Rules
- No Social Media Consumption(I am still a creator so that will continue):
- No Gaming: The easiest to do ever since I put courses and projects on website, that has become my game instead.
Exception: Just Dance on Wii is the exception as it's not really a game but a dance routine.
I already put all the controllers and game consoles I own up for sale and have packed them away from my room. -
My Tech Channels were dead when the PC market crash happened. No point kidding myself that the next video might be great or something, and if I have to, I can do the same research with website which are less time consuming than YouTube.
youtube/Bilibili ONLY for reviews and courses I reference for work on my website and that also only between 1800-1900hrs. I will try my best with other sources first but if I have no choice, I will download the video instead of watching it on youtube.
This also means I won't watch youtube for idle tech content which is prevalent on youtube. If it's a product I am not reviewing, I am not watching a video for it.
For courses, I will simply download the videos instead of watching them online. - No Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and more social medias consumption at all. I still share reels on Instagram from time to time but there are enough elements disabled that I won't watch reels if I choose not to.
Note: In past just after uploading a content, the default behaviour is to show a random content, I will figure out a way to stop that. - No Shopping app that have short/live video setup in them. I have removed these apps from my phone and will only use it on the PC or on the tablet but will refrain from watching the constant barrage of stupid product videos.
- No LinkedIn except to apply jobs: It's now worse than Facebook and Twitter combined. I just open up the jobs page and apply for jobs and that's it.
I just changed the default landing page on linkedin to the jobs one and i removed the feed section completely. - No Movies/TV Shows: Now, this is going to be a challenge. As I already tried doing this and it was absolutely horrible to do, however, I had the most benefit in terms of productivity with this, so I am continuing this.
- No Second Hand Video Entertainment: And by other people I mean Mother & Father. Whenever I am near them, they keep consuming social media like crazy so I have decided to just leave if they are consuming social media. I will only engage with them if there is no video entertainment playing otherwise I wll move to another room completely.
The second hand content was the reason I had to quit my previous challenge anyways. - Any other video entertainment that I have not thought of yet.
Note: Video Entertainment is to be replaced by...
- After realizing that doing courses and projects in search for job that I might not even be able to do(family needs medical attention and has been doing so since 2020) I finally decided to drop it and go back to actually doing what I love and ever since that this challenge has become very easy.
- Courses & Projects(0600-1800hrs) and work for this website(only between 1800-2100hrs). That's the main thing, however, I am not an idiot, so the other things are.
- Music and Songs offline downloaded on my devices during the day. This has been a real help as I can get lost in thoughts and get bored. This keeps me on track.
- Manga(Physical Copies): While eating. As I explained before that all video entertainment's starting point was actually lunch where I had this habit of eating something only when something video is playing. I already have replaced this before with Manga but I would like to make it official.
- Audiobooks:Non-Fiction during the day and Fiction at night to sleep.
- Comics and Magazines on the Tablet, mainly when the going gets really tough and I need something to wind down. This is rare but I would still like to write this officially.
- Painting on the roof, some exercises, watering plants and whatever else I can find.
Motivation
It is time I combine by earlier two challenges viz. No Gaming, No youtube & No Movies, No TV into one combined challenge because they have a lot of parallels.
The earlier challenges were not concrete enough and didn't include all the cases. This will.
Progress
Newer Approach: Do it all or not at all!
Earlier I kept struggling where I would mostly watch Youtube, sometimes, second hand entertainment and rarely even movies or TV series, approaching it just as I approach my physical health which is, now that I realize a bad approach.
With my physical health, stopping all forms of bad foods can be done one step at a time, but with video entertainment detox, it has to be done in one go, it can't be anything else. So, with that, here's a newer table with just one start date.
I will however, be more proactive now and will journal if I ever fail or how I feel when I am unable to do these things!
27th October: Ending this challenge and continuing individually
When I tried to do all at one time, if I gave onto one, I felt like I should consume all the others since the day is lost anyways. However, with each one having a differnet date it is better.
However, it's sufficient to say that this challnege I couldn't do fully like ever. There was always something that hold me back and most of the time it was YouTube, which now that I watched a few tv shows I forgot about.
So, this is hence-forth being now moved back to digital health main page and the progress will be maintained later.25th October to Present: Ongoing challenge
Yeah! starting again on 23rd. Watched a few youtube videos and some instagram reels second hand!
