content to me. you guys should try it out!
yooo! soul simple! Dude! I just had this idea today. But you telling me will actually make me do that. (I don't know why I'm such a sucker for confirmation bias.) BTW, I love your videos! I was curious, why you quit being a financial analyst. It's my dream. So I was wondering if I have some misconceptions about it.
thank you, I needed the shorts blocker desperately! I hate short videos with a passion because how easily they grab my attention when I'm tired and then I waste an hour and feel horrible
2:12. Defining "a waste of time" as "something which won't chang something for me/change me" is pretty insightful for me. This is my main takeaway. Thanks ❤
Unhook has been really, really helpful for me. What I've done is completely remove my recommended feed (and most importantly, youtube shorts) and only leave my subscriptions page. Then, I've gone through the long list of subscriptions I've accumulated over the years, and unsubscribed from many channels, particularly some that upload way too often, like many times a day, and some that just aren't very worthwhile content to watch.
Ye, I am also using it. Only when I want to search for something I use UA-cam Unfortunately, since the past month or something I am wasting more time on UA-cam again. Maybe bcz I am delaying an important decision
i do this as well! i found that i was notified for some channels and made me realise that a lot of them say stuff like "hit the notification bell to never miss a video" well, who even uses the notification feature?, i do now haha. i only go on youtube now to watch a video from my subscriptions (i look at how many notifications so i know how much new stuff there is to watch (helps to manage free time).
The funny thing is that advice videos can theoretically work, it's just that they only work if we let them sink in and actually inform our behaviors, but that's not going to happen if we just let ourselves binge content while trying to make ourselves feel something or avoid remembering something. We can only really benefit from any of these videos if we mindfully consider them - just like we can only avoid getting addicted if we mindfully consider how we actually want to spend our lives. This implies that the more we crave videos of any sort, the less we will actually be capable of benefitting from them. In other words, mindfulness can greatly improve our ability to engage with the content and prevent us from spiraling into addiction. I'm not sure if anyone has tried this, but maybe requiring ourselves to comment on every single video we watch might encourage us to actually process what we watch and be a bit more mindful of what we just encountered? Maybe it could prevent us from scrolling through a bazillion videos?
@@Loanshark753Hopefully you at least remember the majority of the videos you watch. Most people are forgetting most videos about as fast as they're seeing them (less than a minute). Oh wait, but is that implying movies are better than series? Ummm, idk, maybe probably.
This restriction would just encourage lazy one liner comments if users like JustinY are anything to go by. You also have to deal with replies from other commenters who can be intense at times.
Dude, I hate to admit this but I needed someone else to tell me to stop this UA-cam addiction. I began looking at videos with a more realistic eye by myself and that helped, but I still found myself spending probably longer than I should have on this website, and also creating way too many tabs to not forget to "watch later". For me (and this is the case with a lot of things) I am way more likely to do something when someone else reinforces that I should do it. Something I probably had to do already but didn't do properly or didn't do at all for some reason. This video really helped to put into my head what is really going on. You didn't overdramatize this in the slightest. A lot of other videos about self help try to show something in your face or are a little too extreme. Basically, someone else would probably do a video on this same subject with a title like "UA-cam is ruining your free time" and have this thumbnail with those chromatic aberrations and other effects that 3 years ago were synonym of high quality and now (to me) are clickbaity. A video titled "quitting your youtube addiction is easy, actually" and a simpler thumbnail with Comic Sans text is so, so much better. Also, in the video itself you spoke with a normal tone of voice, only brought simple, comprehensive and true stuff with no bullshit. You didn't talk about a book that said this and that about psychology or whatever. Heck, "I remember seeing this TED talk one time, and the guy pulled up a graphic" - to me that's so refreshing, idk why lol Thanks a lot for this.
Still amazes me that UA-cam recommends this to me (or anyone actually), who never saw any video from this content creator. Why do the managers over there not block it? I can only imagine one answer: it doesn’t make a difference, we will keep watching anyway.
2:00 I once got a "self improvement" video recommended with the title "Buying an alarm clock changed my life", it was so stupid and offended my intelligence so much that I turned off my UA-cam recommendations and never enabled it again
@@ajlei Sure, while you are at it, buy a newspaper. Using a browser could have you end up on youtube. The device's capabilities are not the issue, the user's self-control is, and removing the device instead of teaching restraint is the wrong move.
Something that also helps is to have a separate account for the "learning" you do, like programming/CS or/and language learning etc. So you keep your main account for entertainment
i did exactly that and like a month later i was just watching my usual stuff on that account and it got spoiled :/ also i filled with tons of "useful" content that, if im being honest, i dont really wanna watch. so i started to just avoid that account completely so yea, if it works for you - im jealous lol
@@nerdError0XFI did that too and got the same problem, in the long run both accounts were kind of the same. These days my account has both contents I like, educational and entertainment. It’s more about restraining myself when I want to learn something to not click on the entertainment videos. It’s not always easy but it works. Whenever I want to relax it’s just boring to keep switching accounts
@@nerdError0XF I think it's better to make a list of what you want to watch that seems useful and then watch it in order and learn. For example, I watch a playlist about graph neural networks right now, so I just go and continue watching it. So you should make a plan of what you what to learn in which order and then search up videos about it without relying on recommendation system
i do this with this account (self improvement, college/subject videos and motivation to go study) and my main account (regular entertainment), it also helps me relax from college e.g if i'm watching a video on my main, i don't see videos about trigonometry on the side video recommendations lol. i don't see how you would "spoil" the account with entertainment stuff, as you can easily just not click on it or write it down/bookmark it for later? you just need more restraint not to click on things or to have patience to watch them later?
Thank you so much! I've been hopelessly addicted to UA-cam for the past year and tried a lot of ways to get rid of it but I always find myself coming back because of one silly video, it's incredible just how much time I spend on this. When I quit UA-cam I'll make sure to still watch your videos.
I think replacing the habit is the hardest part. I find myself coming back to youtube because I want something to do passively when I'm tired. But that then leads to be opening youtube even when I could be doing other stuff because the habit is already built.
I have always wanted an option to reduce distractions from using instagram and youtube, using them is inevitable. But adding more focus and control like untrapped, is such a gamechanger! THANK YOU SO MUCH.
I use UA-cam to learn and practice languages by listening and watching along with subtitles if I need to do so, so I wouldn't say it's unproductive to me. Especially due to the fact that I don't consume content in my native language anymore. So it's a way for me to both entertain myself and learn languages at the same time. Same with reading, I don't like reading in my native language, but, if I'm reading in English or French, for instance, I'll feel way more productive. Even so, not everything has to be productive. We, as human beings, need rest to keep up our pace and avoid burnout.
Thats good! The guy in the video is not telling everyone to do it Its for the people who just mindlessly wasts their time on youtube watching shorts or videos all day I appreciate you that your doing something productive
What sucks is that buried in the recommendation rabbit holes there are (a few) videos with genuinely helpful info. Like this one. I am in fact installing these addons and taking your advice. Thanks.
