We’ve all been there: you open a small, insignificant Short on YouTube and suddenly you have lost an hour scrolling through videos on topics you probably don’t even want to see. To curb this behavior, YouTube has introduced a new timer feature that allows users to manage the time they spend viewing Shorts.
As the name suggests, the Timer feature allows users to set a daily time limit for how long they can scroll Shorts on the mobile version of the YouTube app.
Once the time limit is reached, users will see a dismissible prompt that the scrolling on the Shorts feed is paused for the day.
However, the feature is not yet linked with parental controls on the YouTube app, meaning parents cannot yet set a time limit for how many Short videos their children can watch. YouTube says it is planning to expand the feature to parental controls later in the year. When that happens, parents will be able to set a limit on Shorts videos from their account, and the prompt that children would see after the limit is reached would be non-dismissible.
Notably, social media apps have been blamed in the past for promoting doomscrolling with their ‘endless scroll’ design. Research has shown that this behavior can have serious mental health consequences including distraction, reduced learning capacity, and increased feelings of anxiety.
It is also said to rewire the brain’s reward system to make it crave the next big headline, leading to reduced impulse control and amplifying anxiety.
YouTube features to reduce doomscrolling:
YouTube had also implemented similar features in the past to remind users to take a break from scrolling videos on the platform. For instance, the “Take a Break” feature reminds users every 15, 30, 60, or 90 minutes (depending on the duration set by users) to take a break. They can then choose to dismiss the reminder and keep watching more videos or close the app and take a break.
Likewise, the bedtime reminder feature allows users to set a bedtime after which YouTube will remind them to stop watching videos and go to sleep. Similar to the Take a Break feature, users will have the final control over whether they actually want to stop watching videos or go back to streaming content.
