No youtube, No Gaming, or No Digital Consumption Challenge
21-May-2026 to 23-June-2026
Progress report/Journal
Day 1
Just writing this blog sort of lifts a lot of weight from my shoulders. I just wanted to highlight how much a relief it is just to know that I won't be gaming or consuming social media.
Maybe it's hell for others who never stopped to think about where they are going in life but I am not like that. I feel terrible all the time if I see my life not amounting to anything. Most of the jobs that I quit was for this reason and this reason only because I stopped and thought to myself, "Is this it? Is this what I have become. Is this how it continues and then ends?"
I realize that this might come as a surprise to many and I have seen it my life also. Most people have suppressed these thoughts to the point it feels like it isn't there and are just busy making money, growing money, consuming stuff, enjoying the stuff money brings them a lot.
Just to be clear, before I move from this to other things is that, I am not using this to be on a high horse like many scientists do as Einstein explained[Read/Listen to Zen & The art of Motorcycle Maintenance]. I am NOT saying I am better than other people in any ways, actually that's not a part of my motivation at all.
I do however, genuinely want to answer stuff about life for myself and if quitting these things takes me more towards that goal, maybe tell others about it also, at least those who will listen to me. I guess that's why I am writing this blog publicly in the first place.
Anyways, lots of big words but let's see what actually happens now.
Just letting myself get bored and think about the content I consumed in the name of gaming and youtube was shit. Maybe just gaming was fine but when I play games, I feel compelled to check the latest gaming content simply because the same urge to belong to a community was too overpowering but I have to understand that a real community where you can physically meet up people can't be replaced by one that is online.
Instead of living in the ignorance of this, it's better I stop thinking of myself as a "Gamer" belonging to the "Gaming Community," or a "Tech Person" belonging to the "Tech Community," and feeling obligated to consume horrible content again and again just to feel like I belong where in reality I am just another few words of text which is just feeding an AI to takeover the humanity.
In other words, "The content around both gaming and tech on youtube is absolute dog shit."
Everyone's doing this with burning thing and making fun of each other and talking about conspiracies and hatred and what not. I don't care if it's true or not, it doesn't enrich my life in anyway just like the fucking news which I don't watch anyways.
Day 2
Some time during the day I had the previous desire of starting youtube and simply watching everything that is wrong with harry potter movies even though I don't really like the movies and I already know all the plot holes in the books.
I guess it came out of a need to belong to a community more than actually wanting to figure out whatever is wrong with the whole Harry Potter stuff.
This, need to belong to community is very very strong and the primary reason I went onto YouTube and Gaming in the first place.
I know what's wrong with it and I know despite tons of stupid shit in the books, it works more as a three group of friends just living their life kind of way. It is all that but the need arose after I heard something I was a bit mad that this is blatantly bad writing.
I wanted to highlight this because the real solution is to simply listen to better books and not just jump on the bandwagon of making fun of this.
However, this is what happens if you stay on the internet for too long. You start to become negative first and start finding people who agree with you. This has become worse with AI who always will.
Apart from that when I was a bit overwhelmed with what work to pickup today, I really did want to boot up any random game, nothing specific and just forget all about it but I didn't. This desire to play video games almost was non-existent, it was mainly that I was bored and I didn't want to feel bored, but I found some other stuff to do. My quarter schedule really helped with that.
Apart from this, since I was not spending time with social media or gaming, I actually flipped a few pages from this excellent "Birkhaeusers Floor Plan Manual Housing (Fifth Revised and Expanded Edition) (Oliver Heckmann, Friedericke Schneider etc.)" book. It is supposed to be a technical book but a line really leapt out from it, which was, "To have easy access to possessions without sensing their presence all the time." And it really resonated with me.
I started to clean my desk which I was just postponing for months now. Here's a before and after picture, won't tell you which is before and which is after, let's see if you can figure it out.
None of this would have happened if I was still consuming social media and gaming.
Apart from this I also resumed my manga vs. movies/youtube again while having food as it allows me to speak to my Mother and others can approach you more easily. Sure, eating food just by itself is the ultimate goal but I don't cook very well yet so if I started to focus on the plain and the bland food I cook I might stop eating.
Also, it rained again today. The whole cloud was black and it only lasted for a little bit and wasn't much otherwise for sure I would have taken a bath but I did took a picture:
Apart from all this I also spend a lot of time doing actual work that was pending for a long time especially the Civil Engineering work as with anything new starting is a big part and at least I did all that.
There are two things bothering me: a retro tv game stick that I have already ordered and Death stranding which I have put on wishlist of Steam which I have already finished but just wanted to import my data from the Epic Game version to Steam and maybe do the last bit of extra stuff in the Director's Cut version. These two things I really bothering me as there were pre-planned very early.
However, if the benefits of this experiment continue I won't boot up the game and I won't bother completely testing the game stick like I have done before and will consider that I just lost the few thousands rupees instead.
