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YouTube, The Evil Monster?
YouTube is a bit like fire, a good servant but a bad master. I tried to abstain from YouTube for a week and failed but I did learn one thing in this attempt at abstinence. I learned that there are ways in which YouTube could be a force for good and if it is to be used it must be used with intention. The evil of YouTube is in the indiscriminate hopping from video to video for hours. This is like lighting a fire in the middle of a house and placing a can of petrol beside it. It goes off in your face and only serves the people behind the algorithms and not the users. The users are just the fodder that funds the wealthy and the greedy. They are the ones who write the algorithms. But if it can be used with intention and not scrolled through like an ape who likes bright shinny things, then it can be a force for good.
So now, before I start using it I write down what I am searching for and I stick to that. I make playlists of appropriate videos and I make notes on the ones I watch. When the information is gained it’s then that willpower is needed to resist the tentacles that are dangerously swirling in the ether trying to ensnare us. Is it evil, yes it is. Evil if it is allowed to be evil, and like fire it is truly a good servant but a bad master.
Make Time
Reading a great book at the minute called Make Time, it has made me rethink a lot about the bad habits that have dogged, it has made me realise that intention is everything. So if I want to kick back and waste time then do so with intention. I don’t delude myself into thinking I am being productive because acting without intention is the opposite of being productive. YouTube is what the writers of Make Time refer to as an infinity pool - an endless source of distraction. Use it with care or you’ll get burned.
#Medium
