Anyone Want to Give Up YouTube for 40 Days?

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.

thermionic · 2023-09-12T15:52:24.277Z

I just want my partner to not blare Tiktok for hours, is that so hard…

RhythmDroid · 2023-09-12T16:11:07.270Z

waftlord:

nuance and empathy have been destroyed.

A Japanese philosopher friend of mine, who is over 50 now and has seen the whole thing unfold as an adult, says that “digital/binary technology leads to binary thinking.” I mean, yes, there are intermediary steps along the way, especially those driven by commerce, but it was an interesting overarching claim.

Yes, nuance and empathy have been destroyed, because the medium doesn’t allow for the conveyance of subtle emotional cues of the listener back to the speaker in real time. I’d say 80% of what is said on these new video platforms would never land in a face-to-face conversation because the speaker, upon beginning their string of claims would get raised eyebrows or a questioning look, or even that subtle facial expression of “I’m not following” coming from the listener.

waftlord · 2023-09-12T16:38:19.044Z

things is those 0’s are crazy! and all end up eventually as 1’s anyway.

no disrespect to those identifying as a Qubit

thermionic · 2023-09-12T19:02:08.999Z

RhythmDroid:

A Japanese philosopher friend of mine, who is over 50 now and has seen the whole thing unfold as an adult, says that “digital/binary technology leads to binary thinking.” I mean, yes, there are intermediary steps along the way, especially those driven by commerce, but it was an interesting overarching claim.

Yes, nuance and empathy have been destroyed, because the medium doesn’t allow for the conveyance of subtle emotional cues of the listener back to the speaker in real time. I’d say 80% of what is said on these new video platforms would never land in a face-to-face conversation because the speaker, upon beginning their string of claims would get raised eyebrows or a questioning look, or even that subtle facial expression of “I’m not following” coming from the listener.

Beyond telecommunications, the mix of algorithmic feedback and reality tunneling has been pretty horrible.

It’s great to find things I want, but I’m sure many of us have known people that were sent down a darker path in some form.

Noisebuddy · 2023-09-13T01:18:59.449Z

waftlord:

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.

It is just a matter of time till it will be stopped to some degrees

Authorities are already after google because it is too big for various reasons

Think about China, they regulated kid’s time to play online games because it went a way to fare and had an impact on their well-being

RhythmDroid · 2023-09-13T19:10:31.742Z

thermionic:

Beyond telecommunications, the mix of algorithmic feedback and reality tunneling has been pretty horrible.

It’s great to find things I want, but I’m sure many of us have known people that were sent down a darker path in some form.

Reality tunneling is a great term. The thing is, I think the entire “advertising model” of the free internet creates reality tunnels for everyone, it only varies by degree.