YouTube Addiction – How to Reclaim Your Time

YouTube is one of my favorite websites, but it’s also my favorite way to put off important tasks. I feel disappointed after YouTube binging because I have other things I need to do. We have many choices for our “content diet” in this digital era, but my diet has too much YouTube. How do I win this battle with my time? Let’s look at how this video platform hijacks our attention and a few strategies to gain our time back.

YouTube’s Recommended Videos Promote Addiction

We live in the era of the “attention economy.” Netflix, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok all feed us an infinite amount of dopamine hits. These companies compete to hold our attention because more time spent using = more advertising revenue = more income for the company.

Why is YouTube so good at keeping our attention? The answer is customized recommended videos. YouTube’s AI (artificial intelligence) learns what we like to watch and serves it on a silver platter. These videos show up on the home screen, the recommended video sidebar, and on a video’s end screen. It’s an irresistible selection of videos. Often I search for something specific when I sign in. Still, the homepage has so many enticing videos that I get sidetracked immediately.

YouTube’s Chief Product Officer, Neal Mohan, spoke at the consumer electronics show (CES) in 2018. According to Mohan, the video recommendation system accounts for a massive 70% of total YouTube video views.

Since that number is from 4 years ago, it’s probably higher now. The recommendation system likely keeps improving its ability to hook us. Simply put, YouTube is not a neutral tool, and it wants to be consumed like a drug. The platform could not care less about our time.

How to Fight Back

Let’s focus on using YouTube as a tool. The issue isn’t the content because fantastic videos and creators exist on the platform. The problem is we want to watch something specific but quickly get distracted. YouTube doesn’t want us to watch ONE video. Instead, it wants us to binge. So it’s time to employ some tactics to stop the compulsive use.

Strategy #1 – Install the Unhook Extension to Remove Video Recommendations

Disclaimer: You need to use the Google Chrome browser for this to work. This strategy applies only to YouTube use on your desktop or laptop computer.

To download google chrome, click here. And to install Unhook, click here.

Unhook lets us choose elements to hide on YouTube. Once installed, find it in the upper-right corner of the browser window and click on its icon. If you don’t see the icon, click on the puzzle piece icon to view your extensions.

I strongly suggest enabling all the options for Unhook except for “Hide Video Info” and “Hide Top Header.” Experiment with the options and use them to your liking:

With video recommendations and the home screen disabled, binge sessions are much less likely. You can finally focus on one video.

Here’s a before and after of the homepage with Unhook installed:

Strategy #2 – Install Freedom on Your Devices to Block YouTube Completely

In my opinion, Freedom is the best application for reducing YouTube time (among other distracting apps). I’ve tried many applications to reduce my use, including Forest, Flora, and Moment for iPhone. But the biggest con with these apps is the ease with which I can disable the app. Want to open YouTube again? Easy! Just press the “cancel focus session” button, and you’re back to binging.

With Freedom, I can legitimately lock myself out for a chosen time, and I can’t cancel the session. A paid subscription of $2.50/month is required to lock yourself out, but I think it’s worth it.

I use Freedom to prevent YouTube use on my phone and my hybrid laptop/tablet. The only problem is we can’t use the app on smart TVs because the software has to be downloaded to your device. Smart TVs can’t download Freedom yet, but here’s hoping, which leads to my last strategy.

Strategy #3 – Don’t Watch YouTube on Your TV

I honestly wish I had a better recommendation for how to do this. We have the cell phone and laptop part down, but you can still turn on your TV. And the TV version of YouTube is a well-oiled binge-watching machine, and it will keep you hooked. For now, uninstall the YouTube app on your TV. Maybe better methods will arrive in the future (fingers crossed). At least our smart TVs can’t travel with us everywhere we go!