I sometimes do this as well. I think partly there is brain stimulation that feels like βdoing somethingβ, but isnβt. The feeling of being mentally occupied displaces the need to be physically occupied. As frustrating as it is, itβs like an addiction, and hard to get away from!
this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2026
18 points (100.0% liked)
No Stupid Questions
49584 readers
609 users here now
No such thing. Ask away!
!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.
All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.
Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.
If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.
Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.
If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here. This includes using AI responses and summaries.
Credits
Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!
The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
How do you find so much content to watch? For me, the worthwile content simply runs out after a while and the recomendation engine just starts to push the uninteresting clickbait videos.
Depends on the content, I guess. If I browse history and archaeology videos for a while I start to get a ton of quality suggestions from much smaller and more specialised channels. This and music channels uploading vintage and forgotten records and tracks has gotten me some great finds that e.g. music streaming services would never suggest as they're not even in their catalogues sometimes.
That said YT seems to try and soft reset my suggestions once in a while promoting clickbait videos, but a session of using "don't recommend channel" or "i don't like this video" from their options, and digging in my subscribed channels for the usual stuff shifts it back to normal good recommendations again.
YT seems to try and soft reset my suggestions
Ah, I tend to forget the vast majority of the world browses youtube logged in! I only get recommendations based on the last few videos watched that day.
Mine keeps suggesting videos I've already watched.
i don't know, i think i just watch basically anything that mildly interests me
load more comments
(1 replies)
Write a comprehensive thesis about administrative practice in the early mongolian empire and then obsessively maintain the wikipedia page on it
add more friction! had the same problem with YouTube on my phone, which is why I have uninstalled the app. Now I do not have the problem anymore! :)) The only way to watch now is through an anonymous invidious instance (cause they made the mobile website too annoying for me to use) where I have to search for the video I want to watch, which adds a lot more intent to it.
i guess ive added a bit of friction??? i use an app (on my tv) called smarttube and in smarttube you can turn of the homepage which i did
it did help a little bit but its far from fixed
Make a decision to make better choices. Only you can make that choice.
what my brain is too smooth for this
When you start watching, set an alarm, for an hour, maybe. When the alarm goes, thatβs it, turn off YouTube and go and do something else.
You are smart and powerful and can choose to control this.
ouu shii that is a good idea thanks!!!!!
You can even just set your tv to turn off in an hour (sleep timer), so that there's no snoozing the alarm or ignoring it to continue to watch.
oohh thats even better!!!!
Have you tried this?:
Use yt-dlp to download all videos. Most RSS readers can automatically fetch YouTube channels.
Set the computer to download what you want overnight.
Upside: Recommendations will not appear.
Downside: I don't know if you can 'Chromecast' videos. I just have a small computer attached to my TV (any computer will do).
Not sure if it helps but my ebook helped me kick the doom scrolling habit. Kobo is a good brand that works with my library card.
So basically replace infinite something with a similar medium that helps you accomplish something
Have you tried getting rid of the chromecast? Also donβt eat breakfast near the tv.
im unfortunately not getting rid of the chromecast π but not eating near the tv is a good point
ironic because it's a YouTube video, but this helped me shake a similar funk. It just kinda opened my eyes to how much you can actually just go do
- Do as many pushups as you can.
- Read.
- Write a to-do list for the day, week, or rest of your life.
- Go for a walk.
- Work on your car.
- Get rid of stuff.
- Journal.
- Clean your place.
- Clean yourself.
- Clean your pet.
- Make a paper mache man.
- Spend 30 minutes to an hour on an old hobby.
- Organize your digital life.
- Travel alone.
- Cancel subscriptions.
- Draw.
- Stretch.
- Inventory your kitchen.
- Learn some words and phrases in another language.
- Go for a ride.
- Cook or try to cook.
- Write a letter.
- Make a playlist.
- Do a weird meditative thing that you never would've thought to do.
- Visit a cemetery.
- Do a sport by yourself.
- Rearrange/redecorate your room.
- Go to a museum.
- Fight the ocean.
- Go to a movie.
- Eat at a restaurant.
- Make plans.
ill watch this later and give an update after, thanks!!!!
I'll give you a simple thing you can do that will make a huge difference. First and last half hour of your day, spend them with no screens. Sounds minimal but it will help you lower your dopamine baseline, after that it'll be easier to embrace tranquility with each passing day.
