I use the Unhook add-on in all browsers to remove all addictive and manipulative features from YouTube's website: recommended videos, trending videos, shorts, autoplay, and even the homepage, which has become a hodgepodge of the others. As I've mentioned before, YouTube is just too good at wasting my time. I've actually disabled the YouTube app on my phone, forcing myself to use their website instead, so that I can always benefit from Unhook. I recommend everyone install it.
Here's another technique I use to make gadgets less manipulative and addictive, in addition to perpetually using Do Not Disturb on my phone and smartwatch:
I use Focus mode on Android during work hours. The feature disables apps of my choosing during the specified time frame. It's actually not quite as helpful as it might seem, largely because Google allows the user to work around it very easily, almost encouraging the user to stop using it, but it's one small piece of a larger puzzle. I'm sure iOS has something similar, and perhaps it's not quite as self-defeating over there.
As part of my ongoing effort to share techniques for making modern devices less addictive and manipulative, here's another trick I use in addition to perpetually using Do Not Disturb on my smartphone:
My smartwatch is always in Do Not Disturb mode. It only makes noise when an alarm or timer goes off, and it never vibrates. There are no other exceptions because Wear OS apparently doesn't allow them. (I wouldn't mind getting a buzz from FitBit when it's time to move, but configuring that does not appear to be possible.)
Some might wonder why I have a smartwatch at all. It's a good question. Aside from knowing the time, I mostly use it to track my sleep. I honestly don't care about most of the other features.
edit (2025-12-14): Some time after writing this blog post, I sold the smartwatch and got a mechanical watch, which I recommend! I track my sleep using another app, and I honestly don't even need to do that. I don't need sleep tracking to know what worsens or improves my sleep.
I can become absorbed by technology like anyone else, but the nature of my absorption sometimes looks different because I work hard to make my gadgets less addictive. Over time, I'd like to share some of the techniques I use. Here's the first one, which I've mentioned before:
My phone is always in Do Not Disturb mode. I don't get any beeps or buzzes, except for emergency alerts, alarms, calendar reminders, phone calls within certain parameters (close contacts, repeat callers, etc.), and Slack messages from colleagues. I almost never need to be immediately alerted about anything else; I check my phone often enough already.
Interestingly, this isn't very easy to configure. Modern devices mostly require that we opt out of distractions, rather than opt in. Put another way, if the mode that respects our attention is called Do Not Disturb, what is the ordinary mode called?
“If you take on a role that’s beyond your capabilities, you not only disgrace yourself in that one, but you’ve also passed up the role that you were capable of performing well.”
—The Enchiridion of Epictetus, as newly translated by Robin Waterfield in The Complete Works
I don't care about likes, comments, and shares. I don't care how many people subscribe to my blog.
Sounds pretty bold. Of course, it's a lie. We're all human. We all want to be liked.
I don't want those metrics to change my behavior, however. I don't want to be manipulated, however subtly, by algorithms and the faint praise of fake online friends. I'd rather be underappreciated than sell out. I'd rather be ignored than say things I don't believe.
What was the point of giving SARS-CoV-2 variants names from the Greek alphabet (Delta, Omicron, etc.) if all the sub-variants of Omicron are given unusable names like BA.2.86 and JN.1? Surely, the alphabetic names helped us communicate about the virus and take its mutations seriously. That seems almost impossible now, even on an entirely practical level, above and beyond the misinformation and politics surrounding COVID.