Anyone Want to Give Up YouTube for 40 Days?

Jedilicious · 2023-04-10T05:38:07.033Z

Well, I sort of made it. I decided to not watch videos on gear I did not own instead of avoiding YT all together.

That worked, with the exception that I wanted to buy a turntable as I just got about 200 records from my parents in law who were cleaning up their attic.

So, definitely not there yet, but progress nonetheless

PofM · 2023-04-10T06:54:08.657Z

I tried for a couple of weeks and then failed miserably

I am ashamed

Claid · 2023-04-10T07:18:29.533Z

I also need to get cut from the list. I’m ashamed and I’m sorry.

However, I have changed my habits up for the better. While I still reach for my phone to fill gaps such as washing up, I don’t actually watch YouTube videos while performing mundane tasks. I’ve discovered the BandCamp Fan app, which allows you to stream your purchases. I’ve been listening to music instead of YouTube, which I find much less stressful.

Before this thread I’d have a video playing while in the shower for example, and I’d have to check it to see how long it had left to go, then idd be stressing about what to watch next, flicking through other videos… All this drama at 7am can’t be good for the mind. It’s much better to unplug and unpick my dreams at that part of the day ather than fill my head with guff.

jdaddyaz · 2023-04-10T07:30:59.809Z

Reading your guys admittance of failing reminds me of that Seinfield episode where they try to not whack off.
Come to think of it, that episode was a little fucked up. Eh, maybe I’m remembering it wrong.

alechko · 2023-04-10T08:41:44.188Z

biokode · 2023-04-10T09:26:39.972Z

What does NGNY mean?

LyingDalai · 2023-04-10T09:27:05.690Z

No Gear New Year.
A challenge for addicts.

biokode · 2023-04-10T09:28:01.445Z

Oh, failed already - haha

yokermoon · 2023-04-10T10:28:43.647Z

I didn’t completely cut it out in the end (blaming sickness and sick days for the need for mindless pseudo-entertainment) but think I have this challenge to thank for slightly more conscious consumption.

reeloy · 2023-04-10T10:43:03.822Z

…as mentioned, i did the opposite and started premium this winter…never wasted soo much time ever before…damn.

Strutter · 2023-09-12T10:16:40.923Z

I’ve found myself very distracted from making art lately.

The first thing I’ve done when I wake up is to go to YT and I’ve created a habit of listening to podcasts when going to sleep.

Most of the content I’ve consumed has been okay I guess but a lot of it isn’t.

Lately it has been internet drama as well.
Very ashamed to admit this.
Ppl I don’t know arguing about stuff I don’t even care about. …wtf…

I will be without YT for the rest of this year.
No tutorials, no podcasts and no politics.

The tutorials bore me and don’t feed my creativity anyways. Useless.

joeykaram · 2023-09-12T10:32:09.316Z

Strutter:

I will be without YT for the rest of this year.
No tutorials, no podcasts and no politics.

Heck yeah!

waftlord · 2023-09-12T10:44:36.988Z

good luck and agree with you, 90% is mindless creativity sapping waft.
and the trend for attention grabbing thumbnails and titles makes it such a trite and boring place, and only seems to be exacerbating the polarisation of society (dependent on what side of the algorithm it decides you fall on to generate clicks) like all antisocial media.

top tip to keep youtube music videos in your life (probably it’s only useful non invasive aspect), install whosampled on your phone. then search music you love and open up a spiders web of sample sources and influencing videos all ad free, unlinked to a profile AND you can play them with your phone screen locked (this is a big thing for iOS users).

Strutter · 2023-09-12T10:50:06.824Z

Yes it is mindless.
Life is too short for shit like that.

I have thought about still using it for music but then again I’ve got lots of stuff on vinyl I haven’t listened to enough and also I want to make more music on my own, and would prefer to isolate myself in that sense more.

Thanks for the tip still!

bibenu · 2023-09-12T10:51:49.566Z

waftlord:

only seems to be exacerbating the polarisation of society

Definitely a lot of that going on … I’m seeing more and more political/social content fed my way with the apparent intent to just wind me up and get a reaction.

monquixote · 2023-09-12T10:54:21.782Z

I get pretty much zero.

The algo just does what it thinks you want. The two things to do are:

Never click on those videos
Select the little option whenever you see one and either block the creator, or say you want “Less videos like this”

Final tip would be subscribe to people who’s content you love (Bad Gear and Benn Jordan in my case) and you get more focussed, better content.

waftlord · 2023-09-12T11:02:37.381Z

top tips here and i’m happy to assume most people here are aware of it, combating it and not blindly falling into it.

however i am perversely interested in the messaging and how it’s rolled out, it affects a large proportion of digital society and we’ve slept walked into kids being programmed by this (mostly) shit.

it’s really hard for someone to have their own, unique point of view these days. for one they’ve been relentlessly hammered with one point of view, and then hammered that any other point of view is hateful/dangerous. and aren’t having any tangible life experiences away from a screen.
nuance and empathy have been destroyed.

i’m sure this has been echoed in this thread loads already.

Stone262 · 2023-09-12T12:51:53.189Z

I was going to give up Youtube (I wasn’t) but then it showed me videos from the 70s and 80s of steeplejacks setting up ladders to climb chimney stacks that are hundreds of feet high so they can repair them or dismantle them brick by brick. I didn’t know I wanted to see that, but I did. I would never have thought to go looking for it.

Strutter · 2023-09-12T13:06:08.766Z

Fred Dibnah. Been there too.

waftlord · 2023-09-12T13:23:36.576Z

as a repository of classic pre internet television is another youtube +

my dad made me watch this in 1987 (made in 1977!), 36 years later i think i get it, and it hits harder now in tiktok times than ever.
an incredible allegory for the boring cycle of (mostly british in this case) life and pointless celebrity.
amazing stuff if you have the attention span to get to the end.