A Recent Shift

[caspex]

I had been having a pretty overwhelming few weeks of not being able to follow my schedule, follow my promises both to myself and others until it got to the tipping point. I told my online friend who I had been working on a project with and we agreed to cut contact for 2 weeks, so that I can have room to figure stuff out regarding schedules and procrastination. That same day I got sick with a cold that lasted 4 days, it taught me a lot about gratitude...

I gave up on all my duties and rested. During this period I had my shift. I listed down all my distractions and eliminated them one by one. A major time waster in this was YouTube shorts. So I checked all the shorts for |Not Interested | until YouTube stopped recommending me shorts. Now I have even stopped using the app unnecessarily. I am mostly on my desktop, and have downloaded an extension called DF YouTube. Using which I can hide the comments and suggested videos. I can also hide all the videos YouTube recommends on the home page + trending tab. This has freed up way more time than I expected.

I always took pride in the fact that I didn't use much social media except YT, which I thought of as different , especially because I chose my content. I was wrong... YouTube was only simpler and harder to get addicted to until a couple years back. With the addition of YouTube Shorts, movement of comment section upwards below the video player, removal of the counter on the dislike button, etc. are all attempts by YouTube to get you addicted. YouTube Shorts used to pause when you opened the comment section but they removed even that. The short keeps playing when you read a comment, which I think is also a big part in reducing your attention span and getting you addicted. Now, YouTube is just like any other social media and I should be careful with it. Please do not demonize YT however, I am just stating my observations. 

Now that I am only consuming things that I want (for eg. Spiritual videos, Stanford and MIT Lectures, good music, meaningful documentaries), without any distractions, I feel much happier. I do not feel a constant compulsion to go for the next dopamine hit anymore and my days feel slower. 

One crucial lesson I have learned is that there should not be a constant influx of random information which may or may not be of use. Examples: 5 tricks that might save your life one day; Watch how this man jumps 12 feet; Memes; Biased and too much Negative News as opposed to General Knowledge News; etc. What there should be is an influx of consciously curated information and practice about select fields that the individual wants to learn about. This will feel slower but is in fact the fastest way to learn tons of things properly. Taking in of only tid-bits of information from many different fields constantly will make you confused and waste your time.

I feel content most of the day with a clear mind now. I finally feel that I have reached the normal level of what a human should feel. (Maybe not truly due to toxins and pollution, etc. but keeping all that aside.) I have started to dance and listen to music almost everyday and love my sleep. 

Reason for me making this post is that I want to concretize this new shift in my mind by sharing it with other people. Because I can't share this with the people I know in real life (since they wouldn't be interested).

Unlike an increase in the outer reaches of my spiritual understanding of life, this is a shift in my baseline.

Edited December 25, 2021 by Swarnim

[Jakuchu]

Yeah, youtube is like the final boss when it comes to eliminating addictions. But I quite like youtube, because it is so diverse