do i even like youtube?
i have a problem. i have the thought that youtube isn't a time sink like other forms of social media is.
i see my own phones screen time. however i often play live music sets, so i attributed it to that. i typically have youtube as true "second screen" content. if i needed to watch something with my actual eyeballs i would add it to the watch later playlist and go through it, eventually.
eventually was today. i started with 500+ videos and i'm down to 6.
i obviously didn't watch all of them. i have seen a good chunk of them, i had organized maybe 40 of them into separate playlists. full movies that i knew were on youtube are now separated, live performances that i constantly listen to are separated. i was determined to get this number lower. i deleted anything i saw already and did not care to reference again.
i was down to around 300.
then i asked myself if i want to watch this right now. if i thought no, i deleted it. this is how i am at 6. with a total combined time of <2 hrs
so what the fuck am i actually doing on youtube??
video is actually not that good of a format for a lot of content. i often skip the first few minutes of almost all videos. i saw the thumbnail, i read the title, it worked. please don't explain. just get to the point. and then theres a sponsor. i'm also the person who watched videos at 2x speed. and by "not that good" i mean there are better ways to convey the message for the majority of video posted onto youtube. but the platform dictates the form.
so what am i even watching? is this actually adding to my life?
i'm going to delete the youtube app off my phone and go computer only and see what i add to my watch later. i want to see if time is enough friction to stop me from wasting my time watching videos. i will check back in in july and see what i've wasted my time on and determine if its time for me to break up with youtube.