Smartphone usage and Youtube
I have read a lot of posts and seen a lot of videos about reducing screentime. But I just wanted to write down what is currently working for me even though I still have a long way to go when it comes to my phone screentime.
First, Youtube. I am on of those people saying "I don't use social media except youtube that's different". While that may be true, it does not help that I spent hours every day watching youtube on the phone or even just have a video running as background noise while playing a videogame.
So I deleted the youtube app from my phone and I try to use youtube more mindfully so that I watch it on my TV or PC so I can't do other stuff and I have to actively choose to watch youtube instead of just automatically reaching for the phone scrolling.
Another important tip for youtube is to deactivate the history in your google account settings. That leaves you with just your subscribe page and the search bar if you actively have something in mind you want to watch.
Second, grey scale the phone screen.
The previous times I deleted the youtube app I found myself after a few days just opening youtube in the webbrowser...
This time I also activated the grey scale option and somehow this combination works in demotivating me after a few minutes even if I start to type youtube in the browser.
So summarized if youtube is your main screentime culprit, you can try deleting the app, turn on grey scale and deactivate the history.
It has helped me steadily reducing my screentime (at least on the phone) for the last ~3 weeks.