I uninstalled myself from all social media apps back in 2014. My main reason was doing so was two folds. First, I had a realization that I was wasting an unholy amount of time on social media. This was the first year when social media apps had moved from a “limited feeds” to an “infinite scrolling” mode. Faster internet speeds + powerful smartphones + infinite scrolling = a deadly addiction guaranteed! Second, I wanted to get my attention back and refocus on things that really mattered to me like learning new technologies and upskilling myself to be more productive in the real world.
While researching on this topic, I discovered the “Center for Humane Technology” philosophy. It addressed the exact issue I was experiencing and it gave a list of practical guidelines on how to cut back on time wasted on social media and mobile phones in general. The ideas presented there instantly resonated with me and I adopted all the strategies instantly.
It’s been 12 years since and I am really glad that I pulled the plug back then when it was possible to do so. Short form videos were not even invented back then. Now when I look around I see people constantly complaining about their addictive levels of social media use but at the same time they’re deeply hooked and cannot let go.
YouTube shorts on TV
I succesfully managed to keep myself away from this addiction for 12+ years but something changed in the past few months. I always loved watching educational / informative long-form videos on YouTube. Since last 2 years, my primary device for consuming YouTube content has been our living room TV. YouTube TV app was free of “shorts” and “reels” until few months back.
Then things changed and the overlords at Google decided to unleash the wrath of short videos on the YouTube TV app. During the initial days of this update, I unwittingly saw a few interesting shorts in my recommendations section and guess what? The next time I tuned on my TV and opened the YouTube app, the screen was filled with funny, interesting looks shorts. My monkey brain got hooked instantly to the unlimited stream of dopamine.
On multiple occasions in the past few months, I caught myself watching more shorts than long-form videos. I realized that something isn’t right but still I couldn’t stop watching the reels. Then I decided to limit my “shorts” time to just watching 5-7 shorts when I turn on my TV and then watch my regular long-form videos.
But that’s the classic slippery slope of how addiction begins and my brain is no different than other humans. With each passing day, I caught myself watching more and more short videos and then eventually I realized that I have fallen to the deep trenches of short-form videos where all I was watching on my TV was shorts!
Time to pull the plug, again!
Today, I woke up with a resolve. I knew I am far beyond the point of exerting manual control over my brain when it came to watching shorts on TV. So I decided to uninstall the YouTube app on TV. It was a difficult decision to make and to make things worse, my brain was trying to come up with all kinds of reasons for not uninstalling the app. I sat there in front of the TV and reminded myself of how 22 year old me pulled the plug back in 2014 and how 33 year old me can very well do it again and I hit the uninstall button! Bye-bye YouTube on TV.
Within 2 minutes of uninstalling the app, my brain started negotiations and telling me how it was a wrong move. What next? Will I really stop watching YouTube completely? How long will this “uninstall” mode last? Is this just an over-reaction? Should I re-install it? Those are the exact questions my brain is asking right now. Honestly, I don’t know the answers and I don’t want to know.
What I do know is that I wanted to reclaim my time and attention and this was the best way I could do it and so I did it. Of course I don’t want to go cold turkey and then relapse even harder. Instead, I would like to strike a balance. I want to switch my TV watching pattern from mindless consumption to intentional watching. Next time I turn on the TV I want to do it with an intention of watching something specific like old classics, interesting shows, etc.
Cheers to my brain making efforts to save itself from rotting!
