I love watching Youtube. It’s sometimes the only thing that calms me down at night after a long day, when I just don’t want to do anything but watch a video. But what happens when some of that pleasure is put on hold for a few days? What happens? Well, I decided to put it away to see what I would do about it.
When I said Youtube, I meant Youtube. That includes Youtube Music, which I use regularly for music while walking and doing work. If anything was related to watching a video, I wasn’t going to watch it. I thought this was going to be a miserable experience, but after 5 days without my comfort watching, I managed to learn a lot about myself. After compiling these days of writings that I’ve put in my digital notes app, this is what happened. I think a timeline is the best way to transcribe these writings, as for me a visual makes these thoughts easier to describe.
The first day did not go well. Several times I opened the app for even a second, and once I even went a whole seven minutes into a video forgetting what I was supposed to be doing in the first place. The button was right there, and on instinct my mind was clicking it. So I deleted those buttons on my phone, and didn’t look back.
Day 2 and 3 were similar in that many of the activities I was involved in did not include Youtube or Youtube Music, so I was able to get through them without much issue. However, both days I still managed to open Youtube once on my laptop. I’m starting to notice just how much time the videos took up from my schedule. I’m sleeping better when not watching a video at the end of the night, and that’s giving me more time overall in the day.
On the fourth day, I didn’t open either app once. It’s also the day I have the least amount of data on, as many activities did not need the “assistance” of videos. The urge to watch something hasn’t really returned surprisingly, despite so many new videos most likely being published to the world. This is when I realized I couldn’t let this go to waste.
As I’m writing this at the end of the fifth day, my habits feel like they are changing a little. My over-reliance on videos to keep me structured are actually backfiring on my daily life. The restriction actually helped me realize that I’m holding myself back the more I scroll and watch. Without them, I’m sleeping better, listening to other things, and enjoying myself more. And now, I feel I can hold myself to a standard instead of letting my habit get in the way. While these two apps will always be there, I should treat them as a treat instead of letting them hold me down.
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