Google has included new features to help users understand how much time they spend on YouTube to avoid addiction and increase personal well-being
Google in recent times has been working hard to increase the concept of “digital well-being” that is, the creation of a widespread culture of responsible Internet use that does not lead people to have an addiction to apps or social media.
That’s why Mountain View has developed a new feature available on YouTube that tells us how much time we spend inside Google’s video platform. Thanks to an update now users in their personal YouTube profile will be able to monitor the time they spent on the app or web platform to decide when it’s time to log off for a while. The details of the time we spend on YouTube are not only about the last 24 hours but are divided into three categories: time spent today, time spent yesterday and total time spent on YouTube in the last seven days. This way people can actually notice the hours they spend on the platform for videos throughout the week.
Setting a viewing limit on YouTube
Since staying every time to look at how many hours we’re spending on YouTube wouldn’t exactly be a convenient feature, Google has given its users the option to set a daily maximum limit of time to spend on the platform for videos. The limit can be set directly from your personal profile. Once the limit is exceeded we will be notified by a notification on the smartphone or computer and we will decide whether to unplug a bit or ignore the warning. Always from the profile we can activate the daily report. In this way, every evening we’ll receive a report from Google about the total time spent during the day within YouTube. Moreover, to avoid sleep disturbances and massive smartphone use at night, Mountain View has also set up a service on YouTube to mute all incoming notifications between 10pm and 8am. This way we can sleep soundly without being tempted to look at our phone. The audio blocking of notifications is always set from our personal YouTube page.