Insights on YouTube habits, attention management, and building a healthier relationship with video content.
Opal blocks YouTube on iOS and Mac. Gazenest tracks what you actually watch and scores your habits over time. Both address unintentional viewing, but through entirely different mechanisms with different long-term outcomes.
Every screen time tool measures duration. None of them answer the question that actually matters: were you steering, or were you being steered? That gap is why Gazenest exists.
Gazenest has no blocking mode. That is not an oversight. Blocking removes access to the platform while leaving the habit that drives it completely untouched.
Gazenest started because I kept finishing YouTube sessions I never intended to start. Not a moral problem, a visibility problem. I built a tool to see the pattern.
Unhook and DF Tube hide YouTube's recommendation feed. Gazenest measures what you actually watch and scores it over time. They solve different problems, and knowing which one you need matters.
Adults with ADHD know the feeling: you opened YouTube for one tutorial and surfaced two hours later in a completely different rabbit hole. A behavioral tracker won't block the platform, but it gives you the data to see the pattern clearly.