17th October 9AM to 21st October 9AM: 4 Days this time and then a gaps.
Failed and starting again on 18th. Will explain more in details.
16th October: Failed challenge, restarting
16th October:
I seriously considered giving up the challenge due to urges to watch YouTube or watch some old movoe or secondary social media.
And to be fair I did all of that even if they were a few minutes, like 15mins+
So it's not just under 60 seconds like before so the challenge resets completely.
I can't in my good conscience call that a challenge sustained.13th - 14th Oct: Struggles and Struggles
It was really tough to skip video entertainment and I am not going to lie, I even gave in for a few seconds of:
1) Twitter: Only because an article I read on a tech website linked to it. I have hence blocked this website completely on my phone browser where I did so( notebookcheck & videocardz).
2) While listening to an audiobook on which a movie has been made(which I had already watched) I lept getting this hige urge to see bow that played out.
Even though I have a lot better detailed account in my head I sort of wanted to overwrite what's in my head with a video thingy!
I maybe looked at it for like 5 seconds but then decided what I have in my head is much better and much detailed.
3) Insta, Facook second hand: Opening up these on my mother's phone happened automatically and I maybe spend like 1 min there but as soon as I realized it, I went back to the challenge.
4) YouTube: I didn't watch anything but it was the hardest one to do by far!
I kept getting nudges of checking the latest gaming news, what new thing is now being hated on right now, but I didn't even open up the website even once.
Note:
Listening or sort of forcing myself to listen to an audiobook really really helped. Since I had a pretty good story going on in the audiobook I didn't feel the need to pickup anything else.
Further Note: From now on, if I can recover in under 60 seconds and realize I am under a challenge, the challenge continues.
Older Approach
| Media Type | Why Bad | Time since last consumed | |
|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube/Twitch |
Grave measures need to be taken to get rid of this
Replacing YouTube with movies did nothing so I am stopping that. Let's tackle it another way. For now I am starting to do what I know in my heart matters, replace entertainment with fulfilling work/learning for the time-being.
Update: After struggling with this for so many weeks I am actually taking a grave measure and going to replace YouTube with Movies for now(Will add TV later if needed but TV becomes bingy so I want to avoid that).
Update: After I started to focus on fiction audiobooks and doing what I love instead of preparing for something I might never get, it became very easy to drop YouTube completely. The hardest one to do. I fall back in the trap of witch-burning where people criticize movies, games or just about anything and I keep drifting back to it. It's the toughest thing in this challenge by far and I guess I will have to give up work for my YouTube channels as I use that as an excuse to fall into the bad habits of witch-burning.Also, every time even when I watch something great, at the end of the video I keep wondering, how did it actually effect me? It just turned me into a consumer where I could just have created or even consumed in a better way with audiobooks, music, manga, course and so much more things I talked above. |
Nirvana Achieved (Don't remember last consumption date)
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| Facebook, Instagram Reels(Second Hand) | Parents watch them all day and sometimes I sit beside them for family time and watch those second hand. I will no actually leave the room if they are on their phones consuming shit like this if I can't get them to stop doing it. |
Nirvana Achieved (Don't remember last consumption date)
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| A platform for bots to communicate with each other and exists for advertisement only(I mean advertisement via fake bot accounts masquerading as humans).
Note: I still post stuff on my sub-reddit but I don't consume other's content at all. |
Nirvana Achieved (Don't remember last consumption date) | ||
| Movie | Update: Trying to watch movies just to avoid YouTube and see how it goes.
