Attention hijacking, turns into subtle micro-habits, then turns into routines, backed by the most powerful computers in the world and most likely AI.
Internet + Smartphones + Apps
Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
171–180 of 222 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
#172One of the best things that I did for myself related to this addiction process is to use android focus/well-being to limit my interaction with social networks/news with a time budget. It allowed me to focus my efforts in doing other things.
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
#173I remember many years ago I read an article on studies about addiction, and turns out Pornography and Drugs totally lost out to News, being the number one worldwide addiction without being widely known.
Unfortunately my Google Fu hasn't turn up anything. I will Edit the post if I find the link.
My personal opinion is that
1. All Human has an urge to want to know more, Curiosity. It doesn't necessarily means knowledge, as information without "thinking" is pretty much meaningless. One reason why the world we are in right now are a complete mess, because thanks to the Internet we all thought we "know".
2. All Human has an urge to want something better, Innovation. Why hasn't something been done? Why hasn't this problem be solved? Is this not a problem for enough people to recognise changes? Has Science improved? Medical improved? Technology Improved? Food Safety or Nutrition Improved? etc.
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
#174The 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 no…
What newsletters do you get? I'm definitely interested in this.
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does being on HN not count? Feel like I see lots of news on HN. It's in the name after all.
I would say that an important distinction is that there are enough interesting articles posted in here which are not news related that make it worth while. But obviously I am biased here.
Right. Posts like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23917131 keep me coming back. Hard to find such focused discussions elsewhere in my opinion.
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
#176It's a pure dice-rolling addiction. Let me share a personal story: For the last 3.5 years, every night before bed, I would browse https://www.gitlogs.com , a site that had it's own algorithm for ranking top-trending Github repos for the day (it is much better than Github Trends, don't ask how). It was my nightly ritual, and my favorite part of the day. Sometimes I would find 3-5 REALLY fucking awesome projects, or on…
Off-topic, but I wish GitHub had more functionality with starring repos. That and search seem such neglected parts of their platform.
I often use http://www.yasiv.com/github/ a tool to find related repos using information about shared number of stars to calculate similarity index between two projects.
Github: https://github.com/anvaka/gazer
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
#177Seems like a good time to revisit this blog post by the late-Aaron Schwartz about removing news from your information diet: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hatethenews
Removing news is a solution that screams privilege though, isn't it?
If I'm a DREAMer, or a woman who works for a private company, or a person recently laid off due to COVID, I kind of need to follow along to help me understand how I'm going to make it the next 30 days.
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
Definitely cheating and I’m not the GP, but I would argue HN is curated enough to filter out most guilty pleasure outrage news cycles. Still in the same realm though. For example, the Twitter hack has made its rounds here but, say, Kanye having a political meltdown hasn’t necessarily (or at least I haven’t seen it) despite it being a prominent trend on Twitter.
I'm going to be blunt here and say that you're wrong. There is no difference. The news may be curated and may be for a specific audience but the odds that it's just as useless to you as mainstream news is still very high. I don't say this to criticize, mind you. I'm here as well.
Some of is technical content and useful for staying relevant in a fast paced industry. Some of it is garbage.
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
I figured this out a few years ago and completely stopped all news watching/reading entirely. I have nothing but positive things to say about that decision, and surprisingly I seem to be better-informed and feel like I have a worldview that more accurately reflects reality than most of the people who follow news daily. Daily news watchers now seem like such ineffective people to me, and I’m reminded of the know-nothi…
Does being on HN not count? Feel like I see lots of news on HN. It's in the name after all.
HN has the word “news” in its name, but I think that’s where most of the similarities end.
Looking at the front page right now, I count maybe 4 items that are attempts at journalism. The rest are interesting subjects resurrected from 6+ years ago, tech guides, user-submitted questions/content, etc. The ones that seem like news items don’t really pertain to today’s hot news, they’re press releases from NASA etc.
HN is a discussion board, and the topics are almost always relevant to my career and interests. I mostly read the comments though. HN informs discussions I have with people at work and tech-related decisions in and out of work. I think it’s worthwhile.
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
Definitely cheating and I’m not the GP, but I would argue HN is curated enough to filter out most guilty pleasure outrage news cycles. Still in the same realm though. For example, the Twitter hack has made its rounds here but, say, Kanye having a political meltdown hasn’t necessarily (or at least I haven’t seen it) despite it being a prominent trend on Twitter.
I'm going to be blunt here and say that you're wrong. There is no difference. The news may be curated and may be for a specific audience but the odds that it's just as useless to you as mainstream news is still very high. I don't say this to criticize, mind you. I'm here as well.
HN provides the same dopamine surge.