YouTube Addiction • Hacker News Board

Re: YouTube Addiction

#111

Post by thenerdhead » Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 5:45 PM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #64

People are (and should be) questioning the use of the word addiction. One of the components of addiction is: is it causing a harmful, unwanted effect on one's life? OP laid out his: > I've been struggling with my mental health during the summertime, a time I traditionally have fewer problems. I wasn't recharging like I should. I was waking up tired, napping during the day, and generally not feeling at all prepared wh…

If you are using a word by its most common definition then sure. Addiction has more casual definitions in the dictionary.

Language evolves and the word addiction has evolved. It's used casually all the time like this blog post although there's no formal diagnosis.

Your examples bring up a good point. Many parents have the TV on all day in the background because they were raised with it. Many kids today will likely have streamers on all day as they grow up because they were raised with it.

It doesn't matter if they are good citizens or doing well in life, you can argue the perspective that it could be "harmful" if using the most common definition that many common mediums (radio, TV, internet, live streaming, etc) removes the sense of reality from people and promotes them to engage in consumerism/capitalism. That can be pretty harmful over the course of one's life although it's non-obvious.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#112

Post by theptip » Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 5:45 PM UTC

smoldesu wrote: post #92

vibrolax wrote: post #38

I occasionally watch "let's play" videos as a harm reduced alternative to actually playing games. A half hour spent watching someone play a game/sim totally relieves my FOMO. It also dissipates my urge to build a gaming PC. As a maker and musician, there's tons of inspiring and informative content on YT. I feel that I'm quite net positive on my use of YT to enrich my life.

> a harm reduced alternative to actually playing games. There's probably some merit to this statement, but I sorta laugh at the difference in harm between 'watching' and 'playing'. Maybe the most candid thing for us to do is acknowledge that the "harm" we're talking about is a lack of gratification.

I think the idea is 30 mins watching scratches the itch, 30 mins playing and you are going to play for hours more.

(At least, this is how it is for me, can’t speak for the GP.)

Re: YouTube Addiction

#113

Post by amanaplanacanal » Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 5:46 PM UTC

BizarreByte wrote: post #107

I am seriously addicted to the internet in general and while it may not be an addiction in the physical sense, it has caused major issues in my life. The amount of time I spend on the Internet is insane and no matter how hard I try to will power through it and cut down my usage I always fail. If I ever figure out how to overcome it I'll have to write a book or something, because I've wasted years of my life and misse…

I spend way more time random surfing than I probably should. Honestly we probably are both dealing with ADHD, depression, or some sort of anxiety disorder.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#114

Post by steve_adams_86 » Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 5:46 PM UTC

cpsns wrote: post #95

Waterluvian wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it just me or is Google quietly in serious distress? Ads have been getting a LOT worse very quickly. Almost every ad I saw in a day when my UBlock wasn’t working was advertising an actual fraud. Whether crypto or recession get rich quick or “aluminum is giving you cancer.” Advertising frequency is cranked way up. On mobile 5 second unskippables are 6-7 now. I’ll do a search and my ENTIRE screen is advertising unti…

Same nonsense on Facebook. It’s all payday loans, crypto scams, and magic mushrooms. People say it’s based on your history, but I don’t buy that as none of what it shows me is even slightly relevant. It just seems like they don’t have enough relevant ads to show, so they throw shit at the wall.

Interesting. It’s the same on my end. I’m not interested in any of the stuff I see and I have no idea why an algorithm would think so. Crypto is relentless. Payday loans are around, but not as prevalent. I get a lot of ads for weird novelty toys too. I’m not sure I’ve ever clicked one, let alone looked them up.

I’ve wondered if it’s because I’m into 3d printing and many other people who are into are interested in action figures/minis/what have you. Possible connection?

In any case ads do seem to be getting less relevant and skeezy themes are developing.

