The only defense for superstimulus is the hedonic treadmill. (And vice-versa.)
Doing Good in the Addiction Economy
11–18 of 18 posts
Re: Doing Good in the Addiction Economy
#12Obligatory link to an essay I posted on HN a few years ago and received lots of commentary from the community. This is a very serious problem. I've yet to see much headway being made. http://www.whattofix.com/blog/archives/2009/02/technology-is...
Great essay! I added a link to it at the bottom of my own article.
Re: Doing Good in the Addiction Economy
#13I was confounded and disturbed when I started seeing mobile games advertising "addictive" as a positive trait. Most addictive game ever? Why on Earth would I want to play that? But somehow it's become a badge of honor for games, with people not even realizing they're being told that they're being manipulated. Of course this is not at all limited to games -- the article speaks to many industries, most of which are mor…
The food industry has been carefully maximizing the addictiveness of its products for decades now. The software world has its equivalent in vendor lock-in, which may not tap into the same psychology, but is nonetheless rooted in fostering habits and dependence.
It's a problem of perverse incentives inherent in capitalism (and democracy also); the fact that a consumer's rational judgment holds so much power means that providers tend to be rewarded for distorting and subverting that rational judgment, which is easier than it would seem when done on a mass scale. It's a wicked problem, to be sure.
Re: Doing Good in the Addiction Economy
#14>the same process also makes it possible to create drugs, games, and services that are ever more addictive than before. Not necessarily. There very well may be a limit to the propensity of the brain toward addiction, unless we delve into deep sci-fi territory of complete reward structure take over. Opiates have passed their 200th birthday and we certainly can't conclusively say that we have found anything more addict…
There very well may be a limit to the propensity of the brain toward addiction, unless we delve into deep sci-fi territory of complete reward structure take over.
What makes you think that doesn't happen? We know the brain is plastic. More frequently used neural pathways get reinforced, unused ones get destroyed. After a long period of addiction, the brain is physically altered to require that addiction. The presence of the addiction becomes the new baseline for feeling "normal." There's a limit to this for physical addictions, because there's a point where the heroin will kill you. Psychological addictions don't have that restriction.
Re: Doing Good in the Addiction Economy
#15> What is wrong with this? If people are voluntarily engaging in these activities, is that not a good thing? Well, if people genuinely enjoy those activities, then maybe so. And sometimes that is what happens. But often, my experience at least is quite different... That's an important point which is often lost on proponents of "revealed preferences". It's explored in more detail in Yvain's essay on the want/like dist…
Right now it's 1.30 AM where I'm living (a studio apartment in a crowded building) and I can hear my neighbor hitting the concrete wall that stands between me and him and screaming at his girlfriend "Just leave me alone! I can't even finish a quest! Leave me alone!". Apparently he's playing WoW.
He's been doing this (screaming in the middle of the night and hitting the wall) regularly since they've moved next door approximately two months ago, all of it caused by his "deaths" that happen in an online game. The first time when I heard him I thought this was just your casual "mad guy who gets upset when drinking too much", but seems like I was wrong. The only thing which I can't still understand is how come said girlfriend is still standing by him, I can hear her from time to time asking him "please be a little quieter".
Re: Doing Good in the Addiction Economy
#16>the same process also makes it possible to create drugs, games, and services that are ever more addictive than before. Not necessarily. There very well may be a limit to the propensity of the brain toward addiction, unless we delve into deep sci-fi territory of complete reward structure take over. Opiates have passed their 200th birthday and we certainly can't conclusively say that we have found anything more addict…
There very well may be a limit to the propensity of the brain toward addiction, unless we delve into deep sci-fi territory of complete reward structure take over. What makes you think that doesn't happen? We know the brain is plastic. More frequently used neural pathways get reinforced, unused ones get destroyed. After a long period of addiction, the brain is physically altered to require that addiction. The presence…
Psychological addictions can be just as deadly as physiological ones. Death from overwork[1], death from playing video games[2], death from avoidable STD's all of these could be classed as deaths resulting from psychological addictions.
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kar%C5%8Dshi 2. http://www.ranker.com/list/8-people-who-died-playing-video-g...
Re: Doing Good in the Addiction Economy
#17The only defense for superstimulus is the hedonic treadmill. (And vice-versa.)
Sadly, the hedonic treadmill only protects you from excessive enjoyment, not from excessive urge to do something. (See my above comment on the want/like distinction.)
Re: Doing Good in the Addiction Economy
#18Obligatory link to an essay I posted on HN a few years ago and received lots of commentary from the community. This is a very serious problem. I've yet to see much headway being made. http://www.whattofix.com/blog/archives/2009/02/technology-is...
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=471353 (1674 days ago)