Opening YouTube after 3 or more months. Felt very different this time

Hi. I'm amazed you reached that.
I've felt the same after some time abstaining too. I do use youtube much today but I have noticed how little I care (although I sopped following A LOT of channels once I realized that they were just cheap crap and stuff that didn't have the slightest to do with me or my life. Yeah, there's certainly a vampiristic thing going on). It's just some backround noise.
Same with music and etc.
Sometimes you might actually want to do that stuff but %95 of the time you actually won't. It's great you noticed : ).

Also how did you blocked those sites?.

 

Could you pkease tell me how to set up a day counter ?

 

Usually it takes a while for the brain to enjoy again youtube or other audio-visual, social media after a long dopamine detox but if you watch some more hours of it, it will be pleasant again, you can be on a diet for 20 years and never eat candy or saturated fats and the first time you eat junk food you'll feel disgust but after a while you'll start to enjoy it again.

The thing is your awareness and brain are not so easily reactive to external stimuli thanks to your dopamine detox.

But porn, junk food, yt they'll always be pleasant no matter what. So the point is not about not feeling pleasure with those things even do it can happen but rather to have such strong mind you simply decide not to engage in those activities.

I certainly can enjoy Ig or yt but I prefer to use my time doing other things.

Try not to use blockers if you feel strong enough that will be the next step.

 

I tend to take myself off social media for an entire week every month but I think it's ok to use it in moderation. I've gotta admit it's hard to come back to Facebook after a week off it. Everyone is so opinionated on there and I feel like asking them if they just not have an opinion for once in their life. YouTube has never been much of an issue for me because I mainly just watch news and sport on it. I tend to watch it on my Fire TV instead of my phone or PC and I've never binged watched anything. Facebook is the social network I have a real problem with. If I'm not careful I could spend hours and hours on it.

 

YouTube was one of the first sites i looked up softcore stuff. And yes it is easy to access stuff there. I also have other triggers when i go onto it. So until recently i could only access it on the TV. This meant that i was actively choosing to go on to it. I also try limit it for useful and informative things. Map Men, Tim Traveller, Tom Scott, TED talks, various preachers.

Like any social media the more we watch a certain thing the more of that thing it shows.
This makes it really difficult to make it good and work for you while not triggering you.

I hear what you're saying about flatline. It sounds like you've just got different interests now.

 

I used to have a lot of difficulties with youtube until I started using the Chrome extension, "Unhook - Remove Youtube Recommended Videos." You remove the home page, the side bar suggestions, comments, notifications, and a bunch of other specific stuff. Since I started using it I haven't fallen into any youtube rabbit holes whatsoever. I highly recommend it.

 

to be honest, I can't live without YouTube (every day I can't sit down to eat without some funny video or I can't fall asleep without watching a movie or TV series .. is it treatable?

 

this hit me hard.I have blocked yt for 2 months , but still access it sometimes.I watch reaction type videos because I feel like I am with someone else.But actually it's a money game, right.I have wasted plenty of months seeing this reaction videos, so that I can know others opinion.I think this is diluting my own opinion.

 

I used to be the exact same way. I remember when I first blocked all the streaming sites. I was literally shaking from the need to watch something, and even had restless leg syndrome. I couldn't focus to read, I couldn't do any work, my mind was just racing for the need to watch something. Now, I use that extension that I mentioned in my previous post in this thread, and I do not get lost in any rabbit holes. I also have streaming websites blocked so if I wanted to I could just go to one and start watching any tv show I wanted. I choose not to because I just have better things to do.

The biggest issue is the recommended videos section, whether it's youtube, netflix, amazon prime, instagram, tiktok, you name it. They give you next video to watch, the next tiktok to watch, the next whatever, keeping you stimulated and interested via novelty. If you can put something in between you and that novelty you are much better able to control your attention.

That's the thing about all of these websites. I think there certainly is an element of addiction to them, but I think that technology has transcended addiction in the same way that addiction transcends motivation in terms of power. They are so easy to find endless novelty that you just can't even help yourself. Your attention is grabbed so powerfully that the thought, "maybe I should stop," doesn't even enter your mind. You just keep browsing mindlessly, keep watching worthless video after worthless video, pumping the opinions of others into your brain so they influence your opinion without you realizing how, all for the sake of novelty, novelty, more novelty.

As horrible as that sounds, fortunately, this means that they can sometimes be easier to beat than addiction. Like I said, if you are able to put something in between you and the novelty, you will be far better able to say no. My advice is to set up a blocker on all these websites for a month, and then create a hobby that you are genuinely pulled toward doing. When you take the blocker off, you can set up mini-blockers that aren't as difficult to get around, but just remove the recommended videos section. At that point you'll likely have beaten any addiction that developed, gotten through withdrawal symptoms, you'll have something better to do, and you will have mini-blockers that prevent you from getting lost in the hyper-easy novelty.

I still use youtube today, but I only ever watch videos that are educational or actually benefit me in some way. If you follow your own version of the above process, you can get to that point too!