[015a]

You're never going to find an automated filter which can perfectly strip the bad away from the good and present an even remotely "better" internet than the one we have today. Time-based filters do not work, because the user's ability to override them will always outweigh any enforcement power the system might have, and a "nudge" isn't enough for most people. Even devices like the Litephone, or setting your phone's display to black & white, doesn't work in the long run; its more performative than minimalist, color is kinda important, the problem really isn't the phone, or the tools, or the filters, or the services; its you.

Saying "I just need a good piece of software to control my addiction to software" sounds insane when phrased like that; "I just need another cig to control my addiction to nicotine".

Devices like the litephone, or the recent frontpage post about the Apple Watch iPod case, are kind of missing the point; if you're going out to buy another device to address your problem with using devices, what you're participating in is performance art, not self-improvement. Did you see that the litephone 3 costs $800?! The most digitally minimalist people I know use full-featured smartphones; sometimes rather old, but still fully capable. They just use them far, far less. No one is telling you to get rid of Youtube, but maybe a homepage smattered with ludwig and asmongold videos indicates you have a problem.

[techjamie]

I formerly had a problem about 2 years ago where I spent entire days flipping between Youtube and Reddit outside of work, and not really accomplishing anything productive or bettering myself in any way. I started cutting back and filling that time with other things, programming, language learning, or hanging out with my friends.

I deleted Reddit entirely during the API fiasco, but I still watch YouTube since it's basically what I treat as my TV. However, I have a caveat that I keep myself productive until it's dark outside aside from the occasional 10 minute mental break, and during meals. Once it's about 10pm, then I'll relax.

I don't let any kind of entertainment or news app send my phone notifications. I interact with them exclusively on my own terms.

With how algorthmic content feed is, you've got to be willing to set boundaries for your tech and yourself. Find things you like to do, and replace social media time with that. There's an entire world of information at your fingertips to learn absolutely anything you could ever want to, take advantage of it.

[Bumblonono]

My problem are youtube videos which talk about science, diy, woodworking, metal working, history, math etc.

I'm not addicted to software, i'm addicted to entertainmened optimized for grabbing my attention.

And the comparision to cigs is not far away. They have also been designed to be addictive, a lot of people struggle for their whole live to get away from them.

My planning brain can easily see what i don't want to do or have, my doing brain is not strong enough to then just execute on this. Otherwise i would be a rich, supersporty, multilingual expert in multiply fields.

[ndriscoll]

Make a shell script that runs yt-dlp for the channels that have worthwhile information. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that videos which "talk about" math and science are educational, when they are in fact entertainment. e.g. [0] is education. [1] is education. [2] is entertainment.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/@FredericSchuller

[1] https://www.youtube.com/@khanacademy

[2] https://www.youtube.com/@kurzgesagt