The iphone is definitely a hip flask for internet addicts.
My nexus used to be one. Then I installed aldiko and started reading books all the time instead. I'm much happier now.
The Acceleration of Addictiveness
91–100 of 289 posts
Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness
#92Maybe PG and I would agree on this, because I do think things are becoming more "addictive", but I don't believe he's addressed the root cause of the problem. I think with new technological advances, etc, things are becoming better at being "false substitutes" -- i.e. masquerading themselves as the authentic ways in which we should best satisfy the natural human desires and instincts we all have within us. Addiction…
Not just controversial but wrong, for the most part. For example, Facebook is not a substitute for face-to-face social interaction, but complements it. (How am I going to interact face-to-face with someone far away?) The same is true for #3, #4 and the second #5 at least.
Of course, if I were to spend 100% of my time on Facebook and therefore completely neglect face-to-face social contacts (), then that would likely be a problem. The opposite (100% face-to-face contacts and no online ones) would arguably be a problem too, in this day and age.
Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness
#93For technological addiction, here's the system the Amish people use to adopt to something unknown:
... he goes to his bishop with this proposal: "I like to try this out." Bishop says to Ivan, "Okay Ivan, do whatever you want with this. But you have to be ready to give it up, if we decide it is not helping you or hurting others." So Ivan acquires the tech and ramps it up, while his neighbors, family, and bishops watch intently. They weigh the benefits and drawbacks. What is it doing to the community? ... [1]
Inertia and a cost/benefit calculation, two things that are often absent in the normal Addictive iGadget buying process.
[1] http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2009/02/amish_hackers...
Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness
#94It will actually become a reasonable strategy (or a more reasonable strategy) to suspect everything new. No. The reasonable strategy is, and has always been, defining the positive outcomes you want to reach rather than negative ones you want to avoid. The opposite of "drunk" is not "he avoids drinking", it's "he lives a fulfilled life without allowing alcohol to consume his existence". The opposite of internet addict…
The same is true for any other addiction.
The internet, for me, has been different to any other addiction because it has changed so much as I've been using it (and very gradually, so I didn't notice for a long time).
Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness
#95This is a nitpick and an aside, but this sentence: When cigarettes first appeared, they spread the way an infectious disease spreads through a previously isolated population. ...is not literally true. Cigarettes are hundreds of years old. They were apparently being manufactured in Europe in the 1830s. Of course, this doesn't affect PG's point in the slightest; he's remarking on how the smoking boom stopped , not how…
Better (more efficient/effective) manufacturing techniques? Or more efficient/effective marketing techniques? (I had a little trouble there with the adjective "better" applied to Madison Avenue's promotion of cigarettes).
I vaguely remember that potassium nitrate speeds up the absorption, giving cigarettes more of a "kick", thus making them more addictive. When I used to smoke (5 years since I kicked the habit, yay!) chemical-free tobacco felt less addictive.
Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
So basically you are saying that people that will do cocaine will simply do cocaine regardless? Those people are pre-destine do do it so who cares?
You have this theory that marijuana (lets be consistent and say alcohol too) cause cocaine use. You take the fact that cocaine users have almost invariably first used such substances as evidence supporting your theory, without recognising that this pattern is what we would expect to observe in any event. The idea of a cocaine user who has never touched alcohol is a bizarre one. (By the way, why the focus on marijuana…
You start with an illegal substance. You are already breaking the law so what is the big deal with using an even stronger substance. That seems to be the rationale used by a lot of people. I guess I should have made that clear in my original example. Believe it or not your moral values start to decrease once you start breaking them. I'll take it to another extreme: Once a criminal has become used to breaking the law, doing one more crime doesn't seem like a big deal to them.
Many people will not switch from cigarettes to Marijuana because their moral values does not allow them to. i.e. They see using an illegal substance as immoral. However, if somehow you convince them to use Marijuana and break their moral value what many of them will do is to rationalize that using Marijuana is no big deal. Especially if a lot of peers are re-inforcing that notion (as many are trying to do here in Hacker News. Or to put it another way, a rotten apple will rotten all the others). That moral value is lost. Since there is no longer a moral value stopping them from using illegal substances using Cocaine is really no big deal anymore.
I hypothesize that this is how criminals are created in general. The first time the commit a crime they may be really nervous, eventually they get used to it and many may go on to commit worse crimes. I guess this is why it is so important to teach kids strong moral values. Also to keep them away from bad influences. They are the most vulnerable in their teenage years from breaking their moral values. If they have not broken their moral values after their mid twenties they are probably not going to anymore.
Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness
#97I remember, many years ago (mid-to-late 90s), being afraid that I had grown addicted to computer games. Between Command & Conquer (over peer-to-peer dial-up!), Quake Team Fortress, Civilization II, and a few others, I was playing 30-40 hours of PC games per week.
I eventually grew out of the habit, and now don't find PC or console games appealing anymore. The fact that I naturally gave it up without any intervention means it wasn't an addiction.
Most other computer enthusiasts that I know or work with have a similar story of "growing out of" their addiction to computer games. I imagine many on HN have similar stories to tell.
I think the examples in PG's essay are "phases", not addictions.
And I predict that most of the people PG knows who self-identify as Internet addicts will eventually out-grow their compulsion.
Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness
#98Very insightful. I'll look for you on the trail :)
Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness
#99Let me play devil's advocate for a minute. Why is this "new" addiction wrong ? What does it mean to say it is bad ? pg is taking great pains to distance himself from real addiction, like crystal meth. Yet he never explicitly explains anywhere why the new "addiction" is actually bad , other than trying to loosely associate it with alcohol. I don't think that the "addictiveness" of a thing alone is enough to call it ba…
The two points I can address:
* Is It *dangerous*?
* Can the claims of loss of productivity be scientifically substantiated? To what extent?
Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness
#100The OP seems related to Clay Shirky's argument about "cognitive surpluses" See http://www.amazon.com/Cognitive-Surplus-Creativity-Generosit...
His argument is roughly that strongly addictive behaviors arise to soak up spare time created by technological advances, e.g. gin halls in the 17th century england as a response to the industrial revolution and TV/Radio/Etc in response to the dramatic drop in hours worked per week in the 20th century.
Hopefully our society will create new ways to use time in productive ways (a challenge especially appropriate to those of us on HN) pulling many, otherwise unsuspecting, away from worthless addictive pursuits.