This is my final video. I have made so many videos, and it just feels so pointless now. I've nearly thrown my silver plaque away. I'm tired of it. What I am doing instead is going offline. I'm going to focus on helping people in person, especially helping people unplug from the internet in St. Petersburg, Florida, and wherever else I run into people.
I have gotten so burnt out and so tired of my videos. I sold everything and quit in 2020. I started doing this full time in 2012. My first videos that were a hit got a few thousand views, and I thought that was so cool. YouTube was so fun back in the day. It's not fun anymore. In my experience it has become a giant trap, a compromised system. If you want to get to the top, you need to cheat. You need to rip people off of their time. You need to be sensational and put out exactly the right stuff. And I'm tired of it. I feel like I'm a slave or an indentured servant. All I do is give, and the money's crap unless I say what I'm supposed to say and do what I'm supposed to do.
The one-way relationship I'm tired of
I'm tired of having all of you watch my videos instead of spending time with people in person in your life. You should be hanging out with people you know for real. I'm tired of these one-way relationships. If this was a conversation, it would be a rude conversation, where I talk and you don't. That's a rude conversation, and I'm tired of having all of these rude one-way conversations. I'm tired of selling online courses where you have to pay just to watch another video.
I had my kids stop doing screens last year because I could see what an awful effect it had on them. And I tried to quit YouTube back then, for at least the second, maybe the third time. Yesterday I live streamed Warzone for the third day in a row. The last time I did that on Facebook, I deleted my Facebook page right after. And I realized there's nothing more I would love to happen in my life than for my YouTube channel to be gone. So I'm going to delete it. I've deleted all the other ones already, and I've put myself into one channel. I'm deleting my X account as well.
In my experience, these online platforms are draining you, exploiting you, and programming you to think like the group. To me, the culture war is this: are you going to think like the group and think other people's thoughts, or are you going to have your own thoughts? Are you going to live a life somebody else has created for you, or are you going to tap in and live your own life? I'm tired of living a life somebody else has created for me. I'm tired of having a mind full of all these fake memories of TV shows and video games, stuff that hasn't even happened, that I saw on a screen. And I know there are a lot of people who need help getting unplugged from this.
Looking for the opportunity in being present
When I started out online, it was fun. It was exciting. There was a lot of scarcity. There were all kinds of things that needed to be created, and I always look for the scarcity, the opportunity. To me today, the opportunity is to be present in person. I know some of you say, well, why don't you just upload a video once a week? Because I need to burn my bridges in order to go forward. So long as I have this channel, I think about it. As long as I don't do anything with it, I feel like I should. And when I see other people try to quit YouTube without deleting their channel, they just keep sticking around. They keep having to come back, and I'm done. I don't want a podcast. I don't want to start another channel. I want to just be with people in person.
What I see is that my next level of advancement requires me to unplug. From there, I believe I'm going to be able to develop more of what you would think of as superpowers: being able to intuitively read people, speak spontaneously, and say what people need to hear. What I've come to believe is that you don't understand how toxic listening to these videos, playing these games, and watching these TV shows is until you unplug from it. Then you see you can't have proper conversations. You can't really be present in the same way with somebody when you've been listening to rude conversations like mine, where I'm just talking at you the whole time.
I was close to just deleting everything and not saying anything. But then people make all kinds of stuff up and say that I got banned or whatever. And yes, I'm sober. With over 11 years in Alcoholics Anonymous, my sobriety is a treasured possession to me, a treasured thing that I've done in my life. To me, it's time to do the equivalent of getting sober with the internet. To do that, it's time to stop being a content creator. I'm not a content creator. This is my last video, and I'm deleting everything after this. I'll give you some time to watch my other videos. I'm going to delete them, maybe in July or something. And if I ever have an urge to upload another video, I'm deleting it immediately.
Why I believe the platform is draining us
I've taken in so much garbage, so many lies, so much crap. Now, yes, there are useful videos on here, absolutely. But what I'm saying is that the majority, the overall experience of the platform, is toxic and draining. I saw it have a horrible effect on my kids. Just watching YouTube for kids was totally screwing them up, and they're so much better without it. Now it's time for me to be an example of unplugging.
I remember I made a project called Tech Duty on Kickstarter in 2012, talking about how people were so addicted to their devices. I was doing a Kickstarter trying to write a book and other things. And where I've struggled, I've seen for years that my path forward is to be a life coach. But to be a life coach, I need to lead by example. The example that people need is to see how to proceed through life, how to disconnect from everything except the bare essentials of the internet. Sure, I'm going to use Google Maps to navigate, although maybe it'd be fun to use an atlas. The internet in very limited places is helpful. But what I noticed is that for most of us, there's a little bit of internet use that's helpful, then you cross over that line into where it has become kind of neutral, and for most people, what I see is that the internet is draining you.
I've looked at people posting on Instagram and Facebook for years as suckers. You're posting, you're giving value, and you're getting nothing of value back. And I realized I'm getting pimped out on YouTube myself. I'm putting in my valuable time and energy, taking time away from my kids and from people in person, to make crappy money on YouTube. Ad revenue is less than $1,000 this month with millions of impressions, hundreds of thousands of views, all kinds of hours watched, and live streaming. I've been afraid in the past to let go, afraid that maybe I can't make the same money I make on YouTube doing something else. But you know what? I think I'm going to make much better money, and much more joyful money, helping people in person.
In-person classes and tying up loose ends
I tried to do this before. I tried to say goodbye last year, but I wasn't quite ready. I wasn't willing to delete all my channels. I wasn't willing to burn all the bridges. Now I am. The way I'm planning to communicate going forward is through some in-person classes. People need help unplugging from the internet, and you're not going to be able to just sit at home and unplug. So what I'm looking to do is make classes that support people in pulling off the internet, making some new relationships, developing some new life skills, and then building a community. If you are interested in those, that's wonderful.
Tying up some loose ends: I sold all my JBBJ meme coin, and this is exactly why meme coins suck. It's not a real investment. It's just for fun. I felt bad dumping all of it today, but I felt worse holding on to it because I don't want to keep thinking about it. I sold all my OpenChat, and I'm going to sell at least half my liquid ICP. I've got almost 3,000 liquid ICP. It sucks to sell at this price, but I've got 3,000 plus more tied up. So I'm going to sell about half the crypto I've got, just so I don't need to prioritize money. Hopefully the ICP price will go up and then I can sell the rest of the liquid and just take the staking rewards. None of this is financial advice; it's simply what I'm choosing to do so money stops occupying my mind.
I love each of you, and I appreciate your time. I hope you will go find some people in person. I hope you'll hear what I'm really saying: in my experience, the internet has taken over our lives way too much. I know this might sound crazy to some of you who aren't quite ready to hear it, but a lot of the rest of you will really understand what I'm saying. If you want to see the kind of work I'm moving toward, you can look through my YouTube Coaching playlist. And if this is goodbye, I appreciate everything you've done for me. Maybe come to a class in person when I have those up. Peace.