Does anybody know how to waste less time on YouTube lol

  • Arthur Besse
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    144 minutes ago

    “someone who is good at the economy please help me calculate this. my battery is dying.” ?

  • @[email protected]
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    21 hour ago

    Yeah, use the official client, the stupid stupid ads will annoy you enough to interrupt you in frustration from time to time

  • @daggermoon
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    74 hours ago

    Okay but what’s going on with your calculator usage?

    • @[email protected]OP
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      32 hours ago

      Friends invited me to a game of Okey and I can’t really calculate shit well in my head (discalculia, like have you ever divided 6 by 3 and found 3 and thought it was perfectly sensible?) so I had to use my calculator app. I found this a few days after, by then I had forgotten the game (lol), thought a lot about whatever the fuck I did on my calculator for two hours. Had a good laugh when I figured it out

      • @daggermoon
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        21 hour ago

        lol, happy to share in the laugh. I do love me a good calculator app.

  • @[email protected]
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    168 hours ago

    Uninstall apps then use YouTube via mobile browser.

    The experience is just not as seamless, which makes it easier to disconnect.

    I did something similar with Reddit, I also have Adblock setup on mobile with a custom rule to block Reddit.com. So if I do want to go on reddit, I specifically need to open the Adblock app and go through menus to enable it again.

    And a more abstract answer, find something else to spend your time on.

    • @latenightnoir
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      12 hours ago

      Considering the Autoplay function doesn’t even work half the time on mobile web, that’s doubly true!

  • Cralder
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    8313 hours ago

    Bro you spent 2 hours on the calculator wtf

  • Blastboom Strice
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    48 hours ago

    Well what I did 3years ago, really cut down my usage of YT:

    I switched to NewPipe. I got angry with tge deterioration of YT and the fact that they hid dislikes made me angry. So, I deleted the yt app and installed NewPipe. Newpipe doesnt support yt accounts, I was too lazy to add my subscription and set the default screen to an empty screen.

    I used to watch yt for around 2hours per day (~mainly memes, but in the further past I used to watch more sciency-stuff) and now I spend around 15minutes per day (~mainly music or tutorials(?), though, lol, I use other apps/platforms more, like lemmy). I think the fact that the period I deleted YT it was a period of various changes, might helped me change my daily yt consumption too.

  • @[email protected]
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    12 hours ago

    Use Newpipe and only use the RSS based chronological feed for watching stuff. (Or just use a nice rss reader like feeder). Only subscribe to channels that make actual quality videos that you genuinly enjoy or make u learn cool stuff. That got me down to like 2-3 20-40min videos per day. When there is nothing new in your sub feed you stop using youtube. Any channel that frequently posts shorts gets kicked out of the feed.

    • @Sand3rs
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      28 hours ago

      This 100%. Have to get away from the recommendation algorithm. I also use leechblock to block the YouTube site indefinitely on firefox and forces me to use the newpipe app (I am a weak person).

      • @[email protected]
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        7 hours ago

        Whatever works. It all takes some degree of self control but thats just how life is i guess. In the end it forced me to find new things or hobbies or try out that game i bought 2 years ago etc.

        Its very different depending on your lifestyle. If you work and have no after work obligations you need a very different system than people that go to school or university that need to study at home.

  • Zagorath
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    1012 hours ago

    Switching back to the official app might help. All those shitty ads and inability to PIP would make me spend less time.

    Another option might be to keep using YouTube, but play music with it. Preferably lyricless music like soundtracks, jazz, or classical. Once YouTube is busy playing music it can’t play anything else, and you can do other stuff while listening.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      712 hours ago

      Thank you for replying but god couldn’t force me to use the official app, that’s like a one way to ticket to aneurysm town. I also use VLC so no need for music. But still thankies!!

      • Zagorath
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        512 hours ago

        To be clear, my second idea isn’t to use YouTube for music because it’s for music. It’s to use YouTube for music because while listening to music on YouTube you can’t be doing something else on YouTube. It’s essentially a productivity ‘hack’.

  • @[email protected]
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    912 hours ago

    A bit more practical is just delete all of your history and disable history on YouTube. You won’t get recommendations that way and it will be boring to spend time on youtube

  • @clubb
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    313 hours ago

    I had the same problem 2 weeks ago. I uninstalled it. Fixed it. If you don’t want to uninstall, set a timer for 0 minutes a day, if you have that feature.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      112 hours ago

      Timers a fantastic idea that I also use when I need to get some work done but otherwise deleting the app completely is impossible, how else am I going to watch easy German or MIT lecture videos?

      • @FireRetardant
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        11 hours ago

        You can get a screen time app that tracks and can limit the amount of time spent on specific apps