> Generally,people don't binge watch for 2-3 hours or more in one go on Youtube.

Hold my beer

Yeah my kids will watch 6+ hours of YouTube or at least just leave it running even if not actively watching.

Also, youtube tends to downgrade the quality from 1080p to lower grades quite aggresively, even when watching on a PC with a fiber connection. Possibly a cost-saving measure?

I've noticed this a lot more lately. I've started going in and toggling video quality up (instead of toggling it down to reduce buffering)

Try this: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/auto-hd4k8k-for-yo...

if i want to watch a longer video at guaranteed quality without buffering, i'll download it first. even if the download is slow, it makes better use of my time because i won't waste time waiting for buffers to fill.

1. Want to read a book, that's effort 2. Maybe watch a show instead. Nah that's a half hour commitment I feel I don't have time for 3. Oh I know! Let's scroll shit on YouTube! 4. Significant amounts of time have passed

almost the same for me, except that if i read a book, i risk spending hours without paying attention to anything else, so no. 2 is also the reason why i don't watch half hour videos on youtube. but 3 and 4 happen anyways occasionally.

the problem is that with a book it's difficult to put down, especially mid-chapter. and with youtube videos i can stop after each video. (<- yeah right!)

solved it with audiobooks and making a list of shows i commit to watching when i have time, but no more than one episode per day.