I needed this. Have been struggling mainly with YT shorts and so glad to find an app to disable them. I enjoy watching a video of my favorite creators while eating my cereal. What I don't enjoy is my lying in bed for an hour, brainlessly scrolling through shorts.
as some others have mentioned in the CS here: engaging with the 'content' you consume through comments, cleansing your timeline/suggestions by just clicking not interested, creating a separate account for educational stuff does help. In my experience though, i ended up barely using it. In the end, we can waste time by doing what we truly enjoy- something that leaves us thinking and prompting us with action even after its experience. It's all about being mindful fr
Ahhhh! A lot of what this guy was saying about videos not being good doesn’t seem to apply to my feed, so this makes a lot of sense! I customize my feed carefully
Hey guy, just to let you know, you are doing great. Here are some video ideas:- Getting a good sleep is easy, actually Being confident is easy, actually Looking good is easy, actually
Ironically some of the best advice abt quitting UA-cam from UA-cam man. I think there’s lots f useful, good, creative or genuinely educational content on UA-cam, but the best is always the longer stuff, 30-60 mins, and most of the time when I’m just constantly caught watching its shorts and slop.
You could not have posted this at a better time in my life, everything you discussed I’ve experienced first hand, thank you for this. By the way I really respect the self reflection in stating how your own videos are a waste of time. This isn’t me saying I don’t like them, it’s the exact opposite, but I definitely did find myself watching them just for the sake of feelings like I’m improving when I really know I’m not. Again, thank you for this, keep up the amazing work!
1st. a good informational youtube video isnt a waste of time just because it is, it will be a waste of time because you are not really note taking, so the issue is not on youtube itself, but on your discipline 2nd. this untrapped app is good. There are so many researches done to make youtube more addicting, and those researches made this whole layout of the website. So yes, turning off the comment section, limiting suggestion page, limiting interaction with the app, is going to be helpful getting off youtube 3rd. Replacing the habit with a habit, this is the correct answer, and the first thing people need to do if they want to quit youtube. Find something you will equally enjoy, or atleast have the discipline to do everyday, then just do that instead of youtube.
Definitely agree with point 1. UA-cam has lead to many positive changes in my life that would have never happened had I cut it out 10-12 years ago. You just have to be disciplined and make it not a waste of time.
Man you're really awesome. I've never heard about that extension and it is exactly what I was looking for. I gave up on social media 2 months ago (except YT, of course) and yeah, my free time is now spent on YT. Btw regarding the educational videos, whenever I watch a video I try to sum it up in my mind or to take notes of what I've learned from it. It really helps and it makes you more aware of what you are actually learning from those videos.
Awesome! I am now the same person as I was before this video and will disregard the advice while believing that since I know how to quit UA-cam in theory, I can do so whenever I want, meaning I don't actually have to.
thats ironically true for most of us, I already got +50 tabs of yt content to watch and its very likely that Im going to watch it all f*k I just want this addiction to end, Im going outside and touching grass to counter my addiction fr fr
I've almost completely quit watching UA-cam on the app. I've gone from 6 hours and 3 hours as my highest and lowest in a week, to 2 hours and 20 minutes being my highest and lowest in a week. I still use it a lot on my laptop, but when I'm away from home, I don't watch UA-cam at all. This change took me around a month for it to really stick, but it's definitely working. I'm reading a lot more irl, but I haven't gotten around to actually reading on my phone instead. I still use the internet on my phone a lot instead of the UA-cam app. So getting offline and into a digital book will be my next step now that staying off the UA-cam app is a success.
As "an old" who still (just) had a dumb phone longer than a smartphone, I sometimes consider going back to one (which, to me, is the only way to _fully_ reclaim your own time, attention and concentration). The newfangled ones are just so handy though.
@@anonymes2884as a newgen it's not really the phones. People have a way weaker mentality nowadays with people doomscrolling for pretty much days, around ten or twelve hours. I personally don't rlly use UA-cam, mostly for tutorials, and I really like this channel but to be fair I think it's a more psycological fact.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with watching content for entertainment, or things that aren’t necessarily “productive”. The human mind needs breaks every now and then, and watching a few videos is harmless. Just don’t go over the limit 👍
That’s such an easy line to cross though…it’s like telling an alcoholic that he can have a few drinks every now and then, just don’t go over the limit. If you want entertaining content, watch a show, movie, or read a damn book. (I know I’m a hypocrite, but I genuinely am addicted to UA-cam and I _know_ this won’t help)
The only objection I have to UA-cam being not educational, is on the tech side. You just naturally gain super useful knowledge and It's usually pretty entertaining if you like tech stuff. That is the only scenario I can think of where it's the best of both worlds with you actually retaining the valuable knowledge if you find it interesting. Edit: I forgot to mention this, but with consistent watching, you can get to the knowledge level of the CompTIA ITF+ certification in a couple months without all of the boring official lectures and exam. Just casually watching nerds mess with PC's, phones, and servers.
Dearrow is a great extension too. It removes clickbait from titles and thumbnails, with most videos having titles created by others that tells you exactly what the video is about
damn this video looks pretty useful, cant wait for it to change nothing about my life as i continue to spend an appropriate amount of time on youtube as im not addicted to this hell site🔥 also here's MY own process for cutting down youtube watch time: STEP 1: CREATE A QUEUE!! Actually this feature has been a massive timesaver for me, as essentially what I do when I get home from school or whatever is scroll through my suggestions, subscriptions, and etc. and queue up videos I wanna watch, or are interested in. If the video is over an hour long, I open it in a new tab and watch it on the weekend or put it in my Watch Later. Or I watch it after the queue is finished if I have the time to burn. This means instead of spending all your time aimlessly scrolling, you find what you want, you watch it, you're done. It depends on how much appeals to you though, for me it's usually around 10-20 videos, and about half of those are under 10 minutes long, many even under a minute. STEP 2: IF IT DOESNT GRIP ME, SKIP IT!! Next is simple: with your queue, start enjoying. But if the video doesn't grab your attention fully in the first 10-20 seconds, feel free to skip it and move on. I have ADHD in both the inattentive and hyperactive forms so if the video doesn't vibe with me instantly, I skip it, even if it's a creator I love. This means that of the 10-20~ videos I queue up, probably at least 1 will get skipped half way through. STEP 3: ONLY COMMENT WHEN YOU GOT SOMETHING INTERESTING TO SAY!! I am a bonafide yapper on UA-cam, and have written down full fucking essays in UA-cam comments, and I would do it again. But that's because I got something specific I wanna say. If you're just gonna comment "this was so funny" or something generic, don't bother and move along, save the time. It's better to comment with a clever joke, interesting perspective, or helpful tip or whatever when you have it, and then not comment if you don't got anything you REALLY wanna say. STEP 4: LEARN YOUR FAVES ARE TERRIBLE!! I've had to unsubscribe from like, 10 channels this year cuz turns out the person behind the camera is actually a MASSIVE asshole. Great way to cut down on YT time!!!
develop a system that helps you study. chronological barriers: Involve time limits on activities Geographical barriers: Involve physical restrictions Categorical: Involve setting rules on activity types
I'm not on UA-cam because I'm addicted, I just have no idea what else to do. Literally I have zero hobbies, and trust me I've tried basically everything from drawing to coding to attending furry conventions. Honestly I feel like I'm getting at a point in life where the life of most people my age gets "naturally busy" because they have kids and stuff, but I'm single and jobless so instead I just have this enormous amount of free time I have no idea what to do with.
