YouTube is helping you to stop doomscrolling Shorts, kind of
YouTube is letting users set daily time limits for shorts, but will they actually help curb endless scrolling.
YouTube rolls out daily limit for Shorts
YouTube Shorts has grown rapidly since its launch, hitting 70 billion daily views last year– a figure that has only increased since. They offer bite-sized, vertical videos that are easy to scroll through. Meanwhile, they provide artists and creators an easy way to connect with, and grow their audience.
However, it’s also easy to stay scrolling for longer than you intended. Users often scroll through short-form videos, just to find themselves still scrolling hours later.
Now, YouTube is rolling out a new feature that lets users set daily time limits for watching Shorts, designed to help users take control of their screen time and stop scrolling after their time’s up.
How does it work?
Setting up a daily scroll limit on YouTube Shorts is easy. Simply head to your Settings in the YouTube app and set a daily limit. Once that limit is reached, a friendly reminder pops up on your screen, letting you know that your Shorts feed is paused for the day.
However, the feature is optional, and easy to ignore. When the limit is reached, users can easily dismiss it and keep scrolling.
Part of a bigger push
This isn’t YouTube’s first move toward promoting digital wellbeing. In fact, it works in a similar way to YouTube’s existing ‘Take a Break’ and ‘Bedtime’ tools, that give users timely reminders about when to stop watching.
The platform is also looking to integrate this tool within its parental controls for next year. This will enable parents to set Shorts time limits which kids can’t simply dismiss.
What this means for artists and the music industry
Shorts have become one of the biggest tools for artists to reach new audiences, promote songs, and jump on viral trends. Not to mention, Shorts revenue now matches long-form video on the platform in the US. But if fans start limiting their Shorts time, it could change audience engagement and how content performs.
That said, its effect could be minimal. Features like this are clearly well intentioned on paper. However, with users able to easily dismiss the daily limits, its real-world impact might be limited. So, artists and labels using Shorts for marketing should still see strong engagement, especially if their videos are engaging for fans.
As 9to5Google points out, if platforms wanted to effectively tackle users’ screen time concerns, it might be better if you could set limits that weren’t easily dismissible. Of course, this would probably impact user engagement more though, which YouTube probably doesn’t actually want.
Final thoughts
For artists and creators, this update is a reminder that platforms are constantly evolving to balance engagement with wellbeing. The best approach? Keep making content that cuts through the noise, whether fans are watching for five minutes or fifty.