Going against habit

A week doesn’t seem like a long time but considering that a day wouldn’t pass without me typing “you…” and having the browser auto-predict that I want to open the land of milk and time-wasting that is YouTube, it really is something! Something that wasn’t easy at all.

Friday

All the other days of the week, I was definitely fine. Until Friday.

And this is because usually on Friday afternoons, I open up my YouTube and watch videos till the evening. (Yes, my Friday afternoons are quite drab. It’s not a competition). So on the Friday I didn’t have YouTube, I really felt it. It being withdrawal symptoms.

Now, I don’t know the intensity of withdrawal symptoms that people who have had a drug addiction go through but I am sure they are almost the same as what I felt on Friday.

I felt a sense of something missing, a longing for YouTube, to just open it. I didn’t have an idea of what I wanted to watch. I just wanted it there.

It is in the moment that I realised that yes, YouTube (and social media) really is addictive.

But I distracted myself by relying on my other nemesis…

WhatsApp

Yes, I haven’t watched YouTube in a week but my usage of WhatsApp shot up. Not dramatically but significantly, especially for someone who already thought I spend more time than is necessary on Zuck’s messaging app.

I was really conscious about simply replacing the YouTube addiction and misuse with misusing WhatsApp which is my other enemy and I sort of failed in that.

Of course, it’s not a 1 to 1 match for the time you will spend. For example, WhatsApp, once you are not in conversation with no one, you can easily close the app unlike YouTube which presents to you more eye candy in the form of attracting thumbnails and videos once you refresh the page.

Conclusion

I have been more productive in a way. Finally began to make progress on a project of mine and started being a bit more intentional, but I am definitely not where I want to be.

As for WhatsApp, it’s another battle that I have commenced. I am experimenting with a few things to see healthy ways to still have WhatsApp in my life. I will probably have to outline why WhatsApp is a problem to me because I have just realised that some people might not understand why I don’t like WhatsApp so much.

Onwards I guess…