Can you work? If so, even a part time job is nice! Money to invest or just put into a high yield savings account. Or money for... hobbies! Have you tried: Bowling Golf (mini and regular) Arcades Sports A new instrument Juggling Puzzles Biking Skating (Roller and board) New language Gardening Volunteering Writing poems or music Gym Spa days Sewing I can't think of any more... Try at least 5 of these this month (if you're disabled than do what you can, that's why I asked if you CAN work. If not, no worries!)
get something better to do. learn a new skill/language/instrument. get a hobby. go for a walk. cook a meal. go out with friends. play video games. read a book.
@@redgreen2453 That's more terrible. I recommend replacing that with a hobby, that has something to do with outside. Taking walks, listening to nature, grab a frisbee, or a football to play with it. Also get some books along with it too.
This is actually so helpful. I did disable UA-cam on my phone but that didn’t stop me from watching on my iPad and the computer 😅😅… And yes, I will start tomorrow since it’s already almost midnight. I’m so sick of wasting my time on social media. NO MORE BRAINROT 😤
nice video, I usually use youtube for finding good music and pirating it and after that listening to it and having good time playing games but with your advice i realised i should have stopped giving a sh*t long time ago about almost every youtube video that doesnt suit my needs. ty for ur video, it was funny and entertaining
My guy you must be a wizard, I had this exact conversation with a friend two days ago, he brought up all the points you did including the very same TED talk. Impeccable timing
Ok, this may be true most of the time. But UA-cam saved my life. No joking. I’m AuDHD and went undiagnosed for 36 years. UA-cam recommended me a video about high masking autism in females and I clicked on it. That snowballed into a diagnosis for several things that were plaguing me and ruining my health and allowed me to start my healing journey. Same thing with a video recommended about plant-based diet in my 20s. Completed changed my life and health for the better. I would probably be dead by now if now for those youtube videos.
This video is really good and applicable to what I've been feeling lately. I feel like I've already started hitting step 1 a little bit. As I'm watching stuff when I normally fall into a lull, I've been more active and going "what am I watching? Am I actually learning anything or being entertained? Or am I just throwing away time". But that chrome extension is amazing! especially for disabling shorts!
no bro lets be real, healty gamer is a real og. plus he is a real psychologist with real life changing advices. i learnt a lot about how our mind works, stuff about neuroplasticity and so on.
nah i remember my feed in 2021 it was different, i was actually learning alot about health and the video "how to trick your brain into doing hard things" created a positive spiral of videos.
Bro wtf this is so relatable. Same feed, same apps and extensions (also disabling them), pretty much all the same in this back and forward of productivity. What is working for me is taking a break and actually rest, smoothly transition from distractions to doing nothing so my brain recharges, and bring my to-do list so it acts as a reminder and the only thing I can think of once I am done is completing the task. It's still a work in progress, but hey, at least it's progressing.
My UA-cam addiction initially started when I tried to quit playing video games. I know you gotta fill the void left by the bad habits with good ones, but actually doing so is really hard.
That first step is crucial. That’s how I broke my social media addiction, but not UA-cam because it’s different obviously. Clearly I need this video. 😂
this really feels like one of those videos that didn't need to be made, but got made for the sake of others who didn't already have enough common sense or enough willpower to just stop
4:50 How is reading a more productive use of your time compared to videos? Is it because they are slower so you are more likely to absorb information? But if you don't take notes you don't remember it anyway
@@Desquatch "When you watch shorts, you get hit with dopamine, your "feeling good" line skyrockets" "chase a video or UA-cam short or Instagram reel constantly" I don't chase. I make the algorithm work for me. I spend 10% of time scrolling the feed, 90% going through other videos a user posted if a recommended one is enriching enough for me. " to fill some void or make you happy" I watch to enrich my personality and learn facts I can share in social conversations. "Reading a book makes you slow down, it makes you work for your dopamine" Sounds like just a slow and outdated way to absorb information. "You start to remember things take time, and scrolling endlessly will take the most of your time if you let it." I'm training myself to watch youtube essays at 4x speed. That's equivalent to 3 books an hour. Life is short enough and by the time I read enough books to form a solid personality I'm at retirement age. "your mind is set to do one thing and one thing only" I can still do that. I don't jump from task to task. "exercises your creativity" Trust me my creativity is plenty rich already, I just need the drive to do something with it.
@@marielozoria How?? it's just listening to a podcast but you have to talk to yourself with an inside voice so you can't zone out and immerse yourself by closing your eyes. And podcasts are worse than movies because if you open your eyes you can't see anything. If you're talking about reading books with at least 60% pictures I would agree
Books tend to go deeper on any given topic than any video will ever... Average book has way more quality and quantity than average video. So it depends on topic, if you really wanna learn about something, books are the best bet. Sure, there are some stuff which requires more immediate practical answer, in that case high quality 20-40-80 min vids/podcasts are best bet (like some fitness basics for gym, nutrition basics, or "how to do" type of stuff), depends on what type of info you want and how deep you want to go. Reading is also more productive because it greatly enhances your focus skill. It improves your vocabulary and can even make you better talker. Plus you get so much more info from book, in your head, than from vids. The info you get isn't lost, you may consciously forget, but you never know when you remember it and how it can come handy (plenty of times I can remember)...
@@Desquatch The average rate of talking is around 150-170 wmp (depending on your source) while a typical reading pace is somewhere around 200-300 wpm (again depending on the source). Slow is not how I'd describe reading unless you're still in grade school.
There's some truth to what you've said and I could certainly free a lot of time by stopping watching clips from streams among other things, but I've actually changed habits and things in my life by watching youtube videos even from videos that came from unexpected sources. UA-cam videos seem to be affecting me positively in two ways. First is when I want to get into a hobby like fitness, programming, chess, language learning, drawing, etc I binge watch videos about the hobby and when I do that I notice it makes me more likely and more motivated to engage with it. The second way is that when I want to drill into me a "lesson" or a habit like intermittent fasting or how to stop wasting time on social media like your video, I watch multiple videos on the topic and every time I watch a video explaining it to me I become more likely to follow that behavior. As a result of this, I've gotten a lot of mileage out of videos that "look useful but realistically won't change anything". While watching only 1 video on the topic really won't change anything, every video I watch makes me more likely to change my behavior in ways I want.
Sometimes when I open the homepage I see three videos I need to watch, then I click one, put it in miniplayer and go back to the homepage to put the other two in queue, only to find I genuinely can't figure out what videos on this same homepage I so desperately needed to watch. Clear sign of small dopamine hits taking control of so much of my free time
We all need to learn balance and moderation as we grow up Thanks for taking the time to remind us how precious our time is Let’s hope we make some progress
Nothing like watching a UA-cam video to convince me to stop watching UA-cam videos.
That’s the catch, everyone knows we won’t. But we can fully enjoy the idea of doing so, while making us feel that this is so easy to do, that you can do it…you know…LATER
Living to convince yourself to stop living
@@gahshunkerIM DOING IT NOW
That sweet moment of illusion
@@gahshunker😂😊
bro is so dedicated he called his own video a waste of time
He is very nice parson he really want good for us so he did that for us ❤❤❤
Truly a Chad move
I heavily respect the UA-camrs telling us to quit UA-cam
🗿
Same here.
