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8/14/2025
The other night I decided to put a time limit on Youtube. There's about a million reasons I did this but the two main reasons are the implimentation of essensially manditory age verification and my dopamine addiction.
I use Youtube to study, but recently, I've been unable to get myself off the app. This is largely due to the Youtube Shorts feature. The short form content combined with infinite scrolling is a dopamine tar pit for anyone, but especially me due to my ADHD. This is why I deleted TikTok a few years ago, I couldn't stop myself from opening the app and losing hours to mindless scrolling. It scares me that it's so easy to get trapped like that. I know it's by design and that just makes it scarier.
Furthermore, I put a limit to protect myself from the age verification feature. I don't fully understand how the new verification system works, but from what I've gathered Youtube has implimented an AI that essensially tracks the kinds of content you consume and uses that to determine if you're over 18. Then, if you are flagged as under 18 you have to prove that you are 18+ or have your account restricted. To verify your age Youtube wants your ID. It's all invasive and feels downright dystopian to me. I could go on about this for hours, but I'll save that for a later essay.
In summary, I limited my time on Youtube to protect myself and my time while still allowing me to use the site for school (since teachers love having you watch 1 hour videos for homework).
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