Forget Instagram and YouTube!
--
The Problem
A few days ago, I was preparing to take a shower. While doing so I whipped my phone out, sat on my bed comfortably and began searching for a YouTube video to watch while I bathe. I sat there for 45 minutes, and still didn’t find a video.
The same situation reoccurs when I eat. I sit, search for a YouTube video, and by the time I find one…if I find one, my food is already cold!
Sometimes I would sit for hours, mindlessly scrolling through my “friends” Instagram stories or watching their posts only to realize I was essentially doing nothing for an hour. Wasting hours of my life, days of my life that will never be returned to me on mindless scrolling.
Regrettably, this has become the unconscious cycle of my existence. No matter what task I am doing, how I am feeling, what I have to do, I would always…ALWAYS find myself on YouTube at every hour.
Every. Single. Day.
The Why
User Experience designers (UX designers) at big tech companies easily make 6 figures a year. Why the HELL do they make that?
They make that to hook us on their product, reel us in to buy more of their product, trap us in their fish bucket so that they are continually making money.
Don’t be mistaken, we are not giving them our money, that does not mean we are not paying them. You are paying with far more valuable currencies. We are paying with our ability to focus, our ability to think for ourselves, it reduces our attention span significantly, and worst of all these companies take payment with our time!
Small Challenge
Look at someone scrolling through TikTok (I deleted TikTok the first day I had it, I knew it was no good for my health). Use a stopwatch or count in your mind. Study how long they persons takes before they look for another video. Two or three seconds? People are deciding whether to invest time into something in microseconds now…
The Solution
I’ve tried all manner of things to quell this…addiction before. I’ve tried limiting my screen time on these apps to 1 hour a day. This never worked because once I got a tase of it I couldn’t stop.
I’ve tried filling my day up with other enjoyable tasks. But these apps just slip into whatever time slot I have almost instantly.
I came across this, no bull-shit method of fighting this:
From Sunday, October 16th I’ve deleted Instagram and YouTube (I’ve also deleted Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest) from my iPhone. And I intend to retire them from my device for 30 days minimum.
I know there will be a withdrawal phase but I’m going to push through and reap the results in 30 days.
So, what will I be doing instead of selling myself to these social media platforms?
I have a huge backlog of books to read The Stomlight Archive (Oath Bringer), Upon a Burning Throne, Gardens of the Moon and a hell of a lot more.
I picked up a Web Developer Bootcamp which I’ll highly recommended. The teacher Colt Steele does an amazing job of explaining abstract topics and giving real world problems to solve.
I’m also a fulltime university student so I’ll have a lot of my time filled with studying and classes.
Playing video games are not off the table. But I will keep that to a minimum.
I do cycling. So I can fill more mornings up with cycling to avoid laying in bed perpetually.
These things provide enough enoyment for me to go through days happily. I will be okay with these things.
Just a little…message to myself. Don’t mind it (Unless you need it, we can share)
Conclusion
Well, I’ll be back with another post in about a month sharing my results and recommendations.
Thanks for reading!
