[broahmed]

Read Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism. If you’re like me, you’ll substitute one digital addiction for another when trying to give up something; his book is helping me to break that cycle. Products like YouTube and most social media are finely tuned billion dollar machines aimed at capturing and holding your attention; our fleshy brains require more than a simple detox to break that grip.

[atonse]

That's been my experience. I stopped using Facebook and twitter, and hacker news doesn't keep me occupied for hours. So YouTube has taken over all that desire for content.

I don't think it even matters that most of the stuff I watch is educational, fascinating, and helping me learn new things. It affects my sleep and is still a bit of a passive time suck (like I could just be experimenting with wok cooking in the hours spent watching dozens of videos of others learning how to cook with a wok). So will check out these various extensions that remove recommendations, etc.