I had never used Instagram reels until recently but also found it pretty damned addictive once I did try them. The ease of access and variety of content is pretty compelling. Of course, it's information junk food. Very little of intellectual value comes with it, and it's quite mentally passive, so it's a good idea to limit how much time you spend on it.

When I watch videos on my phone, I mostly just watch downloaded TV shows using VLC. I never use the youtube app. If I watch a youtube video, I use Firefox with uBlock origin.

I hate using a small screen, so I watch 99.9% of my videos on my laptop and desktop. I can't stand youtube shorts, so I use an addon to block them.

Yeah as much as I hate shorts or reels in theory it's so easy to get sucked in to scrolling for hours. I had to delete instsgram and install an extension that blocks shorts because of it

I myself can't get into any of those shorts style of content. 90% has some trash pop music in the background, which I really dislike. But, yeah, it's a thing now. Thanks TikTok (and Vine before them, can't completely let the memories of Vine die off)

May I suggest some long-form content to get you to not hit the recommended so much, like perhaps this documentary on Nortel? (watched both 90-minute videos without even thinking about stopping, despite never having heard of Nortel before they came out)

Maybe Instagram. I don’t really like videos but I like environment, art etc pictures

I am using

• Mull + adblock
• greyjay
• jerboah
• several Discuss webapps
• internet searching
• antennapod for podcasts

This is already enough to get me addicted and its not even typical social media

I hadn’t noticed but I think you’re right

I don't watch shorts, but the algorithm became absolute trash for me recently.

Even people?