I recently disabled the YouTube app on my phone. It’s a very interesting feeling not being able to quickly pull up some mildly entertaining video as quickly on demand. It’s crazy how much YouTube I watched before I did this, and it’s crazy how much I want to open it any time I’m bored. I haven’t caved yet, and I don’t plan to. Overall I noticed the following feelings and improvements in my mood.
- More patience. I’m not as willing to just browse away because something is not getting to the point quickly enough. Instead I tough it out or go read an article with more relevant information.
- I’m still thinking about references to some of my favorite clips, and I want to watch them so much, but this is proving that I am my own person and I don’t need some mindless content to keep me entertained.
- I’m more outgoing. I’m also not as upset with the world. I feel like YouTube was some kind of outrage for me, and by not seeing that stuff I feel much better.
As such I think quitting YouTube was the right decision for me, and will lead to long term gains for my mental health and overall well-being as a human. I am increasing finding the internet to be an outrage machine and I want off that treadmill, so I am turning off YouTube, and other algorithmic devices.