I convert watching movie into a research paper and start obsessively intriguing it to the point of obsession and it also leads me into watching some YouTube channels that cover the issues with them like EFAP. |
Nirvana Achieved (Don't remember last consumption date)
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| A corporate HR site turned into the worst platform ever. I have blocked LinkedIn's main pages now and only open the jobs page by default for a few hours of unlock. Other times they are completely blocked. Other websites are much better for job as they don't have the incentive to increase followers there. | Nirvana Achieved (Don't remember last consumption date) | ||
| Shopping Apps that have auto-play videos for some reason! | Never wanted this, but it got up in my face with Amazon Live, Flipkart & Meesho Shorts and I uninstalled those stupid apps from my phone. I can order them from the tablet but I actively hate the videos on these platforms. | Nirvana Achieved (Don't remember last consumption date) | |
| Don't care. Don't want to see bot filled site at all. Only use it to complain to companies when they don't reply and do nothing else on it. | Nirvana Achieved (Don't remember last consumption date) | ||
| Facebook, Instagram Reels (On my own devices) | I don't even have those apps and if I have to add content on them, they are heavily sanitized to the point that I only upload videos but never consume them | Nirvana Achieved (Don't remember last consumption date) | |
| TV Shows | Vices of Movies and Gaming Combined as above but with the added disaster of binging all of it while not actually enjoying it but more obsessed with finishing them. | Nirvana Achieved (Don't remember last consumption date) | |
| Video Games | I start replacing video games with real life and work very hard to improve in games instead of in real life. I HAVE AN OBSESSIVE WORK ETHIC. It never traslates when I ever pickup any game. | Nirvana Achieved (Don't remember last consumption date) |
Day 1: 7th July 2026
Due to family reasons, a family member, a big consumer of video entertainment is at home and even though I try hard to start this challenge, it's not really happening.
To be clear, I am still not playing any games, but social media, tvs hows and movies, mainly them trying to show me some funny shit gets in the way!
A month later: Lots of stumbles. Trying to get back to it.
It's 6th August and I plan to get back into it. For the past many days I have mainly struggled with second hand instagram and facebook and mainly youtube so I am resetting the date now.
19 days later: Youtube and reddit is still a challenge
First things first, not writing on this page was a huge mistake. I kept things in my head and it really derailed a lot of the above stuff. I still didn't consume reels, twitter, video games, tv shows, linkedin, shopping app and movies.
But the other three, mainly two, youtube and reddit has become very weird.
When I was in a very bad place recently emotionally I sort of started to look for people locally in my city and opened up to the sub-reddit a lot.
And even though I am allowed to create content, this urge to connect made me want to go there and consume content all the time.
Of course, some of it was just getting bored with study and all the work I did but I could have controlled those just like before if I wasn't feeling so terrible.
A month later: YouTube is still a challenge
It's been a month now, and moving away from YouTube is still a challenge. There were a few lapses a few weeks ago and from that day I have been consistently watching youtube and not working as I was supposed to mainly because of high emotions.
1.5 months later: Apart from YouTube everything else is fine. I do miss gaming as I feel sadder without it.
I keep watching asmongold play video games or efap people talking amongst each other for living through them where I feel like my life is so shit and in an alternate universe their lives would have been mine too!
It's pathetic but it's comforting. I don't necessarily even like the witch burning that these guys do but I guess it's a replacement for real life families and friends.
Also, recently, I have started to see a lot more gaming content maybe because I just miss gaming but I know if I start gaming again, I will just focus on that forever and I don't have the personality of a streamer and even I had the chance of success in that will be so little that I can't really start that at such a late time in my life.
1month 18 days later: Challenge really begins on 24th Sep 2026
After I decided to do what I love, this experiment became very very easy and now I can put an official date on this challenge: 24-Sep-2026
9th-10 Oct 2026: Let's focus on it a different way.
Update: So now that I am not even interested in the creation side of video games, I can truly let all content around video games to rest forever.
For the past few days I started to consume content about how LLMs were decompiling and creating games from scratch and I really loved that idea and so I started to do it on my own.
I love video but I really love building systems and helping other people a lot more.
10th Oct 2026: Moving from Video Game Creation to Software Creation
However, even though I did rewrite a game with LLM, it was not fulfilling at all.
In the meantime, I also was contacted by a local hospital to work on their whole network computer database system and improve and just thinking about it, it made me so much more curious and happy.
I would rather work on something real that people actually depend on and somehow improves other lives than make a video game.
Note: As a kid, if you had asked me what I wanted to become when I grew up, I would plain say, "Video Game Developer" but I am being honest, actual programming and backend development is something that I really love(NOT VIA VIBE CODING).
1) When my YouTube channels were doing decently and so I was focussed working on all of it's content.
2) Recently when I was fired up trying to learn for a backend developer which got uprooted when Dad fell ill.
So, that's what I am thinking now. Let's start doing both of them.