UA-camrs that encourage adblockers are also very respectable
I love watching youtubers that tell me to quit.
Other content creators HATE, LOATHE us for telling people consistently consuming social media is unhealthy and you'll end up with false hope like us till you're brainwashed you can make it on this platform. Being a failure REALLY made me realize I have a duty to show who I really am and to discourage people from making the same mistake we did. Watching youtuber till you become one HARD NO, do NOT do this
The hardest part is filling the time man. I'm at a point where UA-cam really bores me which is good, but nothing feels as stimulating as it once did which makes it SO hard to build better habits that come with delayed rewards. Everyone says to start small and it sounds great but if you start small there's so much time left to fill. And when I don't distract myself and have too much time to think, I get depressed again.
I'll add that this is just an approach that worked for me but I'm currently in a "stumble" phase, spending less time outside and in community and more time with screens. But I know why I'm doing it and I'm steadily working through that each week by going to therapy, journaling once a day, meditating most days, and keeping in touch to some degree with my community. I don't feel completely lost in the way that I did before all of the things I recommended to you. Just wanted to be genuine that I certainly have not solved my problems, but I have healed a bit.
edit: How annoying, youtube removed my first comment that I spent a long time on. I don't have the energy to do it over right now, but flark you, youtube. I can't imagine why it would get removed except that it was potentially a realistic guide to getting off the platform...
Books. Go to a library, find some books that interest you, there is so much to be learned. You can even bring them home for free to fill the time.
well thats a good first step, isn’t it? if you find that when you have time and breathing room to think you’re depressed, that means that you were always depressed but pushing away any chance of a thought happening with cheap easy dopamine. which im sure you knew, but this isnt the end result; it’s the START. that might seem daunting and exhausting, but it’s hopeful too, isn’t it? you could start with exploring. driving to the library or thrift store or a national park walking to the library or down the street. collecting rocks, or taking pictures, or starting a creative project even if it’s something small. when your mind is running in circles, your body needs something to do to match it. and sometimes it feels like u dont have the energy to even start, but sometimes just taking a walk to the corner store to buy gatorade makes you feel more settled in your body than you’d realize.
A sport like kayaking might be a good way to spend free time
If all else fails, it may also be worth trying just brute forcing your way out of this habit. Like, if you don't have another thing to fill your time with, then just don't do anything for now. Eventually, something will come around, but for the start, it's enough to beat the habit.
I feel like I have the best ideas on how to spend my time when I'm bored.
Thanks for the shorts blocking suggestion. That's something I've wanted without realizing it. I don't really have a problem with regular videos, but with shorts I'll just keep scrolling if I'm not careful.
I put it this way jokingly for dramatic flavor, but I've always said that if I'm not careful shorts will suck the soul right out of me. Infinite, short, mildly entertaining at times, useless and still kinda boring most of the time, and just rage bait the rest of the time. You get nothing out of it but a cheap way to turn your brain off, and in return you get a shorter attention span, emotional congestion, and a subtle dose of dissociation from ramping overexposure to increasingly vapid and unrealistic subject matter.
I really think in a more just world, where product/content supply and distribution was humane and worked with human psychology rather than exploiting it for profit, shorts would not exist. The layers of psychological manipulation at play make you nauseous to become aware of, with how prevalent and admissible it all is seemingly because it causes no physical harm the way say lead paint does. I'm not sure if it gets more condensed, more captivating and mind numbing, more subversively hypnotic than shorts, and no wonder almost every platform has them now. I'll be using the blocking suggestion as well, a resource I believe elevates this video to at least some degree of usefulness.
“Looks useful but realistically won’t change anything” real
It won't change if you're attention span got destroyed by TikTok or UA-cam short
I think the only UA-cam video that actually changed me forever is the TED talk about how we should be looking at people in their left eye.
from this point of view the recipe videos are the most useful, they won't change my personality but I will end up with good food
just like this video
@@ridethelapras why...
easy, actually situation is crazy
penguin0 moment
crazy is situation, actually
🤖
@@11b11b1 done almost situation crazy
Slop
Genuinely my biggest addiction. I literally spend more time watching / listening to UA-cam than not. Wish I was kidding.
You’re not alone. UA-cam has taken over my life. Soon we will find the strength and wisdom to fix this…
True, and when i'm not in youtube i'd seek other ways to brainrot like playing candy crush
Then realize life isn't in youtube but like, outside
There's nothing else to do. It's free, everything else costs money.
@@PistonAvatarGuy I get you, and i think that there is a lot to do, it's just outside the screen.
broo that screen at 1:05 is veryy accurate. like wtf does a 18 yr old teach me about life and how to be charismatic . liki lolo like lol. seriously tho
Just get rich parents. EZ GG
0:18 BRO you already got me on the first 20 seconds🤣🤣🤣🤣
"wow, this is gonna help me so much!" i say as i queue up more youtube videos to watch after this one
Stop it get some help
easiest way to get off youtube: find a different coping mechanism
@@Crazyapple16 B-but "Nickelodeons First Pg-13 Movie was Pretty CONTROVERSIAL" is recommended 🥺
@@len4129 damn that situation is CRAZY
LMAO same
your video about losing weight/getting ripped was recommended to me months ago and I've lost over 25 pounds of fat since. Thanks for that one.
Well congratulations!
I've lost 10 kg since that video. No idea how many punds, tho.
agree :D even though I stopped specifically counting calories about 4 months in, I've been much more aware of what I eat!
@@TehPlaylistSpartan bless you thank you
Well done, my brother!
My guy. Ive been addicted to UA-cam since i was 12 years old. It's been a burden to me ever since, and ive been averaging about 4-8 hours a day. I lost hobbies, people, and events because UA-cam is damn good at stimulating my brain and it's incredibly easy.
I will try your method for the next month. I'll give an update at the end if it worked or not.
Ill comment here in case you have forgotten, because i myself needed a reminder when trying to follow cpg greys basing seasons as themes video
I'm waiting!
why not start today
I’m commenting too. How’s it going?
you are gonna go back to youtube to update lmfao, just log out
How did the algorithm know I needed this
Loved the suggestions of app and extensions btw.
Ngl adblock helps so much with the addiction because if there were unskippable ads every single video i tried to watch i wouldn't be here
Um, I don't think you're using the term "helps" correctly. I think you were looking for something more along the lines of "makes exponentially worse".
It's all about our decisions and what we do. Discipline is about making decisions that are aligned with our intentions. Inspiration may get us started, but it's the habit that keeps us going. Habits stay with us even when we don’t have the inspiration. All of it I grabbed from the book Unveiling Your Hidden Potential
Bot advertising AI generated scam
@@net6406 Yeah, I have seen those comments a lot on other productivity/self-improvement UA-cam channels.
Oh does it now FreakBob?
Make a habit so small and or easy, that it works without motivation!
