Farewell YouTube
Navigating the Highs and Lows of a Decade-Long YouTube Journey
Goodbye, YouTube.
You and I have truly had an amazing time together, haven't we?
We've been through the highs and the lows.
You helped me and I helped you. I gave you my data and cookies - and you gave me dopamine.
We've spent a lot of time together over the years.
Precisely, we spent 546 hours together in the last five years alone - which is equivalent to nearly 23 days.
Together, we learned a lot and watched thousands of videos.
We travelled, listened to different people from all over the world, and saw some spectacular moments.
We saw some of the highlights from the best sports matches.
We got to meet unique individuals, and we developed a broader understanding of some niche subjects.
But it seems that the time has come for us to part ways.
Although I loved the time we spent together, sometimes you annoyed me with your silly games. You kept recommending videos and I just couldn’t help but to keep watching.
At first, I liked it, but it got annoying. It felt like you were trying to always predict what I wanted to watch which was nice at first. But then, it got a bit much.
To be honest, it’s not all your fault. I know what Larry Page and Susan did to you wasn’t right. They messed up with your code over the years and I’m sorry that happened.
That being said, that doesn’t change the fact that what we shared was positive. You gave me a breadth and depth of experiences that no one else has.
But now that I've grown up, I find it difficult to continue the relationship we had.
I know we took breaks from each other over the years, a few weeks and months here and there, but every time, I kept coming back to you.
And you kept coming back to me. And each time I came back you offered me more.
You gave me new suggestions for people to subscribe to. You added a community page to each YouTube channel I followed. And then you offered your biggest convenience dopamine factor of all: YouTube Shorts.
You finally understood that my schedule was busy so you gave me shorter videos to snack on and I appreciated that.
I know, you tried.
But I just don't think it's healthy for either of us to be in this kind of relationship.
You always kept trying to suck me back in with new services.
YouTube Kids; YouTube TV; YouTube Music. You were never content with what we had; you were always devising new services to suck more time out of me.
We both know the time has come for us to part ways.
I don't regret anything we shared.
But it's time for us to move on.
Used correctly, YouTube is a powerful tool. But I and many others find it difficult to use it in a way that’s ‘healthy’ - which is why I’ve blocked it from my computer using Coldturkey.
In my view, It’s okay to watch 5-10 videos per month - but I was watching more like 50-100 videos - across multiple categories - per month so I’ve decided to stop.
Humans aren’t psychologically adapted to watch such a huge volume of content across so many different topics for years on end. The amount of time spent ‘watching’ could be used elsewhere. It can be used to be creative, to be offline, and to have real-life experiences.
Moving forward, when someone sends me a video to watch, I’ll use Summarize.tech to read a quick summary of the video.
And if I really need to watch a YouTube video supposing it’s educational, I’ll download it and watch it offline (which will likely bring me down to 1-3 videos per month at the most).
Taking down my YouTube consumption down to practically zero will lead to a emptier mind - which will lead to more happiness, clarity, and creativity.