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I'm in withdrawal from giving up YouTube. What websites do you check daily?

10 points by danschumann ↗ HN

16 comments

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RpFLCL
YT is a difficult site to give up, many sites I would recommend to help pass the time end up linking there (ex /r/mealtimevideos)

But off the top of my head:

- default sub reddits (news, worldnews) - niche sub reddits (homelab, rtlsdr)

- HN, Of course

- My own curated list of podcasts. Handy while at home and out walking/biking

- Hackaday.com (unfortunately for this example it often links to YT)

- News sites with free streams (DemocracyNow!, Aljazeera English)

- Niche image boards run for/by friends

- Blogs (either via local bookmarks or rss or a dashboard like tumblr)

Beyond websites there are protocols like IRC with communities that can keep you very well occupied.

When there's nothing left, it can also be nice to get away from the computer a bit :)

miguelrochefort
Why are you giving up YouTube?
danschumann
I still watch videos if they're linked on other sites, or if I have a specific search, but I've given up just clicking video after video. I found myself spending more time than I would have liked.
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deftturtle
4chan is a good alternative. It has engaging comment threads and diverse interests. Really nice community and new memes. It's like the bleeding edge of the internet. /s
mesozoic
Try to find a creative hobby to fill the time instead of a consumptive hobby you may find it more rewarding
muzani
I actually have a "whitelist" in advance of things that I'm allowed to procrastinate on. HN is on the whitelist, as well as Indie Hackers and Twitter (my Twitter is more a chore than entertainment).

Other things were calming games like Transport Giant, Stardew Valley, Recettear. Some TV series too, mostly cartoons like Futurama and Adventure Time. Don't do Rick & Morty, too addictive.

That way, even when I'm wasting time, I feel somewhat satisfied with the entertainment I get. A lot of entertainment doesn't actually raise your "fun" bar, YouTube being one of them.

hkmurakami
HN (I hide articles aggressively). FB (I unfollow aggressively). Team Liquid (~5 thread subscriptions). WSJ.
tmaly
I prefer to use newsletters to reduce the amount of time I am on websites.

That being said, I still enjoy http://hckrnews.com/ to see what was top on HN.

I also frequent the forum on indiehackers.com to ask questions and share advice on side projects

quickthrower2
Reddit, Hacker News, Google News, Stack Overflow
zapperdapper
I recently bought a bunch of courses from Udemy in their Black Friday sale (they were down from £200 a pop to £10) - so I'm doing a bit on those courses each day at the Udemy site. I do still check YT from time to time though simply for the conference presentations (CPPCON etc.)

I don't do social media such as FB / LI etc. - I did try Twitter recently but gave up - it drove me nuts - there are some good people on there though! I now follow them through inoreader.com where they have an Atom feed.

I try to do one little thing on my own website every day. It feels more constructive than just reading a site.

I check HN most days though. I used to check BBC news and Guardian every couple of days, but hardly ever at all these days - far too depressing!

For a while I got addicted to FlightRadar24.com - it started when I saw a plane going over and wondered where it was headed (Chicago it turned out). I still check it now and then when I see a vapour trail high in a clear blue sky...