Casey Neistat
Soooo I started my addiction to YouTube and to sounds since I was in my college dorm. I didn’t realize it then, but I always had something on in my AirPods or headphones 24/7. It was YouTube and tbh it was political social issues and my new love of Panic! at the Disco; yeah I know I know I was a late emo kid. I started to explore more music since a girl I liked said my music taste sucked…which only consisted of Eminem & Kanye…so she was right.
So YouTube became my platform of discovering new things in life, such as what Conservative vs Democratic values were and this one guy named Ben Shapiro and Bernie Sanders..oh man what a rabbit hole that was. Music, Minimalism, what degree to get, how to get a credit card, and GTA play-throughs.
Point is, YouTube was the only thing I really had in college. I didn’t have any friends at my college (shoutout CSUF stop asking me to donate money), I was truly for the first time in my life; alone.
And I didn’t mind! I tried making friends, I had 0 monies, didn’t like any clubs, hated frat culture, was not a fan of drinking or drugs (lowkey didn’t start drinking until I became 21 like a legal degenerate…never drugs tho, the D.A.R.E program deadass worked on me) and tbh I only dormed cus my older Brother did and he told me how great it was and I was in the middle of my parents divorce, so either figure out where I was going to live or take out a loan and dorm at a commuter school lol.
My routine was
I would wake up, go to the shitty dining hall, have breakfast, watch YouTube.
Walk to class, watch YouTube.
Go to the library, watch YouTube while studying
Try to work out, watch YouTube
Eat shitty dinner, watch YouTube
Go to sleep/Game, watch YouTube
So yeah, that’s when my addiction to YouTube and constant noise became a thing in late 2015. Now 11 years later, I not only see myself doing it but everyone having to watch reels or YouTube to eat. And although you can argue, “it’s the same as watching TV”, we all know deep down it’s not.
Okay, so why did I bring up Casey Neistat? One of the most popular YouTubers to ever exist. Known for his daily vlogs for years. Funny enough, I never watched him nor knew about his videos until after college, when my friend Jeff told me he watched his daily vlogs every morning when he woke up.
That threw me for a loop cus I thought to myself, “This would’ve been perfect for me, I wish I saw this sooner?!”. Driving home, I realized maybe I was never meant to see his content. What difference would it have made? I can relate to people who’ve seen his videos? I didn’t talk to anyone; I still would’ve been alone with just another subscription.
But years later, meaning today August 24th 2026 lol, I’m going to start my journey or Mr. Neistat. No not subscribing to his YouTube, but starting daily blogs.
Now Kuddos to him, filming, editing, a quality daily vlog is insane and I can’t do that with my work capacity right now. But writing? Putting my phone down for 20+ minutes and doing something I love? And sharing it with people I care about, and people I don’t know about? Yeah I can do that.
You ask me to go to the gym every day, and I’ll fail.
You ask me to read the Bible every day, and I’ll fail.
You ask me to call my parents every day, and I’ll fail.
But,
You ask me to write every day, and I will.
We’re not defined by our mistakes or our failures, but by how we use those lessons to refine our strengths and weaknesses.
By writing every day, doing something that I genuinely love (tbh I love talking to people hours on the phone so I feel like this is a better alternative; my friends and family are busy and so am I) this is something I won’t fail at and hopefully trickle down into helping overcome my flaws.
It’s time for Less YouTube, distractions, and time to embrace the purists of purpose, not noise.
August 25th 2026
⁃ Adrian Cortes
This was me at orientation back in Summer of 2015. That’s Tuffy the titan.
I don’t f*ck with Tuffy.