It’s true, I quit watching YouTube 30-something days ago.

It was time. My attention got sucked into YouTube, away from the things I wanted to be doing, like writing blog posts and doing printmaking workshops and getting my house in order.

There were a few ground rules. First, it wasn’t just YouTube. It was also Vimeo, or Bitchute, or any other streaming video service (like Unauthorized.tv, which was launched at the most inopportune time). Second, regular TV and movies were allowed, because I don’t get sucked into them. They are discrete packets. Third, I could access YouTube at work for work purposes only—watching a replay of a webinar, but not listening to Pewdiepie in the background. There was also one (1) time when YouTube was accessed when I was in a group setting.

The transition was not nearly as difficult as I thought, although I did struggle for a bit at the beginning filling my evenings with sound—to drown out the quiet—as I had become used to the endless chatter of the tellybox. Not the way I want to live my life.

I appreciate the silence now. It gives me space away from the rest of the world. I only see what I choose to see.

I also discovered some pretty great internet radio stations.

You don’t notice, often, when something creeps its way into your life and grows roots. YouTube was certainly like that for me. Here are some ways that removing it revealed pain points:

  • By far my biggest practical frustration is not being able to use YouTube for “how to” videos. There have been a few times when I’ve encountered a problem and known I could find the answer on the ‘Tube. But, no. I have to do it myself, the old fashioned way, by reading the instructions. Similarly with product reviews.
  • It’s awkward telling someone in your life that you can’t watch the video they just excitedly sent you, because you quit YouTube for Lent. I have a whole list of things built up to watch now, which almost defeats the purpose of quitting in the first place.
  • Western fans of K-pop are very dependent on YouTube. I still haven’t reviewed NCT 127’s “Wakey Wakey” because it just got uploaded to Spotify, instead of a month ago when the music video was posted. The lack of video content has also highlighted how much of k-pop is a visual experience.

Mostly, these are first-world problems. I will probably continue to keep YouTube to a minimum in my life, even after the season of Lent is over. The sheer amount of time that I have to be productive is amazing.

I did find myself, occasionally, after finishing an episode of Cadfael, hover over the “browse” button. My brain wanted to settle in to a good session of moving-picture-theater. The temptation is real. So I closed out and did something else.

If anything, the YouTube ban has shown me that I can, in fact, be in control of my YouTube watching habits.

Gotta show the restlesss spirit who’s in charge.