After that, if you can, add some friction between the thing you're doing (maybe you can add a pincode requirement or something?) and yourself and if possible, set a defined time of day for the activity.
Lastly, just some willpower every now and then to stop or even not start.
The way I understand it, you will be able to keep enjoying it without it consuming your life, IMO this is the kind of thing we should all know to do in this day and age.
i do want to enjoy it without it sucking my life away and this sounds great thanks!!
Overkill: get rid of your home wifi and go back to physical media. Use a mobile hotspot with limited data for everything else.
I don't watch YouTube anymore, though I do listen to it plenty over my phone's connection.
Edit: Bigger picture: find something you want to do more. Set a goal and make a commitment to set aside a modest amount of time every day to achieve it.
the first one: basically impossible for me ππ
the edit: i really really want to start playing my games (video games btw) more but its just so much easier to start watching youtube than to take the game, take out the disc, put it in the console, start the console, and then start the game (don't get me wrong i like that, but my brain doesn't)
Maybe you can do some personal exploration about some thing that would be more rewarding? It just sounds like you're in a motivational rut and your only thought is how to pleasantly pass the most amount of time with the least amount of effort?
thats not really my only thought lowkey, i am thinking of playing games often but youtube is just so much easier to start doing so sometimes when i want to play games i cant really stop watching
kinda scary stuff
Read up on "executive dysfunction", I've got this too and many evenings end up watching youtube even when I wanted to play a game.
One thing helps with this with 100% success: multiplayer. When my buddies are online and ask to play something, I'll immediately close youtube every time without issues, no matter how interesting the video is. Sometimes we don't even play anything and just chat, but even that seems healthier than watching youtube alone.
I know it's easier said than done (getting gaming buddies), and doesn't usually cover breakfast time, but it might help if you tried that.
I'm frankly amazed you haven't simply died of neglect yet if you can't even find the gumption to put a disc in the console and press a button.
I actually think you should consider a full detox. Like move to a Greek island and work at a boat rental for a summer, living in a van or something. Learn how to just be a person again and engage with your physical reality.
yea its rough π
Get ready for it to suck. Embrace the pain like a masochist.
Currently seems like you have a pretty solid routine of wasting days on YT. While it may be long term painful, it's short term very pleasant, and it's gonna be hard to force yourself to do anything less pleasant.
Gotta expect the suck and treat the feeling as progress.
Or substitution for other dopamine dumps, but that's just making a new future problem
i feel like playing video games is better?
I mean if it works for you and you're happy, that's what matters.
If it were me, eventually video games would just be the new addiction.
Moderation and all that
i feel like video games (the ones that aren't complete garbage brainrot, like most older games) are way better for the brain than most youtube videos lowkey
like with videos you're often just mindlessly watching but with games you're the one controlling everything and you actually need to use your brain
I gotta agree to an extent.
If I play a fighting game, I have to focus and react, and I can feel my blood pressure / heart rate up.
But I've also absolutely rotted my brain at 3am trying to max crafting just clicking that fkn rock over and over again.
I'd wildly guess that, if you don't let the video games be brainrot, they're also not quiiite gonna scratch the, "I wanna lay on the couch and let my mind melt," itch, and you'll have to face some suck
Entirely projecting, just what my experience is like
thats valid lowkirky
Disable auto next video. If you can't, just don't turn it on.
are you watching whole movies, like paid? or just random clips, kinda like doomscrolling?
sometimes like 20-30m videos with minimal to average amount of editing, and like <10m with about the same amount of editing
I was in the same spot as you when using the official youtube app on a tablet. I enjoyed watching but it was hard to control it and easy to waste a lot of time. Things got way healthier when not using the official app. I still watch youtube but I use NewPipe on android, there are options to disable a lot of distraction. Deleting the app and stay logged out when visiting youtube was the only thing that really helped.
I find YT a valuable resource for my geeky/tech interests. My approach to avoiding time suck is:
- use RSS rather than browsing to catch new vids from creators I value
- download with yt-dlp
- pull down "talking head" vids as audio-only and add them to the podcast queue instead of video queue
- work around the house wearing headphones for most vids, looking at the screen only when something visually important is happening.
While I'm writing this yt-dlp is pulling down the day's video queue and storing it on the media server for later consumption.
