Addicted to YouTube?

I have after much deliberation decided to block YouTube and all websites related to mindless time-wasting (not that YouTube is necessarily a waste, but you catch my drift). I am hopelessly stuck in front of a screen, unable to get myself to do what I actually want to do and feel better by doing. Like going to the gym or writing for my blog, or whatever is equivalent in your life.

I use an extension foor Chrome called StayFocusd if anyone's wondering.
This is how it looks, you can easily block entire domains that are too distracting with one click. And most importantly it has tricky typing challenges which you can enable that makes it quite the drag to unblock websites again, which is good for the greedy internet user with poor impulse-control.

I have also blocked streaming websites for TV-Shows, twitch.tv and reddit. Which all have a similar attraction for me. Anyone else struggling with this kind of situation?

 

Yes I agree with you. I do have an addictive personality that I am convinced is always going to be with me, however it manifests in the future. But I have realized in my years of addiction that distance helps. If I can manage to stay off YouTube through blocking it for say three months, the pattern of release that I get from the repeating process will have been broken, and I will have a greater perspective on the issue. That at least, has worked for me in the past, be it issues with drugs or gaming. But I see your point and it's certainly food for thought. I don't want to be "chasing" my anxiety, denying me aspects of modern life to remain safe from hedonism, or whatever.

I think we might be in a similar stage of recovery, or whatever it is that we are doing. I'm glad you are managing to find perspective. I have also dealt with loneliness, especially in my teenage years. But I have been lucky when it comes to family and such, so that's no longer something that plagues me. I think I'm so self-indoctrinated in negative thinking-patterns that I struggle to maintain a positive state-of-mind, even though everything is much better than it used to be.

Great to hear from you my friend.

 

My problem is that I would just edit the host file back when I couldn't help myself from going on a YouTube bender. That's why this extension is helpful because it can require tests for you to reduce the settings. Now, of course I could just remove the extension, but it doesn't seem to be a step that I take. Especially since I took such a long time setting it up with all the websites and such.

The extension also allows you to set time limits, so you can control how much time you spend on your restricted websites. And when the time runs out it begins blocking them until the next day.

The main problem with YT for me is the algorithm, it just keeps recommending stuff. It's so addicting.

 

Yes of course. But not really related to this thread. If you wanna talk Jerry we can do it over in The Music Thread.