Sophisticated bot shit
Nice video. What helped me was when i see a video i want to watch, I dont watch it immediately but put it in a "plan to watch" list and wait till the end of the day or at least an hour or several. What happens is when after some time I take a look at that list of videos i realize that i lost the desire to watch most of them quite often. The Initial impulse is gone by them, no FOMO, i just choose the best videos to watch out of that list and ignore the rest.
this will probably be what will happen when i go to actually watch videos in my watch later list
and my “important” playlist which is becoming watch later 2 basically but with videos i felt were important to watch when i can. i watched none of the videos in it and im also putting videos i want to keep in it so
Just don’t fall into the trap of trying to “work through” your watchlist. Instead let it sit there, knowing that you’ll have more than enough interesting stuff to watch when you finally decide to.
problem is, i have over 3000+ videos in my watch later playlist
OMG ive been doing this unconsciously!!
Ahh, that's why they tried to remove the convenient "watch later" button, so you have to watch it immediately.
let’s be honest, we all know “how” to quit watching youtube and there’s more than enough tips and hacks out there on how but i think a lot of us deep down don’t want to…even though we need to. kinda like “i can quit vaping whenever i want” but never does 😅 also i hate reading so youtube is my way of digestible education. so i have a seperate account where i only watch educational content and youtube’s algorithm only suggests that type of content to me. you guys should try it out!
smart
Wait I’m subbed to you
@@Blimpee sameee, i love his sense of humour 🤣
yooo! soul simple!
Dude! I just had this idea today. But you telling me will actually make me do that. (I don't know why I'm such a sucker for confirmation bias.) BTW, I love your videos!
I was curious, why you quit being a financial analyst. It's my dream. So I was wondering if I have some misconceptions about it.
@MinhalYounus-zz1hr > Plays a UA-cam exercise video.
thank you, I needed the shorts blocker desperately! I hate short videos with a passion because how easily they grab my attention when I'm tired and then I waste an hour and feel horrible
2:12. Defining "a waste of time" as "something which won't chang something for me/change me" is pretty insightful for me. This is my main takeaway. Thanks ❤
Dude has got guts to post this on UA-cam
I predict this hitting 500k in a week
I don't think this is ironic at all??
@@user-oi5hc6pv9k Well it's ironic that the video is about getting off UA-cam but you have to be on UA-cam to watch the video
@@user-oi5hc6pv9k True. I'm sure that they just didn't use a comma. It's situation that is ironic, not that they posted it ironically...
and that too with the Upper Case "T" & Upper Case 'Y'
Unhook has been really, really helpful for me. What I've done is completely remove my recommended feed (and most importantly, youtube shorts) and only leave my subscriptions page. Then, I've gone through the long list of subscriptions I've accumulated over the years, and unsubscribed from many channels, particularly some that upload way too often, like many times a day, and some that just aren't very worthwhile content to watch.
Ye, I am also using it.
Only when I want to search for something I use UA-cam
Unfortunately, since the past month or something I am wasting more time on UA-cam again. Maybe bcz I am delaying an important decision
I installed unhook a long time before, but I just keep turning back on home page :( Because subsriptions do not seem fun
i do this as well! i found that i was notified for some channels and made me realise that a lot of them say stuff like "hit the notification bell to never miss a video" well, who even uses the notification feature?, i do now haha. i only go on youtube now to watch a video from my subscriptions (i look at how many notifications so i know how much new stuff there is to watch (helps to manage free time).
The funny thing is that advice videos can theoretically work, it's just that they only work if we let them sink in and actually inform our behaviors, but that's not going to happen if we just let ourselves binge content while trying to make ourselves feel something or avoid remembering something. We can only really benefit from any of these videos if we mindfully consider them - just like we can only avoid getting addicted if we mindfully consider how we actually want to spend our lives. This implies that the more we crave videos of any sort, the less we will actually be capable of benefitting from them. In other words, mindfulness can greatly improve our ability to engage with the content and prevent us from spiraling into addiction.
I'm not sure if anyone has tried this, but maybe requiring ourselves to comment on every single video we watch might encourage us to actually process what we watch and be a bit more mindful of what we just encountered? Maybe it could prevent us from scrolling through a bazillion videos?
That's actually pretty good advice! This is my comment to stop myself from passively engaging with the video :)
I leave my mark.
The issue is what if you start watching long videos? Then you dont have to comment often. My kryptonite is long videos not shorts.
@@Loanshark753Hopefully you at least remember the majority of the videos you watch. Most people are forgetting most videos about as fast as they're seeing them (less than a minute).
Oh wait, but is that implying movies are better than series? Ummm, idk, maybe probably.
This restriction would just encourage lazy one liner comments if users like JustinY are anything to go by. You also have to deal with replies from other commenters who can be intense at times.
Dude, I hate to admit this but I needed someone else to tell me to stop this UA-cam addiction. I began looking at videos with a more realistic eye by myself and that helped, but I still found myself spending probably longer than I should have on this website, and also creating way too many tabs to not forget to "watch later". For me (and this is the case with a lot of things) I am way more likely to do something when someone else reinforces that I should do it. Something I probably had to do already but didn't do properly or didn't do at all for some reason. This video really helped to put into my head what is really going on. You didn't overdramatize this in the slightest. A lot of other videos about self help try to show something in your face or are a little too extreme. Basically, someone else would probably do a video on this same subject with a title like "UA-cam is ruining your free time" and have this thumbnail with those chromatic aberrations and other effects that 3 years ago were synonym of high quality and now (to me) are clickbaity. A video titled "quitting your youtube addiction is easy, actually" and a simpler thumbnail with Comic Sans text is so, so much better. Also, in the video itself you spoke with a normal tone of voice, only brought simple, comprehensive and true stuff with no bullshit. You didn't talk about a book that said this and that about psychology or whatever. Heck, "I remember seeing this TED talk one time, and the guy pulled up a graphic" - to me that's so refreshing, idk why lol
Thanks a lot for this.
Good luck mate 👍
@theparanoidandroid3583 Thank you 👍
We're in this together man. 👍👍
Still amazes me that UA-cam recommends this to me (or anyone actually), who never saw any video from this content creator. Why do the managers over there not block it?
I can only imagine one answer: it doesn’t make a difference, we will keep watching anyway.
2:00 I once got a "self improvement" video recommended with the title "Buying an alarm clock changed my life", it was so stupid and offended my intelligence so much that I turned off my UA-cam recommendations and never enabled it again
Hey, say what you will, drinking water did actually save my life. Buy my book for equally stunning revelations. (just a joke, I don't have a book)
Maybe so you can turn off your phone and slip it into a backpack
😭😭
I watched that one vid. it's about not using your phone as an alarm clock since you might use your phone right after you wake up .
@@ajlei Sure, while you are at it, buy a newspaper. Using a browser could have you end up on youtube.
The device's capabilities are not the issue, the user's self-control is, and removing the device instead of teaching restraint is the wrong move.
Something that also helps is to have a separate account for the "learning" you do, like programming/CS or/and language learning etc. So you keep your main account for entertainment
i did exactly that and like a month later i was just watching my usual stuff on that account and it got spoiled :/
also i filled with tons of "useful" content that, if im being honest, i dont really wanna watch. so i started to just avoid that account completely
so yea, if it works for you - im jealous lol
I think it will be good to make a blend of both content in the original account.