My honest recommendation: realize that you've been sucked in to using youtube as an addictive coping mechanism. You say you love youtube, and I get it - there is a lot of fun stuff and a lot of useful information there. But YOU ARE WASTING YOUR LIFE. For many people, watching some youtube videos sometimes is fine - but for you, at this moment, you should strongly consider the tradeoff between continuing to watch videos and doing literally anything else in your life. Finding and spending time with a significant other, cooking healthy food and exercising, making new friends and spending time with old ones, advancing your career and making more money, creating art, exploring nature, learning about the world, becoming a valued member of your community, etc. Looking at those great big distant dreams you had during childhood and adolescence and chasing them!
I highly recommend that you do everything possible - EVERYTHING possible - to remove youtube from your life Right. Now. Seriously - take your tv off the wall, stand it up on the ground, and give it a swift kick in the screen with the toe of your boot. Or if you wanna be an environmentalist about it, list it for sale on fb marketplace and take it off the wall so you can hand it off as soon as someone comes around.
Install every app/site blocker you can on every device that you own. Pay for the premium version so you can get all the features to keep you off the platform.
Make plans for what you are going to do with the time you are no longer spending watching youtube. Hang out with friends. Sign up for a pottery class. Volunteer at the animal shelter. Clean your home up.
Your brain will fight you. It will say "but youtube is so fun, and I'm really invested in these channels right now, so I can just cut down a bit and it will be fine." It will say "but youtube has lots of good information - what if I need to fix my car?" It will say "but youtube has a lot of cultural relevance - how will I keep up with the memes my friends are sharing without it?" Your brain is trying to protect itself from being deprived of its most consistent, low effort source of feel-good chemicals by coming up with all sorts of convincing-sounding reasons for never having to change. Don't listen to it. For any benefit youtube might provide you with, you can get that somewhere else in the world. If you want to laugh, you can see a standup show or make jokes with your friends. If you want to learn something, you can read a book or take a class or read wikipedia or ask a friend who knows more. And the biggest one of all - if you want that feeling of feeling comfortable hearing about the small minutiae and updates of someone's life that you've known for a long time, you can do that with your friends! You can do that, and have the other person actually know you exist!
And of course your brain will say "I'm not addicted, I just need to cut down a little, but I could stop anytime I want." Yeah? Then prove it. Try to go 2 weeks without youtube. If you can't, then you have a problem
holy cow π a bit harsh but really true, and yes i would call myself "addicted" in a way
i know this is not what im supposed to do and it definetly hinders it, but i don't want to quit youtube (also since im a creator myself) i just want to be able to basically watch how much i want and how long i want but being able to control that and not waste a couple of hours to a full day on there
it feels like training to control it rather than restricting it is better for me but i could be wrong
Oh, and another thing: if you're reluctant to do something, such as reading, cleaning up, going for a walk, etc, then set a timer for 10 - 30 minutes and commit to it. A human can withstand quite a lot for 15 or 20 minutes. It's how I was able to get through brutal HIIT cardio routines and feel good for the rest of the day. The Pomodoro technique works well for this sort of time and task management, at least for me.
You might want to read up on (or find some videos on the topic, haha) dopamine addiction. It's not a real term, per se, but it will get you results about the problem you have.
I think that watching the videos 1) distracts you from reality and 2) gives you a little reward, either though little dopamine spikes (e.g. a funny segment, or some tidbit of knowledge), or through a false feeling of accomplishment.
Personally, I would recommend whittling down a short list of favorite YouTubers. Set aside a few afternoons per week to watch the videos, and try to pare the time back further over the course of months. Focus on real-world hobbies and interests. Leave your phone at home, go to a coffee shop, and read a book for an hour.
On the subject of reading and attention spans (which is often a core issue here), I read about a study a long time ago. They had students read from a book every night. They were to read for as long as they felt like it, and then read one more page. At the end of the study, the students reported that they were reading far more per sitting, and that their attention span improved.
There's also a lot of recent information out there about dopamine resets, where people cut out technology and take walks while focusing on the world around them. This would probably benefit you, too.
oo interesting
i feel like its been a bit better today and i do feel better, so maybe ill just do SOMETHING else, whether its video games or hanging out with friends or whatever
load more comments
(3 replies)
view more: next βΊ