YouTube Addiction
www.jntrnr.com/youtube-addiction
What Jamie wrote
I write a lot about the ills of social networking and algorithmic content, but YouTube is the service that I just look at and don't really know what to do with it. This persons story of recognizing their addiction is wild.
Yesterday, I watched 572 minutes of YouTube. That's just over 9.5 hours. The day before it was 444 minutes. Just shy of 7.5 hours. The day before that was 510 minutes. 8.5 hours.
Sometimes it's background sound to whatever I'm doing. But if I'm honest, most of the time I'm just watching, going from video to video. Not doing anything else. At this point, I have so many interests I'll watch content for. Climbing videos, computing history, endless amounts of video game footage, music videos, concert footage, interviews, wordless videos of food being prepared in the morning in Japanese restaurants. Anything that could catch my eye, I'd watch. It's gotten to the point where I don't really enjoy the video as much as the numb hypnotic state from consuming that much content.
It's safe. It's always there.
YouTube has become Internet infrastructure in a meaningful way. It is really challenging to simply block it. I wish you could turn off the suggested videos. There are some browser plugins that will do that. YouTube has definitely done harm in spreading hateful content. But it is also where you can learn so much. I’m happy that for me personally there is no risk of addiction because video isn't my preferred content type. But I watch my son on YouTube and I worry. He can get anything there. He knows YouTube channels in ways I can’t imagine. His friends are the same way. YouTube has developed a core position in how they learn, entertain, and explore. I keep hoping that is okay… 😬