Featured Image Credit: PewDiePie/YouTube
YouTube juggernaut PewDiePie, real name Felix Kjellberg, has revealed the steps he's taken to 'change his life', with one involving disabling a major feature of the platform that catapulted him into worldwide fame.
Few have dominated YouTube to quite the same extent as PewDiePie, and while he might have lost his crown to MrBeast in the last few years, he still manages to earn millions of views with every new video no matter how infrequently they are uploaded.
Being one of the internet's most prominent figures amid the explosion of social media, however, Kjellberg finds himself well equipped to tackle the issues that currently exist within the modern internet world, and has outlined the various things he has changed to make his life better as a result.
While many of these are incredibly useful and things that everyone should think about implementing into their life, one particular piece of advice has stood out for many, especially as to how it affects his relationship with the video sharing platform he calls home.
Advert
Detailing the move in a recent video aptly titled 'I Fixed YouTube', PewDiePie reveals that he has completely disabled Shorts from appearing on YouTube, effectively eliminating his ability to see the short form video form that's growing in influence over the years.
"Next thing I did was disable Shorts, I like YouTube but I hate how Shorts is everywhere, I can't escape it," he explains.
It certainly makes sense when you think about how easy it is to sit and mindlessly scroll through these short clips, as while you often have to focus and dedicate time to even a normal-length YouTube video, Shorts are typically over in no longer than a minute, with some even lasting just a few seconds.
Previous court cases have claimed that it takes just 35 minutes on similar platforms like TikTok for people to become addicted to the app, and therefore disabling your ability to see short form content entirely could give you back so much time that you would have otherwise wasted.
That's not the only vital piece of advice that PewDiePie imparts on his viewers, however, as he also suggests placing all of your social media and 'attention-hungry' apps on a second profile that's harder to access, as even the smallest bit of friction can break habits that you would have otherwise slipped into.
Additionally, he self-hosts as many products as he possibly can, which is effectively detaching yourself from devices that require the internet or a subscription to function, arguing that "the things I use are mine and because they're not free, I'm not paying with my privacy."
Kjellberg also advises unfollowing everyone on social media – although that's quite an extreme measure – alongside getting your own DNS blocker to prevent ads from appearing completely on your device.
"I think you owe it to yourself to take some time today and start building your tech fence," the YouTuber proclaimed. "These tech companies don't care about you, so you've got to care about yourself.
"The cheat code is building some friction and filtering out the noise, that's your defense and your cure."
