Comment by knaik94 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by knaik94 | Hacker News Reader

This is a very dramatic framing. A much more resonable explanation is that YouTube was being used as an escape. 10K Subs is an accomplishment, a real community. The less talked about half of parasocial relationships is the one that goes the other way, where people feel validation from the likes and views they get. Generally, taking a break from an escape means you face the real issues you have been avoiding and ignoring using YouTube. At the same time, I think it's great the author is reflecting and take actionable steps to working on themselves. Stepping away or slowing down is a tough decision once you reach the size this author has.

I have higher weekly hours, in the Youtube app on your phone, you can see weekly view stats. On wednesday my stats say 15 hours. I have ADHD and I leave YouTube running in the background while I work and when I sleep. I know for a fact that 5+ hour on wednesday was "10 Hours of Hotel AC White Noise (High power setting)". 80% of the time it's on in the background, either figuratively or literally white noise.

Taking a break is always beneficial, but I think this might be a situation where an escape becomes unhealthy and makes the situation worse but isn't the underlying cause. I strongly dislike the trend of using the word addiction to describe a bad or unhealthy habit. Unless watching YouTube held you back from performing other life function or you feel physical or mental withdrawal symptoms, I'd hestitate from using that word. Not just a craving, but also some sort of anxiety from being away or cancelling plans with friends or being late to work. People are fulltime Youtubers, being a creator can be everything from a hobby to a profession.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQdhL-XuKLY&t=17668s

Sorry, but I think a post like the above should make someone like you take a time to reflect, instead of immediately prepare a defense. Regardless of what is driving your desire to watch so much YouTube, which in the end is what defines the degree of the pathology, it’s still an inordinate amount. YouTube is not background noise. Your brain is paying a bit of attention to it, getting dopamine from it, and becoming progressively less able to reach a state of peace without stimulation. Will you be running YouTube in the background when you’re sharing a bed with a spouse? Will you be wearing headphones with constant babbling going on, disturbing your sleep patterns? These are real issues my friend.

My reflection is that it doesn't interefere with my work at all, and my significant other and I often fall asleep listening to podcasts or video essays. I do wear headphones and I am far for the only one that sleeps with headphones in. Here's a link to a product that is a headband that has speakers built in with a 4.5 rating and 13,000+ reviews. [1] This seems silly and I would not recommend it, and suggest regular headphones instead, IEM preferably.

I am not sure if you grasp the difference in active and passive watching. I would suggest you do more research into how neurotransmitters function, that is not how dopamine works. Additionally I mentioned I have ADHD, "People with ADHD have at least one defective gene, the DRD2 gene that makes it difficult for neurons to respond to dopamine" [2] If anything dopamine is not doing what it needs to in my brain. I appreciate your concern, but it's misplaced. In my previous post I linked to a 10 hour video of the noise of an AC running in a motel room.

For students with ADHD in school, as part of a 504 plan they have the option to listen to music in class because it has been shown effective in improving focus.

1. https://www.amazon.com/MUSICOZY-Headphones-Bluetooth-Headban...

2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2626918/#:~:tex....

This is some crazy shit. Only you can decide if a behavior is addictive. People can suggest it but it's only an opinion. They dont live your experience. Having said that, your watch patterns are shocking to me.

Disordered behavior and addiction is dependent on the specific action having a meaningfully detrimental impact on one's life. Addiction is not a subjective thing, this is why I don't like when people use that word the way the author did. It's a clinically defined thing.

I appreciate that it lets me live my life with less struggles. I am far from an outlier in any way. I would recommend looking up average watch time statistic across various social media platforms as well as Netflix, Amazon, etc. As well as viwer stats of seasons sports like College Football, Formula 1, FIFA.

"According to Insider Intelligence projections, while overall time spent with media per day will decline slightly from 13 hours, 13 minutes in 2021 to 13 hours, 7 minutes in 2022, time spent with digital media—video, smartphones, CTV, subscription OTT, and digital audio—will maintain steady gains and continue claiming even more time going forward."

https://www.insiderintelligence.com/insights/us-time-spent-w...

Just wanted to say, I appreciate your measured responses throughout the thread. It’s sometimes a bit hard to be normal but with everyone calling you abnormal (or in this case, crazy) and it’s always nice to see someone who truly doesn’t care.

Radio is a great analogy for this. Compared to entire families coming come and sitting down in front of the national TV, I’d take social media any day.

It’s possible for an entire society can be misled into thinking something is normal or healthy when it’s not. Doctors in the 1940s and 1950s smoked and were in advertisements for Camel cigarettes. It was normal and ubiquitous. Was it healthy?

There are other examples of this. Is too much video watching another instance? That’s for you to decide. At least consider it a possibility and then move on.

> that is not how dopamine works

People these days love talking about nonsense like "dopamine hits", it's textbook pseudoscience.

> Will you be running YouTube in the background when you’re sharing a bed with a spouse?

My wife and I both do this.

> Will you be wearing headphones with constant babbling going on, disturbing your sleep patterns?

No more than the babbling in my mind disturbs it already. If anything, a coherent message is easier to fall asleep to.

Hi fellow addict! https://imgur.com/a/TaaKY87

Mine is Star Trek.

It’s not so much an escape as a habit, for me. I started young. When I was 13 or so, I was watching voyager while hacking on game engines. Then I never really stopped.

Nowadays it’s a mix of anime (hello berserk https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD85eRe7NELF7EFIl4YMQOxFw...) and trek. Also gothamchess.

Like you, I don’t see anything wrong with it. Wish I was addicted to books instead, but as far as addictions go, I’d rather it be this than smoking.

I think I can only do shows that I have watched a few times already. I can do that for The Office, but I have yet to see bersek, thanks for the link. I also enjoy GothamChess, and more generally video game speedrunning, playthroughs and analysis. When I am in the mood for music, I look live festival sets. I heavily favor EDM personally, Keygen Chruch has been pretty good, a "goth synthwave/metal/Baroque/Romantic, 8bit-tinged, pipe-organ-laden band". I have a hard time keeping up with these subgenres.

Here's my in flux playlist of what I call AmbianceLONG, 1hr+ videos that I shuffle through. I didn't know NasaTV is live on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvszIS0bSTf5hfuCNd3cG...

>I have ADHD and I leave YouTube running in the background while I work and when I sleep. I know for a fact that 5+ hour on wednesday was "10 Hours of Hotel AC White Noise (High power setting)". 80% of the time it's on in the background, either figuratively or literally white noise.

That's how radio was used for generations.

Funny you mention that, one of my favorite YouTube channels is, Nemo's Dreamscapes and right now I'm listening to "LIVE Oldies playing in another room, it's a great night (Open window, crickets ambience)" [1] It's a non stop livestream similar to the LoFi Girl music channel.

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JJi-NhExzs

I'll usually leave one of those 8- or 10-hour "soft waves on an island beach" clips playing in the BG. Nice alternative if the view out the window is snow, lol.

If I want a little emo-boost for ADHD I'll just watch a few clips on Jessica's channel: https://www.youtube.com/@HowtoADHD

Otherwise (for me) YT is a resource for guides on taking apart old laptops and other how-tos, along with the occasional movie on the kitchen tablet, while prepping a meal or washing up.

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