Update: 22nd March 2026: Comments are for other people
I don't know if I mentioned this before but I would like to reiterate this again. "Comments are not for the creator," atleast in my case. From the very beginning I used to reply to comments thinking they were always meant for me^.
Even comments that were making fun of me or praising me, I had made this habit of replying something or giving a heart as a way of acknowledging that I read your message and had made my job to do so. I later realized that's not what I am known for, it's my videos and contents. However, there was still one thing.
Comments were never for me, I didn't realize this fact. They were never meant for me. They were a way for the community to talk amongst themselves and I really missed that point.
^ Ignoring the direct questions about purchases which were just a way of shifting responsibilty to the creator and should have been ignored anyways.
Update: It's 5th March, more than two months later.
Stopping reading comments has to be the most positive change I made to my online presence not only for me but for others also.
In the first few weeks, I felt really lonely as if you don't know this, I don't talk to literally anyone outside of YouTube. With my family it's even little. Most days I just don't speak anything and making videos or replying to comments was the only way I communicated with others.
So it was really loney and I really wanted to just read what others are saying and reply to them for many weeks. However...
Things changed after that. Now when I make a video or make a post or something on YouTube or Instagram, I don't think about negative things people might say about it and thus pad out with extra content or just don't talk about something because I might be preyed upon, I just upload it as it is and that in itself is such a freeing thing for me and such a better content for users out there.
The videos I have published in these periods have been so authentic because I know I won't be reading the comments(I already don't check numbers: likes, dislikes, subscribers, views, watchtime anyways already - Have disabled them permanently) and it has put off a lot of load away from my shoulders.
In fact this has been so great that I went ahead and disabled Request Tab on Instagram for all of my accounts(except one where I use to sell to customers) so I don't even see new messages a while ago.