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Now You Can Track How Much Time You Spend On YouTube Every Day

Google just released a tool that will help people understand their tech usage and I am a little bit afraid of it. Ok, a LOT afraid of it. I’m not so sure I want to know how much time I spend online. I mean… I know that I need stay connected for my job. At least, that’s what I tell myself. But no one is making me watch all those cute little cat videos! I just can’t pull myself away!! Somebody help me!!!

This new YouTube tool aims to do just that. Knowledge equals power and their plan is to show people just how much time we spend online. This way we can sit back and recognize that there are so many other things we could do with the 96 hours a week we clock into the Tube… like build an arc, or discover another galaxy, or find the meaning of life.

Now You Can Track How Much Time You've Spent On YouTube Every Day

So whether you’ve been wanting to cut down on those late night binge sessions or get your notifications under control, here are a few tips and tricks to get you started toward building your own sense of digital wellbeing:

  1. Know how much you actually watch (new!): To give you a better understanding of how much you watch, YouTube / Google has built a profile that’s available in your Account menu rolling out starting today. This profile tells you how long you’ve watched YouTube videos today, yesterday and over the past 7 days. I AM SO AFRAID TO LOOK AT THIS.
  2. Remind yourself to take a break: Once you know how much time you’re spending in the app, you may want to set a limit. Just head over to your settings and pick the amount of YouTube time that’s right for you. Once you’ve hit that limit, a friendly reminder will pop up on your screen
  3. Keep it to one notification a day: If you want more control over when you receive notifications from YouTube, you can bundle all of your YouTube push notifications into a single notification each day and set a specific time to receive your digest.
  4. Disable notification sounds and vibrations: Resisting the urge to check your phone when it buzzes is really difficult, and this can make it hard to fall asleep. So we’ve recently made a change to send all notifications without sound and vibration between 10pm and 8am. You can enable sounds and vibrations, or customize the start and end time in your settings.

Now You Can Track How Much Time You've Spent On YouTube Every Day

What do you think about these changes? Honestly, I think it’s a wonderful step in the right direction. Social media literally has changed society as we know it. In what way – that’s entirely up to you to decide. But I have such respect for this company because you and I both know that they don’t have to create these checks and balances. They could literally just continue to push out content and dominate the Interwebs as usual. But instead, they are keeping our best interests in mind which I absolutely appreciate.

I am grateful for these checks and balances and look forward to using them!

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