When mindlessly browsing Reddit, I found that I usually just jump directly to the comments, read a couple, and continue. Lemmy seems a bit more curated (read: smaller), and therefore it’s easier to actually engage in discussions, which leads me to read the article, think critically about it, and respond (if I have something to say) in the comments–bigger is not always better!
I’m fairly certain you can set NewPipe as the default app for YouTube links, I think I’ve done it in the past. I’m just using Firefox now though, not too big into YouTube videos.