@@nerdError0XFI did that too and got the same problem, in the long run both accounts were kind of the same. These days my account has both contents I like, educational and entertainment. It’s more about restraining myself when I want to learn something to not click on the entertainment videos. It’s not always easy but it works. Whenever I want to relax it’s just boring to keep switching accounts
@@nerdError0XF I think it's better to make a list of what you want to watch that seems useful and then watch it in order and learn. For example, I watch a playlist about graph neural networks right now, so I just go and continue watching it. So you should make a plan of what you what to learn in which order and then search up videos about it without relying on recommendation system
i do this with this account (self improvement, college/subject videos and motivation to go study) and my main account (regular entertainment), it also helps me relax from college e.g if i'm watching a video on my main, i don't see videos about trigonometry on the side video recommendations lol.
i don't see how you would "spoil" the account with entertainment stuff, as you can easily just not click on it or write it down/bookmark it for later? you just need more restraint not to click on things or to have patience to watch them later?
Thank you so much! I've been hopelessly addicted to UA-cam for the past year and tried a lot of ways to get rid of it but I always find myself coming back because of one silly video, it's incredible just how much time I spend on this. When I quit UA-cam I'll make sure to still watch your videos.
May God help u so u overcome ur addiction
@@ahmadalam776 I hope we all will do it one day...
I think replacing the habit is the hardest part. I find myself coming back to youtube because I want something to do passively when I'm tired. But that then leads to be opening youtube even when I could be doing other stuff because the habit is already built.
Adding this to my watch later list and maybe I’ll get to it in like a year
4:52 bold of you to assume I'm not gonna just stand there contemplating my existence and anxiety with all that new free time instead : )
I’m just going to T pose
Yea this for me too
Not a bad use of your time
Not a bad use of your time of you come out of it with a goal, a plan and better knowledge about yourself.
@@VociferousCringelord yeeeeah no, I used contemplate not "reflect upon" on purpose ^^'
I have always wanted an option to reduce distractions from using instagram and youtube, using them is inevitable. But adding more focus and control like untrapped, is such a gamechanger! THANK YOU SO MUCH.
I use UA-cam to learn and practice languages by listening and watching along with subtitles if I need to do so, so I wouldn't say it's unproductive to me. Especially due to the fact that I don't consume content in my native language anymore. So it's a way for me to both entertain myself and learn languages at the same time. Same with reading, I don't like reading in my native language, but, if I'm reading in English or French, for instance, I'll feel way more productive.
Even so, not everything has to be productive. We, as human beings, need rest to keep up our pace and avoid burnout.
Thats good! The guy in the video is not telling everyone to do it
Its for the people who just mindlessly wasts their time on youtube watching shorts or videos all day
I appreciate you that your doing something productive
I gota admit this was genuinely worth my screen time of the video .😊
What sucks is that buried in the recommendation rabbit holes there are (a few) videos with genuinely helpful info. Like this one. I am in fact installing these addons and taking your advice. Thanks.
1:33 that was so hilarious without even a word spoken!!
another easy actually video in 10 days?!?! life’s good 🙃
This was the best and last suggested video I'm going to watch for a while. Thanks for the add on. You saved my life.
I needed this. Have been struggling mainly with YT shorts and so glad to find an app to disable them. I enjoy watching a video of my favorite creators while eating my cereal. What I don't enjoy is my lying in bed for an hour, brainlessly scrolling through shorts.
I actually needed this video. I've got rid of reddit and instagram a long time ago but never youtube. I hope it's the next.
as some others have mentioned in the CS here: engaging with the 'content' you consume through comments, cleansing your timeline/suggestions by just clicking not interested, creating a separate account for educational stuff does help. In my experience though, i ended up barely using it. In the end, we can waste time by doing what we truly enjoy- something that leaves us thinking and prompting us with action even after its experience. It's all about being mindful fr
Ahhhh! A lot of what this guy was saying about videos not being good doesn’t seem to apply to my feed, so this makes a lot of sense! I customize my feed carefully
Hey guy, just to let you know, you are doing great. Here are some video ideas:-
Getting a good sleep is easy, actually
Being confident is easy, actually
Looking good is easy, actually
He's a stick figure how is he gonna do at least 1 of those
@@mariustan9275 If a stick figure can give advice on being a millionaire, I def think it was can give advice on mundane things
@@mariustan9275 Stick figures also need sleep, have some confidence and be attractive, wouldn't watch a ugly stick figure.
Looking good is easy actually: pick the right parents
I need that sleep video, actually.
1:07 Man Carry binge watch session
I really didn't expect him there lol
At least most of his videos are extremely short so even a binge session wouldn’t be that long compared to just about anyone else.
Ironically some of the best advice abt quitting UA-cam from UA-cam man. I think there’s lots f useful, good, creative or genuinely educational content on UA-cam, but the best is always the longer stuff, 30-60 mins, and most of the time when I’m just constantly caught watching its shorts and slop.
„Make it insulting“ is insane advice.
You could not have posted this at a better time in my life, everything you discussed I’ve experienced first hand, thank you for this. By the way I really respect the self reflection in stating how your own videos are a waste of time. This isn’t me saying I don’t like them, it’s the exact opposite, but I definitely did find myself watching them just for the sake of feelings like I’m improving when I really know I’m not. Again, thank you for this, keep up the amazing work!
1st. a good informational youtube video isnt a waste of time just because it is, it will be a waste of time because you are not really note taking, so the issue is not on youtube itself, but on your discipline
2nd. this untrapped app is good. There are so many researches done to make youtube more addicting, and those researches made this whole layout of the website. So yes, turning off the comment section, limiting suggestion page, limiting interaction with the app, is going to be helpful getting off youtube
3rd. Replacing the habit with a habit, this is the correct answer, and the first thing people need to do if they want to quit youtube. Find something you will equally enjoy, or atleast have the discipline to do everyday, then just do that instead of youtube.
I totally agree your ideas. Most people just try to quit social media without adding new habits to their daily routines. Consequently, they fail.
Definitely agree with point 1. UA-cam has lead to many positive changes in my life that would have never happened had I cut it out 10-12 years ago. You just have to be disciplined and make it not a waste of time.
Man you're really awesome. I've never heard about that extension and it is exactly what I was looking for. I gave up on social media 2 months ago (except YT, of course) and yeah, my free time is now spent on YT. Btw regarding the educational videos, whenever I watch a video I try to sum it up in my mind or to take notes of what I've learned from it. It really helps and it makes you more aware of what you are actually learning from those videos.
Awesome! I am now the same person as I was before this video and will disregard the advice while believing that since I know how to quit UA-cam in theory, I can do so whenever I want, meaning I don't actually have to.
fuck, me too lol
30 minutes of cardio, 7 hours 30 minutes of youtube. if that isn't balanced, I don't know what is
what if you watched youtube and did cardio at the same time
@@Pumpkinbyte Ehh I prefer music.
I downloaded the app, donated, and then couldn’t find how to restrict shorts. 👊🏼👊🏼
Apparently not actually on iPhone? :(
@@easyactuallyI’m on iPhone and I can’t restrict shorts as well
@iamcarlosamaya Perhaps "Revanced" can help?
This video looks useful but realistically won’t change anything
Because you dont want to change.Accept it !
