YouTube is still useful, so I didn't cut it out completely. I have an RSS feed for channels I'm interested in, and sometimes the only good search result is a video. The feed is for noise control only. I find that I now negatively associate impulsive YouTube consumption, and I'm conscious of when it happens, so I catch myself almost immediately.
If your usage ramps up, and you catch yourself scrolling for the sake of distraction, then don't beat yourself up, just repeat the process. I'm sure I'll need a reminder too.
I’m in the process of loading up my instance of FreshRSS with my MVP YouTube subscriptions, with plugins to allow videos to be viewed inline, sans anything relevant to politics or news. It will be the final algorithmically determined feed that I am routinely exposed to. I left most social media for good over 12-years ago (I am an early adopter, even in cynicism about the societally damaging potential of social networks).
The benefit of having a chronological feed that consists entirely of plain text headlines cannot be overstated. I can feel a tangible difference in how I engage with news and information that’s presented without the usual “tricks of the trade”. I am going to setup accounts on my system for friends and family, but I wish there were a more straightforward mechanism for doing this, and I fear that Cloudflare, Discord, and actions from the big players in this game will take actions to prevent this kind of separation of content from its platform, but for now this is working well.
If your usage ramps up, and you catch yourself scrolling for the sake of distraction, then don't beat yourself up, just repeat the process. I'm sure I'll need a reminder too.