The worst one I’ve been seeing a lot of is “single Ukrainian women”. One went as far as showing a quick and easy process of selection and “purchase”. I have no idea how that would be targeted at me, but it see a lot of them.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#115

Post by kzrdude » Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 5:46 PM UTC

halkony wrote: post #100

Waterluvian wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it just me or is Google quietly in serious distress? Ads have been getting a LOT worse very quickly. Almost every ad I saw in a day when my UBlock wasn’t working was advertising an actual fraud. Whether crypto or recession get rich quick or “aluminum is giving you cancer.” Advertising frequency is cranked way up. On mobile 5 second unskippables are 6-7 now. I’ll do a search and my ENTIRE screen is advertising unti…

On this topic, what do people recommend for mobile adblocking? I've been using AdAway which redirects ads to your phone's loopback in non-root mode.

So far so good on Android: Firefox with ublock origin.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#116

Post by erikerikson » Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 5:47 PM UTC

tommica wrote: post #66

ryandrake wrote: post #64

People are (and should be) questioning the use of the word addiction. One of the components of addiction is: is it causing a harmful, unwanted effect on one's life? OP laid out his: > I've been struggling with my mental health during the summertime, a time I traditionally have fewer problems. I wasn't recharging like I should. I was waking up tired, napping during the day, and generally not feeling at all prepared wh…

Then the question that has to be answered is what unwanted and harmful effect consists of.

And are they relative to individual values and preferences?

Re: YouTube Addiction

#117

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 5:48 PM UTC

superkuh wrote: post #53

yladiz wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope. Stop using the medical word addiction in contexts where it's highly inappropriate. The Internet isn't even a single thing. It's just a collection of content. The types of content on it are extremely wildly varying. Internet addiction is not a thing. See how stupid it sounds when you say it like it is? Outside of lampooning how absurd your comment sounds, I don't think it's your place to call if something is a v…

Absolutely. There is also no such thing as internet addiction. When you compare drug based addictions to things people enjoy the difference is clear. The drugs create increased incentive salience even without enjoyment. This is very different from say, watching a video where you actually have to enjoy it intrinsically many times before it alters incentive salience. There's a reason the DSM5 and ICD-10 don't have any…

[deleted]

Re: YouTube Addiction

#118

Post by nightski » Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 5:52 PM UTC

theptip wrote: post #112

smoldesu wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a harm reduced alternative to actually playing games. There's probably some merit to this statement, but I sorta laugh at the difference in harm between 'watching' and 'playing'. Maybe the most candid thing for us to do is acknowledge that the "harm" we're talking about is a lack of gratification.

I think the idea is 30 mins watching scratches the itch, 30 mins playing and you are going to play for hours more. (At least, this is how it is for me, can’t speak for the GP.)

Yeah it's all down to the individual. I used to play all the time when younger but now I play in pretty short bursts and it works fine. I just avoid any games as a service type games.

The PS5 is really nice at this because you don't even have to exit the game. Just send it into rest mode and when you come back your game is still running ready to pick up where you left off.

For me it's a lot more satisfying than watching a YouTube video, but YMMV.

Re: YouTube Addiction

#119

Post by boredemployee » Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 5:55 PM UTC

I wonder if all the addiction related to internet (porn, gaming, surfing, you name it) has anything to do with our daily routine (aka work) that is so boring that we want an immediate and constant distraction

Re: YouTube Addiction

#120

Post by _gabe_ » Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 5:55 PM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #64

People are (and should be) questioning the use of the word addiction. One of the components of addiction is: is it causing a harmful, unwanted effect on one's life? OP laid out his: > I've been struggling with my mental health during the summertime, a time I traditionally have fewer problems. I wasn't recharging like I should. I was waking up tired, napping during the day, and generally not feeling at all prepared wh…

> People are (and should be) questioning the use of the word addiction. One of the components of addiction is: is it causing a harmful, unwanted effect on one's life?

Meriam Webster's second definition doesn't mention causing harm:

> a strong inclination to do, use, or indulge in something repeatedly

So, according to the way people typically use the word "addiction" and the literal dictionary definition of the word, it doesn't need to cause harm to be considered an addiction. I can readily admit that I'm addicted to coding. I feel a compulsion to code for ridiculous amounts of time, and that has caused a lot of good in my life. But, like with everything in life, there needs to be balance.

[0]: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/addiction