You Tube Addiction

It's my pride that I don't have ANY social media accounts. Yep, no Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Though, I love watching YouTube videos to a fault. I am addicted to it.

I decided to take a break from watching YouTube videos.

I can't deny how useful YouTube videos are. Hey, I learned how to cut my own hair to save money when I was still working abroad. 

I used to love watching vlogs to cure my homesickness. It served a purpose but I thought it got out of hand.

So, On October 27, 2019, at around 1:00 PM I stopped watching YouTube videos cold turkey.

And man... the first two days were difficult but I've never had enough time in my life.

What was my YouTube viewing habits?

As I said, I started watching YouTube to cure my homesickness and to be updated with what was life back home. I do remember that I loved watching Say Tioco's videos. When she became well-known, I searched for another not-so-popular vlogger, and I came across Anna Cay and Simply Rhaze's videos, but when they got popular, I searched for another not-so-popular Filipino vlogger... you know the pattern.

I don't know why, but I don't like watching popular vloggers because of the sponsorship, the biased- reviews and somewhat curated or scripted lifestyle and I don't want to be fed with consumerism and materialism information through vlogging, so I constantly searched for budding vloggers. Well, that was just my thing. I don't have anything against those vloggers I've mentioned. 

The Process of Quitting

Oh man, the first few hours were insane. I just noticed that I picked up my phone randomly and just scrolled automatically through my YouTube newsfeed, and I started journaling to analyze my emotions and feelings towards it. The second day was worse, so I decided to pick a book and start reading again. Since I haven't read a book for a long time, it took me a while to get into the groove of reading and it was difficult to absorb information, so I swapped my Think Like A Freak book to Harry Potter books and I've never been so happier. Once I get into the groove of reading again, I'd like to progress into more difficult books, just like before. Man, I remember reading books constantly in the US. I could do 2 books a week but now, my reading comprehension skills have slowed down. I need to strengthen it again. 

It has been a week since I quit watching YouTube and I feel free. Sure, I still will watch YouTube videos in the future but I would love to be selective about it. I love watching anything related to ESL teaching to hone my teaching skills, but for now, it's put on hold until I can control myself.