WEBVTT - YouTube's Digital Wellbeing Tools

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<v Speaker 1>YouTube's new tools to help you keep tabs on how

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<v Speaker 1>much you watch.

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<v Speaker 2>What's going on. I'm rich Demiro. This is Rich on tech.

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<v Speaker 1>YouTube is introducing some new ways to help you stay

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<v Speaker 1>on a good digital diet. This is part of a

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<v Speaker 1>bigger trend we're seeing around digital wellness from big companies

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<v Speaker 1>including Google, Facebook, Apple, and more. Now YouTube's new tools

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<v Speaker 1>are in the mobile app. To get to them, just

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<v Speaker 1>open the app and then tap your profile picture. Usually

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<v Speaker 1>it's in the upper right hand corner. Then look for

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<v Speaker 1>the new section labeled time watched.

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<v Speaker 2>Once you open this up, you can immediately see your

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<v Speaker 2>viewing stats. You can see how much time you spent

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<v Speaker 2>watching today, yesterday, the past week, or your daily average.

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<v Speaker 1>This can be a handyway for parents to check in

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<v Speaker 1>on their kids to see how much YouTube they're really

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<v Speaker 1>watching on a daily basis, But as a regular person,

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<v Speaker 1>you can also just see for yourself.

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<v Speaker 2>Am I watching too much YouTube?

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<v Speaker 1>That I watch more or less than I thought over

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<v Speaker 1>the past couple of weeks. Down below this information are

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<v Speaker 1>some tools to help you manage your YouTube time, including

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<v Speaker 1>an option to remind you to take a break. You

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<v Speaker 1>can set this frequency as you like, whether it's every

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<v Speaker 1>fifteen minutes every hour, or really whatever you want. Once

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<v Speaker 1>you hit this time limit, you're gonna get a friendly

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<v Speaker 1>screen telling you to take a break. And yes, you

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<v Speaker 1>might be thinking yourself, Hey, rich this was already in

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<v Speaker 1>my app before.

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<v Speaker 2>Yes, you're right.

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<v Speaker 1>This is a relatively new feature, but it has been

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<v Speaker 1>in the app for a little bit of time. But

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<v Speaker 1>now it's all under this new section labeled time watched.

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<v Speaker 1>Underneath the option to remind you to take a break

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<v Speaker 1>is a toggle to turn auto play off. AutoPlay is

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<v Speaker 1>one of the ways that YouTube gets us to watch

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<v Speaker 1>and watch and watch, So if you have this problem

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<v Speaker 1>where you keep watching you're spending too much mindless time

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<v Speaker 1>on the site, it's probably a good idea to turn

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<v Speaker 1>this off. And if you have kids that are watching YouTube,

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<v Speaker 1>like I talked about in a couple of episodes ago,

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<v Speaker 1>it's a good idea to turn off auto play because

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<v Speaker 1>you never know if that next video is going to

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<v Speaker 1>be appropriate for them. After this, the next two toggles

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<v Speaker 1>are very useful. The first is called Scheduled Digest. This

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<v Speaker 1>bundles all of your new subscription, video alerts and other

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<v Speaker 1>YouTube notifications to one giant notification at a specific time

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<v Speaker 1>now I definitely see the pros and cons of this one.

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<v Speaker 1>As a creator, you don't really want people turning this

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<v Speaker 1>on because they're not going to be immediately notified when

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<v Speaker 1>your next video drops. Plus, if your video notification is

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<v Speaker 1>bundled in with a bunch of other people's video notifications,

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<v Speaker 1>there's a.

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<v Speaker 2>Good chance that your video won't be watched.

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<v Speaker 1>Now, on the flip side, you do get to pick

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<v Speaker 1>the delivery time for your digest notification, so that means

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<v Speaker 1>you can choose a time when you know you're sitting

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<v Speaker 1>around or you know you're gonna have some free time

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<v Speaker 1>each day to catch up on your video subscription. So

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<v Speaker 1>for me personally, I get these little notifications from some

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<v Speaker 1>of the creators. I've turned on that bell for throughout

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<v Speaker 1>the day and I'm at work, I'm busy, and guess what,

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<v Speaker 1>I just swipe them away. Now, if I knew it,

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<v Speaker 1>let's say three PM, when I was sitting in front

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<v Speaker 1>of my TV, I was able to watch some of

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<v Speaker 1>these things and had some time, then perhaps I would

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<v Speaker 1>be more app to watching these videos. So it's definitely

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<v Speaker 1>a pro and con to that one. You can turn

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<v Speaker 1>it on if you find it useful. The final setting

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<v Speaker 1>is sort of a do not disturb, but just for YouTube.