That's all on you, not the creator
That’s a u problems
thats ironically true for most of us, I already got +50 tabs of yt content to watch and its very likely that Im going to watch it all
f*k I just want this addiction to end, Im going outside and touching grass to counter my addiction fr fr
I've almost completely quit watching UA-cam on the app. I've gone from 6 hours and 3 hours as my highest and lowest in a week, to 2 hours and 20 minutes being my highest and lowest in a week. I still use it a lot on my laptop, but when I'm away from home, I don't watch UA-cam at all. This change took me around a month for it to really stick, but it's definitely working. I'm reading a lot more irl, but I haven't gotten around to actually reading on my phone instead. I still use the internet on my phone a lot instead of the UA-cam app. So getting offline and into a digital book will be my next step now that staying off the UA-cam app is a success.
May I know what do u use for tracking ur time on UA-cam on the browser
As "an old" who still (just) had a dumb phone longer than a smartphone, I sometimes consider going back to one (which, to me, is the only way to _fully_ reclaim your own time, attention and concentration). The newfangled ones are just so handy though.
@@anonymes2884as a newgen it's not really the phones.
People have a way weaker mentality nowadays with people doomscrolling for pretty much days, around ten or twelve hours.
I personally don't rlly use UA-cam, mostly for tutorials, and I really like this channel but to be fair I think it's a more psycological fact.
I think you saved my life… thank you.
Honestly beat advice I've ever received! Implemented both the browser extension & the app right away.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with watching content for entertainment, or things that aren’t necessarily “productive”. The human mind needs breaks every now and then, and watching a few videos is harmless. Just don’t go over the limit 👍
That’s such an easy line to cross though…it’s like telling an alcoholic that he can have a few drinks every now and then, just don’t go over the limit. If you want entertaining content, watch a show, movie, or read a damn book.
(I know I’m a hypocrite, but I genuinely am addicted to UA-cam and I _know_ this won’t help)
The only objection I have to UA-cam being not educational, is on the tech side. You just naturally gain super useful knowledge and It's usually pretty entertaining if you like tech stuff.
That is the only scenario I can think of where it's the best of both worlds with you actually retaining the valuable knowledge if you find it interesting.
Edit: I forgot to mention this, but with consistent watching, you can get to the knowledge level of the CompTIA ITF+ certification in a couple months without all of the boring official lectures and exam. Just casually watching nerds mess with PC's, phones, and servers.
Dearrow is a great extension too. It removes clickbait from titles and thumbnails, with most videos having titles created by others that tells you exactly what the video is about
TYSM!!!! I didn't know things that just blocked shorts existed this is what I need.
damn this video looks pretty useful, cant wait for it to change nothing about my life as i continue to spend an appropriate amount of time on youtube as im not addicted to this hell site🔥
also here's MY own process for cutting down youtube watch time:
STEP 1: CREATE A QUEUE!! Actually this feature has been a massive timesaver for me, as essentially what I do when I get home from school or whatever is scroll through my suggestions, subscriptions, and etc. and queue up videos I wanna watch, or are interested in. If the video is over an hour long, I open it in a new tab and watch it on the weekend or put it in my Watch Later. Or I watch it after the queue is finished if I have the time to burn. This means instead of spending all your time aimlessly scrolling, you find what you want, you watch it, you're done. It depends on how much appeals to you though, for me it's usually around 10-20 videos, and about half of those are under 10 minutes long, many even under a minute.
STEP 2: IF IT DOESNT GRIP ME, SKIP IT!! Next is simple: with your queue, start enjoying. But if the video doesn't grab your attention fully in the first 10-20 seconds, feel free to skip it and move on. I have ADHD in both the inattentive and hyperactive forms so if the video doesn't vibe with me instantly, I skip it, even if it's a creator I love. This means that of the 10-20~ videos I queue up, probably at least 1 will get skipped half way through.
STEP 3: ONLY COMMENT WHEN YOU GOT SOMETHING INTERESTING TO SAY!! I am a bonafide yapper on UA-cam, and have written down full fucking essays in UA-cam comments, and I would do it again. But that's because I got something specific I wanna say. If you're just gonna comment "this was so funny" or something generic, don't bother and move along, save the time. It's better to comment with a clever joke, interesting perspective, or helpful tip or whatever when you have it, and then not comment if you don't got anything you REALLY wanna say.
STEP 4: LEARN YOUR FAVES ARE TERRIBLE!! I've had to unsubscribe from like, 10 channels this year cuz turns out the person behind the camera is actually a MASSIVE asshole. Great way to cut down on YT time!!!
Ironically, this is the most useful video I watched in a while.
I like this channel so much. Pls make a video on how to study for long hours effectively.
develop a system that helps you study.
chronological barriers:
Involve time limits on activities
Geographical barriers:
Involve physical restrictions
Categorical:
Involve setting rules on activity types
You shouldn't.
Take regular breaks.
I'm not on UA-cam because I'm addicted, I just have no idea what else to do. Literally I have zero hobbies, and trust me I've tried basically everything from drawing to coding to attending furry conventions. Honestly I feel like I'm getting at a point in life where the life of most people my age gets "naturally busy" because they have kids and stuff, but I'm single and jobless so instead I just have this enormous amount of free time I have no idea what to do with.
Can you work?
If so, even a part time job is nice! Money to invest or just put into a high yield savings account. Or money for... hobbies!
Have you tried:
Bowling
Golf (mini and regular)
Arcades
Sports
A new instrument
Juggling
Puzzles
Biking
Skating (Roller and board)
New language
Gardening
Volunteering
Writing poems or music
Gym
Spa days
Sewing
I can't think of any more...
Try at least 5 of these this month (if you're disabled than do what you can, that's why I asked if you CAN work. If not, no worries!)
Man I've been looking for effective ways to block shorts for ages. tysm
Your videos ACTUALLY give tangible solutions- better than 99% of the content on here. Thank you!!
3:55 We see that site bro 💀💀
Lmao your eyes are quick
It's not a website, it's option in app to block adult sites
It’s not an addiction, I just _actually_ have nothing better to do
get something better to do. learn a new skill/language/instrument. get a hobby. go for a walk. cook a meal. go out with friends. play video games. read a book.
@ does porn count?
@@redgreen2453 That is literally the worst thing you can do for your brain. Aside from like actual drugs.
@@redgreen2453Lol no that’s terrible. It’ll make your life a lot worse really
@@redgreen2453 That's more terrible. I recommend replacing that with a hobby, that has something to do with outside. Taking walks, listening to nature, grab a frisbee, or a football to play with it. Also get some books along with it too.
This is actually so helpful. I did disable UA-cam on my phone but that didn’t stop me from watching on my iPad and the computer 😅😅… And yes, I will start tomorrow since it’s already almost midnight. I’m so sick of wasting my time on social media. NO MORE BRAINROT 😤
nice video, I usually use youtube for finding good music and pirating it and after that listening to it and having good time playing games but with your advice i realised i should have stopped giving a sh*t long time ago about almost every youtube video that doesnt suit my needs. ty for ur video, it was funny and entertaining
My guy you must be a wizard, I had this exact conversation with a friend two days ago, he brought up all the points you did including the very same TED talk. Impeccable timing
are you sure that you're friend is not Easy, Actually himself??
@dreninfashion I asked him the exact same thing... He dodged the question, curious innit...
