Breaking My Addiction
Note to the Reader: I wrote this several months ago but never posted it. I don’t know why. Suffice to say, what is written below has been working very well for me. I no longer find myself scrolling YouTube shorts or wasting hours of my life on Reddit. I’m much more focused on my family, my reading, and my writing. I may no longer be as “plugged-in” but I am much happier with how I spend my time, which is ultimately all that matters. If you try this, or have done something similar, I’d love to hear from you on your experience. Reach out to me on my socials.
I have a problem. I've known about it for years and have taken steps to lessen my addiction's hold on me, but my monkey brain always finds a work around.
I'm talking about YouTube.
I have been an avid YouTube user for years and years. Mostly long form content from a handful of creators. It was manageable and didn't affect my life too much.
However, since the advent of YouTube Shorts, I find myself helplessly doom scrolling for hours sometimes. I hate it. I do not enjoy seeing this behavior in myself. I want to be better than this. I want to produce, not consume. I want to be present.
This behavior stops me from doing the activities I truly enjoy because the little dopamine hits I receive from short form content feed my ADHD wired brain like nothing else can.
I read less. I write less. I do less outside. Doomscrolling YouTube makes me unhappy, yet I find myself doing it day after day.
Logically, I know the algorithm is set to make me sit in this behavior, so it is not entirely my fault, but I could be doing more to stop myself from giving in to this addiction.
I never use YouTube on a computer. This is strictly a phone behavior for me. My phone is much more accessible. I have an Android phone. YouTube comes pre-installed straight from the factory and you can't delete the app. Only disable it. (If you can actually delete it, and you know how, please let me know.)
Naturally, the first step I have taken, many times, is to simply disable the app. This works fine. I typically don't seek out the settings app to re-enable YouTube. However, what my monkey brain does to circumnavigate the blocked app is pop open YouTube in my phone's browser. I then proceed to scroll away hours of my life watching terrible short form content that is not even set to my algorithm because I am not logged in to YouTube on my phone's browser. So, not only am I force feeding myself bad content, it is content I typically don't even enjoy.
I was watching a Jared Henderson video this morning called Why We Can't Stop Scrolling.
I made a decision then and there that it is time to make a change. I am also currently reading Cal Newport's Deep Work. I love Cal Newport's work. I highly recommend it.
Newport's book and Henderson's video came together in this kind of perfect storm that pushed me into action to make a meaningful change in my life for the better.
This behavior of mine makes me unhappy. My attention span is shorter, and with ADHD, I already ride the struggle bus in that department. I don't need to add fuel to the fire. I have been trying to break myself of this habit for years, but have been unsuccessful. I don't like scrolling endlessly for hours on end, but I lack the self control to beat this thing on my own. I need help. I need to enact a nuclear option, and find a way to block YouTube on my phone's browser.
I believe that if I can eliminate this threat to my well being I will be able to focus more on the things I truly enjoy such as reading, writing posts for this blog, being outdoors and spending quality time with my family.
I thought enacting this nuclear option would be simple. A few clicks in my browser settings and I should be good to go. Why didn't I think of and do this thing years ago? I use Duck Duck Go mostly. It is great at privacy, surely it has some kind of setting I can use to block certain websites.
Apparently not.
What follows is literal hours of me chatting to AI for solutions, reading forums, checking out different third party applications, examining the settings in different browsers trying to find a solution to this seemingly easy problem to fix.
In short, Duck Duck Go does not offer website blocking. Come on Duck Duck Go, that should be an easy thing to implement. I love your product, but you lose points here.
Google Chrome also lacks this feature on mobile as one cannot use plug-ins.
I explored third party apps like, Stay Focused, but ultimately decided I didn't want to give them that much access to my phone.
I tried Android's native Digital Wellbeing tool, but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. It provides location, and time based blocks, but I wanted a full-on permanent solution that I could set and forget. Something that would take me too much time to undo. I believe that if something like this takes a lot of effort to setup, it will likely take a lot of effort to undo. I can be pretty lazy at times, so it is my hope that a complex process will prevent me from quickly disabling the block and scratching my YouTube itch.
My semi-trusty ChatGPT tool recommended I try using a DNS block through Cleanbrowsing.org. I never thought of this option for personal use. I know my library uses a similar technology to filter our Wi-Fi and public access computers. ChatGPT walked me through the whole process. Clean Browsing's website also has handy step-by-step instructions on how to set this up. I won't go into details here as they do a much better job of explaining the process than I can. It is very simple though.
DNS stands for Domain Name System. As I understand it, domains are the human readable formats to IP addresses that we commonly access, such as YouTube.com or Facebook.com. A DNS block, like Clean Browsing, allows one to filter out the sites and content they don't want to see while using the internet.
I used their Family Filter on my phone to try and get the functionality I am looking for. It did a good job of filtering sites like Reddit. I am not opposed to blocking that particular site either. I used to be an avid Redditor, but broke that habit years ago by deleting my account, but much like YouTube, I sometimes find myself mindlessly scrolling their homepage without an account.
The filter works great! Unfortunately, for me, it only places YouTube in safe mode, so I was still able to access it and all the normal content I watch.
Despite this negative for me, I went ahead and placed this DNS filter on my eldest daughter's device. She has entered her teenage years, but I still feel an overwhelming need to protect her from the world for as long as possible. I would rather her learn about things like sex, drugs and rock n’ roll, through a book than some goober on the internet. That may just be the librarian in me, but I digress.
My wife and I had been using Google's Family Link for years, but apparently when a child turns thirteen Google thinks you don't need to monitor their activity anymore and we lost the ability to filter her phone. I wish I had known about DNS filtering a year ago. She's a good kid, and I trust her, but the internet is a tricky place.
Anways, what do I do now that Clean Browsing didn't work out for me? Back to ChatGPT for another DNS option! It was quickly becoming apparent to me that a DNS filter would be the way to go. I just had to find the right one for my needs.
ChatGPT recommended NextDNS for a customizable DNS filter option that would allow me to fully block YouTube.
The one drawback to this option is that you have to create an account. Something I would prefer to avoid, but if it makes my life better, I am willing to give it a go.
I made my account, which was very easy. Went through their filtering options and blocked YouTube and Reddit. I followed their instructions for applying the custom DNS filter to my device, which are identical to those of Cleanbrowsing.org. I cleared my Duck Duck Go. I opened it back up and tried going to both the YouTube and Reddit sites. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero.
Perfection.
Now this was a very simple process to set up once I knew what I was doing. The research involved was much higher than the execution. But if you're struggling with the same problem as me and looking for a solution, this may be it.
I will post an update in a month or so and let you know if I have seen an improvement in my happiness, productivity, and life.
Thanks for reading.
2/100