Right now, I am not making any decision on it but I think I have already made up my mind to continue this as much as i can.
Day 3-8: Extending Challenge Beyond 7 days
For the two things bothering me I have decided to simply accept that I don't need to get my worth from it just because I paid for them, so when they do arrive, I will accept the amount spent on them and don't bother. Because even testing them breaks this challenge. Remember, no gaming is a strict part of it.
As you can see from the title, I have decided to extend it. Main reason being I had Harry Potter audiobook through with me and even watched a few movies while on this so it doesn't completely count.
However, it has made me more aware of the shit I consume in the name of consumption however, I have a lot of things to say but I am already late as per my schedule and i want to stick to my schedule.
Hera are some notes I made in those days:
Don't even care about yt or gaming really. At times during the day I get reminded of some video or clip and get that same urge to go watch it again but that urge goes away quickly now. The more I am in this challenge the easier it is becoming ignoring those distractions.
Also this is linked to my fasting, ever since I started consuming gaming and gaming/tech content on YouTube fasting has become very hard to the point that I can't even do a full day fast weekly as I used to before. But on this few days that I am not consuming those content I am very confident that I will be able to do a full day fast tomorrow.
I have done a lot more work than I ever imagined. It is true that I am listening to Harry Potter again mainly so that I don't get tempted for those things but they are about to finish pretty soon and I want to extend my no social media no gaming challenge a few more days.
Also I painted yesterday.
Day 22: Also started No Movies, No TV Challenge so that now this is a complete No Video Entertainment Challenge from now on.
#TODO
Also it seems pretty funny that I was able to do the No gaming, no Youtube challenge for 21 days which is considered the bare minimum for a habit formation.
Anyways, it was very needed as I had just replaced YouTube with Movies and TV and not much had changed. Now the real shit begins.
12th-13th June 2026: Few minutes of gaming to make sure I wasn't scammed then continuing the challenge.
As I explained before that I had ordered X9 Pro game stick much before the challenge even started and I was able to test everything in under 8 minutes and packed it up, taped it and put it back with all the other gaming stuff and also made instagram reels to sell this.
Apart from this, Death Stranding finally went on Sale on steam and I spent all the money I had already in the Steam account on this and even the Undertale game. I will just need to boot the game up tomorrow to see if my save can be transferred to the Director's Cut version on from normal on Epic, some say it's not possible, some require some exe hex changes, let's see. In any case, 5-10mins should be enough time in game to confirm if it worked or not.
Either way, I won't play the game, just test all.
I spent like half an hour trying to figure out the save data debacle but I ended up giving up because the game is great and I don't mind playing it again if and when I do have to anyways and just seeing all the stuff everywhere it might tempt me to play the game anyways.
However, I didn't even move the mouse when I was in game, I was just testing so it was not needed anyways. So let's continue this great cahallenge.
Challenge Ended around one month later
After a month of this, I fell into the habit of watching YouTube and Instagram reels not on my devices but on my mother's devices for the past few days around 30 days later.
Since this challenge was No YouTube and No Gaming, I still stuck to that until th every end but I should have done no video entertainment challenge instead and that's what starts right now.
However, there are enough positives to continue this:
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The Biggest Benefit: I spend a lot of time on personal growth now.
Earlier I used to speculate about personal growth for career and personal business too but I mostly ended up doing nothing because I spent a lot of time on movies, tv or social media. During this period, I have progressed in my courses enough to see the huge difference cutting off from these things might have.
-
Less stimulants that forces you to spiral into hunting mode for more entertainment or food
I didn't realize how aggressive the content recommendation system is. All the social media keeps trying to recommend each other or movies/tvs all the time.
And it also affects the food we eat. The number of recommendations for food was also very very aggressive. I loved the days I was with them. -
I opened YouTube many days later and I see the issue!
I just opened YouTube and going through my feed I realized that I don't really want to watch these content any more. These content add literally nothing to my life. All I do is keep consuming but never actually growing.
A lot of content I consumed just made me rile up and I enjoyed the witch-burning either of AI companies, the bubble, gaming, tech industry or literally anything else. It's a vindictive please which I want to explore more in belonging to a community blog.
Also, regarding the tech stuff, I don't need to watch so many videos. One thing I realized that many sites publish details without you ever having to sort to watching the videos. I have a good thing going and I would like that to continue so I closed YouTube within 5 minutes of opening it and would like to continue with the challenge in Video Entertainment Detox.
Rules
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youtube → The courses are available from MIT for direct download via archive.org. No need to even open YouTube.
Only for Courses via pre-saved playlist on LearnTube. I won't get distracted on this application as a great man covered in this video.However, still using it for individual research videos for particular stuff with extreme caution. -
Gaming → Only Just Dance via Wii
or Switch(Mods for Switch version) as they can't be abused. You can only dance physically so much. But apart from that everything, and I mean everything goes away.