@@GabrielDoesAThing funny that isn't it?
everything is always interconnected somehow i don't really know why it also happens to me
Mad respect for using your own content as exemples of time wasters
I can safely say that 0.1% of videos are worth watching and then 99.9% of the others are slop
I agree except when one is learning a language podcasts are invaluable for input.
Ok, this may be true most of the time. But UA-cam saved my life. No joking. I’m AuDHD and went undiagnosed for 36 years. UA-cam recommended me a video about high masking autism in females and I clicked on it. That snowballed into a diagnosis for several things that were plaguing me and ruining my health and allowed me to start my healing journey. Same thing with a video recommended about plant-based diet in my 20s. Completed changed my life and health for the better. I would probably be dead by now if now for those youtube videos.
2:59 nice one lol ( my evil side: click on report abuse. its clearly a abuse| but i, ok stop it, then move on.)
bout pooed myself when I saw my thumbnail at 3:17 lol. Big fan brother (although I'll wont see another one of your videos again thanks to this one 😣)
Thanks a lot 🙏 and I appreciate your emails by the way signed up a while ago and I get one every day 😄
3:27 Gothamchess. The Rooook!!!!!!!!
> Watch later playlist
> Look inside
> It's full
Without watching, I would say that algorithm recommending this video on top of my feed, doesn't think it will leed me to watching less UA-cam.
who else came here for the comment section
E
0:43 Historia Civilis mentioned, subscriber gained, very happy, time to binge Roman history.
Instantly noticed that and was like "Now theres someone I can happily spend my day watching"
The description tho💀💀💀
Yup, UA-cam videos about drama, MrBeat type content, big streamer doing something, etc. get ignored by me.
This video is really good and applicable to what I've been feeling lately. I feel like I've already started hitting step 1 a little bit. As I'm watching stuff when I normally fall into a lull, I've been more active and going "what am I watching? Am I actually learning anything or being entertained? Or am I just throwing away time". But that chrome extension is amazing! especially for disabling shorts!
no bro lets be real, healty gamer is a real og. plus he is a real psychologist with real life changing advices. i learnt a lot about how our mind works, stuff about neuroplasticity and so on.
3:36 gothamchess
Fax
With Magnus clickbait lol
@@mrmatiti3405😂
I would rather watch productive videos on UA-cam rather than actively decrease my IQ on TikTok
the same thing
that's what I'm sayin
Watching hour long essays don't increase your IQ twink
They are no different than tiktok afterall.
Well you also can read/listen to a book?
nah i remember my feed in 2021 it was different, i was actually learning alot about health and the video "how to trick your brain into doing hard things" created a positive spiral of videos.
My jaw never drops this hard for telling me to stop youtube. Because those are just dopamine boosts.
Bro wtf this is so relatable. Same feed, same apps and extensions (also disabling them), pretty much all the same in this back and forward of productivity. What is working for me is taking a break and actually rest, smoothly transition from distractions to doing nothing so my brain recharges, and bring my to-do list so it acts as a reminder and the only thing I can think of once I am done is completing the task. It's still a work in progress, but hey, at least it's progressing.
4:28 wait how? I don’t see that
Same wtf
@@woutereuvermantried to search I can’t see it😭
I think that option is not available on iPhone (I don’t have it either)
android only i’m pretty sure
Where is it
372,000 people disagree.
My UA-cam addiction initially started when I tried to quit playing video games. I know you gotta fill the void left by the bad habits with good ones, but actually doing so is really hard.
That first step is crucial. That’s how I broke my social media addiction, but not UA-cam because it’s different obviously. Clearly I need this video. 😂
You somehow know my exact problems wtf
this really feels like one of those videos that didn't need to be made, but got made for the sake of others who didn't already have enough common sense or enough willpower to just stop
4:50 How is reading a more productive use of your time compared to videos? Is it because they are slower so you are more likely to absorb information? But if you don't take notes you don't remember it anyway
@@Desquatch "When you watch shorts, you get hit with dopamine, your "feeling good" line skyrockets"
"chase a video or UA-cam short or Instagram reel constantly"
I don't chase. I make the algorithm work for me. I spend 10% of time scrolling the feed, 90% going through other videos a user posted if a recommended one is enriching enough for me.
" to fill some void or make you happy"
I watch to enrich my personality and learn facts I can share in social conversations.
"Reading a book makes you slow down, it makes you work for your dopamine"
Sounds like just a slow and outdated way to absorb information.
"You start to remember things take time, and scrolling endlessly will take the most of your time if you let it."
I'm training myself to watch youtube essays at 4x speed. That's equivalent to 3 books an hour. Life is short enough and by the time I read enough books to form a solid personality I'm at retirement age.
"your mind is set to do one thing and one thing only"
I can still do that. I don't jump from task to task.
"exercises your creativity"
Trust me my creativity is plenty rich already, I just need the drive to do something with it.
Reading is good for your brain dude tf
@@marielozoria How?? it's just listening to a podcast but you have to talk to yourself with an inside voice so you can't zone out and immerse yourself by closing your eyes.
And podcasts are worse than movies because if you open your eyes you can't see anything.
If you're talking about reading books with at least 60% pictures I would agree
Books tend to go deeper on any given topic than any video will ever... Average book has way more quality and quantity than average video. So it depends on topic, if you really wanna learn about something, books are the best bet. Sure, there are some stuff which requires more immediate practical answer, in that case high quality 20-40-80 min vids/podcasts are best bet (like some fitness basics for gym, nutrition basics, or "how to do" type of stuff), depends on what type of info you want and how deep you want to go.
Reading is also more productive because it greatly enhances your focus skill. It improves your vocabulary and can even make you better talker. Plus you get so much more info from book, in your head, than from vids. The info you get isn't lost, you may consciously forget, but you never know when you remember it and how it can come handy (plenty of times I can remember)...
@@Desquatch The average rate of talking is around 150-170 wmp (depending on your source) while a typical reading pace is somewhere around 200-300 wpm (again depending on the source). Slow is not how I'd describe reading unless you're still in grade school.
There's some truth to what you've said and I could certainly free a lot of time by stopping watching clips from streams among other things, but I've actually changed habits and things in my life by watching youtube videos even from videos that came from unexpected sources.
UA-cam videos seem to be affecting me positively in two ways. First is when I want to get into a hobby like fitness, programming, chess, language learning, drawing, etc I binge watch videos about the hobby and when I do that I notice it makes me more likely and more motivated to engage with it. The second way is that when I want to drill into me a "lesson" or a habit like intermittent fasting or how to stop wasting time on social media like your video, I watch multiple videos on the topic and every time I watch a video explaining it to me I become more likely to follow that behavior.
As a result of this, I've gotten a lot of mileage out of videos that "look useful but realistically won't change anything". While watching only 1 video on the topic really won't change anything, every video I watch makes me more likely to change my behavior in ways I want.
Sometimes when I open the homepage I see three videos I need to watch, then I click one, put it in miniplayer and go back to the homepage to put the other two in queue, only to find I genuinely can't figure out what videos on this same homepage I so desperately needed to watch. Clear sign of small dopamine hits taking control of so much of my free time
We all need to learn balance and moderation as we grow up
Thanks for taking the time to remind us how precious our time is
Let’s hope we make some progress