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Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?

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Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?

#81

Post by snarf21 »

Dangeranger wrote: post #38
frereubu wrote: post #21

Seems an appropriate time to post my favourite piece on news addiction by Charles Simic in the NYRB. "I’m having trouble deciding whether I understand the world better now that I’m in my seventies than I did when I was younger, or whether I’m becoming more and more clueless every day. The truth is somewhere in between, I suspect, but that doesn’t make me rest any easier at night. Like others growing old, I had expect…

I appreciate this. Watching the news cycle feels like being in an abusive relationship. You watch and wait for the next eruption, anticipating if it will be violent or joyful. It leaves you feeling depleted and helpless.

The problem is that it isn't really the "news". It is infotainment. I'm not talking about the fact that truth is subjective and every story has a lens.

The truth of the matter is that the story (and "updates") are all crafted specifically to be addictive, to be click bait. It isn't about sharing information or exposing the truth. All that matters is ad revenue. I do get it that we need to pay journalists. It has become clear we need a new system. I guess NPR kinda has a solution via patronage. If only we could now get more different viewpoints this way. God knows we have enough multi-billionares to fund it.

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?

#82

Post by fsloth »

I would guess it's the same mechanism as used in gambling , gaming and social media to addict the user: variable reward.

For some reason if you are given a reward with unpredictable interval in some specific context, this will create a dopamin kick in your brain.

So I would say you are not addicted to the news as such, you are addicted to the dopamine kick that picking up an occasional interesting news-article from the endless queue creates.

Slot machines, games with surprise reward loot-boxes, doom-scrolling social media - they all utilize this simple neurological hack.

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?

#83

Post by rorykoehler »

0dana wrote: post #4

My understanding is it’s the little thrill your brain gets from the possibility of finding something super interesting. That’s the addicting piece. The gambling piece of it. I read (or more likely heard on a podcast) about an experiment with mice and a food dispensing button. In one case, the button reliably dispensed food every time it was pressed. In the other case, sometimes the button wouldn’t work. The mice with…

You've articulated why I come here perfectly. I've learned so much coming here and on twitter etc but I had to wade through reams of shit to find it.

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?

#84

Post by frereubu »

magusdei wrote: post #65
frereubu wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although I think I get the underlying feeling you're trying to define, I'm not sure about the analogy of the experiment on mice. That feels more like it's about being in the presence of an unreliable food source, where it makes sense to stock up while food is available to get you through the lean times. There's obviously an overcompensation there, but evolutionarily-derived mechanisms aren't particularly precise. The…

You are of course free to model the underlying causality as you see fit, but the fact remains that this is one of the most robust and well-understood findings in all of psychology (see e.g. the Rescorla-Wagner model). The effect does not depend on the type of reward and exists in practically all intelligent animals, including humans. As noted, video game compulsion loops and gambling machines are carefully tuned to t…

I'm not arguing with the research, I'm just saying it doesn't feel like a satisfactory match to the psychological phenomenon that OP describes. (I spent six years studying psychology, including a masters in neuroscience, so it's not coming from a place of ignorance).

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?

#85

Post by Fiveplus »

tgb wrote: post #73
kampsduac wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> no longer reading the papers and watching television This is what I do, in addition to no social media except for certain personal alerts. I ask my partner to relay any significant news/events to me. I do support my local media group The Colorado Sun with a membership and sometimes read through their articles, which don't have advertisements so they are not incentivised to produce click-bait headlines and sponsored…

You don't consider HN to be social media?

I consider internet boards like HN a pre-cursor to all dark-pattern-laden "social" "media" today. So yes in a sense, we're all communicating and this is social media. Now, we wait while someone comes to dispute my personal interpretation of the words, but yeah my $0.02 have been deposited.

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?

#87

Post by raldi »

0dana wrote: post #4

My understanding is it’s the little thrill your brain gets from the possibility of finding something super interesting. That’s the addicting piece. The gambling piece of it. I read (or more likely heard on a podcast) about an experiment with mice and a food dispensing button. In one case, the button reliably dispensed food every time it was pressed. In the other case, sometimes the button wouldn’t work. The mice with…

Fear of something great showing up and then falling off the front page before you get a chance to see it

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?

#88

Post by coffeefirst »

The premise is wrong. It’s less about news than your phone.

Before, news was timeboxed. You might have a daily paper habit, or listened to the radio in the car on a commute, or a nightly broadcast, and a handful of longer term magazines, but that was it. It may capture your attention for a bit but there wasn’t any more of it to obsess compulsively.

24/7 cable broke this contract, but let’s be honest, that’s really not something normal people stare at all day.

What’s really new is the constantly updating infinite feed, be it HN or Facebook. (Refreshing the front page of NYT or the BBC doesn’t have enough churn to creative this effect.) Oh, and we took that and we put it in your pocket.

So that’s not great, and it definitely doesn’t need to be in your pocket.

I’m still experimenting with this, but the best change has been to unfollow every news site on social media (the algorithm is a terrible editor) and sign up for a few email newsletters instead. They’re finite, and the good ones are curated by real people.

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?

#89

Post by smoe »

intended wrote: post #61
smoe wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stopped reading news, including tech news, in 2012, while working at a large news site. Seeing how the sausage is made, helped a lot realizing of just how little value reading news to a normal person is. (Note that that this is very different from saying journalism has no value or nobody should be reporting on current events) I resolved, my news addiction, by redirecting the time I would have scanned ~12 different…

What part of seeing the sausage Being made turned You off from eating it?

Maybe sausage is the wrong analogy, since I love them and I find nothing wrong with the ingredients.

I'd say it is closer to a fast food meal. Yes they can be very tasty and satiating for a moment but the nutritional value is extremely low. If consumed too much it is pretty bad for you

Working in a office complex where about a dozen different news papers and sites were made, just made me realize that the "news" section is pretty much purely about relatively cheap traffic generation, nothing else. They license a bunch of wire agencies like Reuters, AP, etc. pick out and often blow up the stories that the target audience will likely click on. The site that is regularly the fastest in publishing something, will gain visitors.

So its not that there is per se something nefarious happening within any particular story, but the news feed is there to make you consume more and boost the numbers advertisement pricing is based on, not to inform you.

Related Article from The Guardian "News is bad for you – and giving up reading it will make you happier" https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/apr/12/news-is-bad-ro...

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?

#90

Post by joflicu »

Dangeranger wrote: post #38
frereubu wrote: post #21

Seems an appropriate time to post my favourite piece on news addiction by Charles Simic in the NYRB. "I’m having trouble deciding whether I understand the world better now that I’m in my seventies than I did when I was younger, or whether I’m becoming more and more clueless every day. The truth is somewhere in between, I suspect, but that doesn’t make me rest any easier at night. Like others growing old, I had expect…

I appreciate this. Watching the news cycle feels like being in an abusive relationship. You watch and wait for the next eruption, anticipating if it will be violent or joyful. It leaves you feeling depleted and helpless.

I agree with your description. The devil on my other shoulder tries to argue with me about being knowledgeable about the world so that I can do something about it. Support my causes by protesting, donating etc Instead I get into snark warfare on twitter :-(
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