On No Movies and No TV Challenge also.
Movies with family and by myself definitely increased. Will try to lower it by focussing on something else.
Note: Movies with family mean I am doing my certificate courses on my other laptop in the room. Movies with family aren't that engaging. I already don't consume TV, movies, any other social media so those really are not a problem for me as much.
Motivation Behind it
Why?
I just keep getting behind on my schedule that I want to follow and yes, the day passes easily with
youtube &
Gaming but at the end of the day I just feel like another day was lost and I have to reassure myself that I
will
- What would a better version of me do?
This concept has been taking shape in my head for quite some time now where I see whatever I have been doing consciously and sub-consciously and just imagine what a better version of me might have done who would not have gone through the same downs in life as I did.
To be clear, it's not regret or procrastination but more about finding the better parts inside me(That book really helped which I must have read months ago now: No Bad Parts).
And a better version of me would be so busy with other things in his life that he would not even think about gaming and that's a reality I have already lived last year. -
I miss music, dancing and other stuff
Every since I resumed playing games and watching youtube, I have stopped listening to songs, music and dancing to Just Dance. I really miss them because they are a different sort of entertainment in a way.
I even had plans for painting, learning the harmonica art forms maybe just a few minutes everyday but I have not been able to even start that for the last many months.
I would like to change that. -
I miss the roof
Ever since a kid, the top most floor of a building has always been my place. I can't explain it completely but before I started to game, going on the roof, working there, listening to books, sleeping but most of all, doing literally nothing and reflecting on the life has been a big part of me, whichever city I have been to.
I can't explain it completely but I truly have missed them. -
I miss the rain.
Before I used to game, I always used to rush out whenever there was a rain and I always used to enjoy in the rain while being in it.
Let's be clear, it's not the Victorian eating snacks and tea and enjoying the rain from your high moral stance and not getting wet.
I am talking messy, jumping in the rain and enjoying every second of it. I have always done this for as long as I can remember but ever since these dopamine heavy stuff- social media and gaming have come along, I just look at the rain, feel nothing and get back to whatever I was consuming.
Why even bother?
Yes, this is different from Motivation. Motivation is one thing but answering why does it even matter is lot more important in my opinion.
Here's why I think it's important:
- I don't want to die as a consumer but a creator.
Should be pretty self-explanatory but let me try. Everyone I know has accepted the fact that you have to keep working at a job you don't really give two shits about to make a lot of of money so you can buy stuff and travel and show-off on social media.
To be stuck in the perpetual rat race is now a dream for many and even if someone isn't working under someone, so not a rat race, they are still motivated by this fear/obsession of acquiring more and more and keep growing and not falling behind.
I want to say, "Money is important," but every time I give this thought even a little bit of attention it quickly spirals into the same thoughts as before. It starts with, "oh you absolutely need money to survive and shit" and turns into, "oh you absolutely need to buy this random shit otherwise what's the bloody point."
And many revolutions around the world starting with Japan where people simply don't buy new stuff but give to each other and learn to repair old stuff with many revolutions are actually in the same thought process of, "Money isn't important".
If you are reading this you might be shouting loudly trying to give hundreds of justifications and I might even agree with you but at least for this short period of time, I want to try to move towards a different way of living where I am not a consumer anymore. -
There has to be more to life
You know why people get scammed in the name of religion? Simply because there is something there. I am not talking about a God or something, but something that is more than just your selfish desires that you do for others. That's why charity works at whatever level it does.
The point being, there has to be more to life than just doing the chores, paying the bills and occasionally going out to parties and traveling. There HAS TO BE.
The reason I even started writing blogs more than 15 years ago was somehow trying to answer that question. -
Fuck, "Do it in moderation"
One thing I have learnt from my Physical Health Mega Blog is there are certain things in life that you are better off not even touching like sugar, processed foods and many more. No, "just take a little bit," or my Dad's favorite quote, "Do it in moderation," is a useless piece of advice.
When you know and have realized something is bad for you, why do you even want to take just a little bit of it?
I guess the reason people do that is to "enjoy" themselves because they haven't bothered to figure out any other non-material way of achieving the same emotions in them.
And it ties into the next point a little bit: -
Modern Entertainment has been designed to be addictive
1) Gaming:
Check the games that are popular now-a-days and you will see they are becoming more an more addictive. I already covered this in which game genres to avoid but even apart from those genres, the modern gaming has becoming so addictive that you can't put them down even after hours.
The same franchise's game from years ago weren't like that. Take Hitman for example: For no reason at all, they added this online feature to compete against other players and everything is full of dopamine rushes and I had to disable all of them to play like an assassin and not an assisted-assassin.
2) Social Media:
I believe this has been documented many times and most people feel it already so I won't bother much more than to say that there are psychologist and doctors who are designing these things to be as addictive as possible. It's all about keeping your attention with whatever means necessary.