Cairn — Intentional Viewing

Mark the path. Then walk it. Quiet Shorts and recommendations, set an intention, and add research-informed friction.

Cairn helps you use desktop YouTube with a plan. It quiets high-pull surfaces and adds deliberate pauses informed by published behavioral-science research. Cairn is an independent product. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by YouTube or Google. Note: Cairn is a productivity tool. It is not a substitute for professional treatment if you are dealing with mental health concerns. ── WHAT IT DOES ────────────────────────────────────────── INTENTION GATE Before the YouTube homepage loads, you're asked: "What do you want to watch?" Setting an explicit intention before browsing improves goal attainment with a medium-to-large effect (Gollwitzer & Sheeran 2006, d = 0.65, 8,000+ participants). A brief pause at app-opening reduces usage by up to 57% (Lembcke et al., PNAS 2023). You set the goal — the algorithm doesn't. QUIET THE PULL SURFACES Hide or reveal the surfaces most likely to pull you away from your plan: • YouTube Shorts shelf and Shorts tab • Homepage recommendation grid (70% of all watch time is algorithm-driven) • "Up Next" sidebar (blurred, click to reveal) • Autoplay (YouTube silently re-enables it — we don't let it) • End-screen cards and clickbait overlays • Notification badge counts • Trending and Explore links • Comments (collapsed by default, expand when you want them) • Live chat during streams DELIBERATE FRICTION Cairn adds a pause between an impulse and changing Focus Mode: • Level 1: 5-second countdown with a reminder of why you turned it on • Level 2 (default): Type a custom phrase before turning it off • Level 3: Enter a PIN you set during a calm, intentional moment • Lock Mode: Hold Focus Mode for 1–8 hours; ending early requires a 10-second recovery step and an exact phrase Pre-commitment devices work because you set them during a calm moment — your future self can't easily undo them (Elster 1979, "Ulysses and the Sirens"). CONTENT QUALITY SIGNALS An inline content tag next to video titles shows you what you're about to click: • Green — Educational / informational No tag means no strong signal either way — we only flag what we're confident about. • Gray — Clickbait / rage-bait detected Rule-based pattern detection inspired by clickbait research (Chakraborty et al., IEEE/ACM ASONAM 2016). Titles are analyzed locally and are never sent to Cairn or another service. SESSION TIMER + NUDGES After your configured interval (default: 30 minutes), a gentle overlay appears referencing your original intention: "You set out to learn React. Are you still on track?" Numbers alone don't change behavior — intention alignment does (Zimmermann 2021, JACR). WEEKLY REPORT See your YouTube minutes, focus controls applied, and nudge response rate over the past 7 days. Viewing statistics stay on this device. FOCUS SCHEDULE Automatically enforce Focus Mode during work hours. Set active days and time windows — Cairn activates itself so you don't have to. ── PRIVACY ────────────────────────────────────────────── Cairn has no servers, analytics, telemetry, or external API calls. • Viewing statistics, intentions, title classifications, and PIN hashes stay on this device (chrome.storage.local) • If Chrome Sync is enabled, Chrome may synchronize settings through your Google account (chrome.storage.sync) • Export and import your settings as a JSON file at any time • No Cairn account or email address required ── THE SCIENCE ────────────────────────────────────────── Cairn applies principles described in published behavioral-science research. These references inform the design; they are not claims that Cairn itself produced the cited outcomes. • Lembcke et al. (2023, PNAS): Friction-based interventions reduce app usage by 57% (d = 0.72) • Gollwitzer & Sheeran (2006): Implementation intentions (goal-setting) improve goal attainment d = 0.65, across 8,000+ participants • Lukoff et al. (2021, CHI — ACM SIGCHI Outstanding Dissertation Award): Autoplay undermines user agency; search supports it • Zimmermann (2021, JACR): Tracking alone is ineffective — intention alignment is what changes behavior • Chakraborty et al. (2016, IEEE/ACM ASONAM): Clickbait detection via engineered features — inspires our rule-based pattern detection ── WHO IS THIS FOR ───────────────────────────────────── • Students who open "one video for studying" and surface 3 hours later • Professionals trying to protect deep work time • Parents who want healthier screen habits • People who find it hard to step away from YouTube once they start • Anyone who's ever felt that YouTube took more time than they meant to give it ── PERMISSIONS ───────────────────────────────────────── • storage — save your settings and stats locally • alarms — power the session timer and scheduled focus mode No access to your browsing history. No access to other websites. Works on desktop youtube.com in Chrome; mobile apps and mobile browsers are not supported. ── HOW IT'S BUILT ───────────────────────────────────────── Built with Manifest V3, vanilla JavaScript, no external dependencies, no minified code, and no build step. Once installed you can open `chrome://extensions`, click "Inspect views", and read every line that runs in your browser. Mark the path. Then walk it. YouTube is a trademark of Google LLC. Use of this trademark is subject to Google Permissions. Cairn is independent and is not endorsed by Google or YouTube.