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<v Speaker 1>You can silence notification during a timeframe that you specify.

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<v Speaker 2>So if you don't want YouTube.

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<v Speaker 1>Nagging you while you're at work, you can set those

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<v Speaker 1>as your silent hours. Now, keep in mind this feature

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<v Speaker 1>might overlap with your standard do not disturb setting, so

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<v Speaker 1>keep that in mind when you're setting it up.

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<v Speaker 2>But realistically it doesn't matter.

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<v Speaker 1>It's just for the app. You can set it as

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<v Speaker 1>you like. So why the big emphasis on digital wellness

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<v Speaker 1>right now? Well, it just seems like we're spending a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of time on our phones and if we let

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<v Speaker 1>every single app notify us every single time they want

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<v Speaker 1>our attention, we'll think about it. We won't have any

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<v Speaker 1>time in our days for anything else. And already we

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<v Speaker 1>notice this happening. Controls like this are letting us take

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<v Speaker 1>back the digital rains. And on that note, I've been

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<v Speaker 1>testing Google's new digital well Being feature in Android nine PI,

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<v Speaker 1>and it's really interesting because there's a lot of aspects

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<v Speaker 1>of this that I like. Because these phones are new,

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<v Speaker 1>all these notifications are new, we're still figuring out how

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<v Speaker 1>to deal with them in our everyday lives. So, for instance,

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<v Speaker 1>the do not Disturb feature in Pie literally takes away

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<v Speaker 1>any notifications on my screen while I'm sleeping.

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<v Speaker 2>Or if I'm out at night and I have it

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<v Speaker 2>turned on.

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<v Speaker 1>And the neat thing about these notifications is when they're

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<v Speaker 1>out of sight, they're out of mind. You're not even

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<v Speaker 1>thinking to check them if you don't see them on

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<v Speaker 1>your screen personally. I've also set thirty minute timers on

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<v Speaker 1>all of my social media apps, so I get thirty

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<v Speaker 1>minutes to use Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter each day, and

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<v Speaker 1>you can set that number to whatever you want. I

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<v Speaker 1>just pick thirty. It was kind of arbitrary just to

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<v Speaker 1>see what it was, and I've been hitting my limit

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<v Speaker 1>mostly in the early evening, maybe five six o'clock, and

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<v Speaker 1>it's kind of liberating because that's the time I spend

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<v Speaker 1>out my kids. And once that happens, the app, like

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<v Speaker 1>my Twitter icon, is literally grade out and I cannot

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<v Speaker 1>use it. I can't open it, I can't see any

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<v Speaker 1>notifications from it until the next day. And sure I

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<v Speaker 1>can probably override the time out somehow by going into

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<v Speaker 1>the settings, but so far I haven't. I haven't even

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<v Speaker 1>felt the need to. You just sort of forget about

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<v Speaker 1>checking the app again. Until the morning when it's not

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<v Speaker 1>great out anymore, and you can use it again. So

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<v Speaker 1>I think that this is actually serving its purpose. The

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<v Speaker 1>other side effect is that I don't want to waste

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<v Speaker 1>time in these apps because I know that every minute

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<v Speaker 1>spent inside of them is precious and I might need

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<v Speaker 1>that time later on in the day to share something

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<v Speaker 1>or to comment on something, or do whatever inside Facebook,

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<v Speaker 1>Twitter or Instagram. Now for me, this is a little

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<v Speaker 1>bit complicated because part of my job relies on social media,

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<v Speaker 1>so I'm still figuring out.

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<v Speaker 2>That and how to navigate that properly.

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<v Speaker 1>But the bottom line is, Look, we're all spending wasted

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<v Speaker 1>time inside these apps, so I'm sure we can all

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<v Speaker 1>trim it just a little bit. Apple's also going to

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<v Speaker 1>introduce a similar feature in the next version of their

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<v Speaker 1>operating system iOS twelve.

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<v Speaker 2>Which is going to launch in a few weeks.

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<v Speaker 1>And although all these limits seem counterintuitive to the businesses

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<v Speaker 1>that these tech companies have built, which are basically based

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<v Speaker 1>on grabbing our attention, in the end, they're seeing this

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<v Speaker 1>self regulation as a good first step.

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<v Speaker 2>Thanks so much for listening.

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<v Speaker 1>If you want links to more information on these YouTube

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<v Speaker 1>controls or digital wellbeing in general.

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<v Speaker 2>Go to my website.

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<v Speaker 1>It's Rich on tech dot TV, or check the show notes.

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<v Speaker 2>I'm Rich Damiro. I'll talk to you real soon.