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Ask Slashdot: Are Interactive Computing Devices Addictive?
This question came from two things noticed by Slashdot reader dryriver:
"Myself and just about every other kid I was friends with in the 1980s were definitely addicted to computers when we were young, and stayed that way until we reached college."
"There is increasing concern about everybody from young kids to people 60+ staring into smartphone, tablet computer and laptop screens for hours and hours every day and not partaking in other activities they used to before the "glowing screen" hooked them."
His question: Are interactive computing devices, whether networked or not, addictive in nature? What kind of applications appear to be the most addictive? (AAA games? Casual games? Social media? Texting?) And could the addiction have something to do with "Neuroplasticity", the fact that doing an activity over and over again each day that you place great importance in, and pay great attention to, can actually rewire the neurons in your brain?
Nicholas Carr once argued that "We're training ourselves, through repetition, to be facile skimmers, scanners, and message-processors -- important skills, to be sure -- but, perpetually distracted and interrupted, we're not training ourselves in the quieter, more attentive modes of thought." Slashdot readers seem uniquely qualified to address this, so leave your own attentive thoughts in the comments. Are interactive computing devices addictive?
"Myself and just about every other kid I was friends with in the 1980s were definitely addicted to computers when we were young, and stayed that way until we reached college."
"There is increasing concern about everybody from young kids to people 60+ staring into smartphone, tablet computer and laptop screens for hours and hours every day and not partaking in other activities they used to before the "glowing screen" hooked them."
His question: Are interactive computing devices, whether networked or not, addictive in nature? What kind of applications appear to be the most addictive? (AAA games? Casual games? Social media? Texting?) And could the addiction have something to do with "Neuroplasticity", the fact that doing an activity over and over again each day that you place great importance in, and pay great attention to, can actually rewire the neurons in your brain?
Nicholas Carr once argued that "We're training ourselves, through repetition, to be facile skimmers, scanners, and message-processors -- important skills, to be sure -- but, perpetually distracted and interrupted, we're not training ourselves in the quieter, more attentive modes of thought." Slashdot readers seem uniquely qualified to address this, so leave your own attentive thoughts in the comments. Are interactive computing devices addictive?
if you let it
Anything can be addictive if you like it.
Every day, i find myself spending 8 hours sitting in a bizarre grey cube doing what people who are called my "bosses" tell me to do. Mostly it involves typing things into a black box, which then shows me markings on a screen, after which i type more things into the black box.
Twice a month i receive "credits" in an "account" - essentially i am just making a number go up in a database. Much like a gamer.
If you count travel and lunch time, i spend 50 hours a week doing this activity. I'm starting to get worried. At this "Workplace" we are not supposed to talk about sex, drugs, racism, or anything controversial. There are cameras watching us all day long and recording our keystrokes. It can get a bit weird after a while. I wonder if I have joined a cult?
But mostly, when I tried to stop "doing work", i was told that I had to move out of my apartment, stop driving my car, and stop buying food! This "work habit" had gotten way out of control - i couldn't live without it.
I don't know if there is a solution, but I wish someone could help me. Even my psychologist asked me for "money" when I tried to talk to her about it! ! ! Crazy.
Do you foam at the mouth if you can't play a game when you want? Do you twitch when you can't get at your facebook profile? Do you break into people's houses when you can't get a grindr match?
You ain't addicted, you're a lawyer looking for a way to get your stupid ass client off whatever stupid thing you did.
The summary was pretty long. I did skim the first couple of lines, but - was there a question or something in there, somewhere?
- Sent from my iPad
#DeleteChrome
wait, I was doing something... I forgot... wow, another cat video... I didn't know cats could do that, this is awesome
Never antropomorphize computers, they do not like that
Computers are habit forming but not addictive. Addiction is caused by chemicals screwing with your biology. If you take a computer away from someone for a week, it bothers them because is breaks their habit, but they don't go through withdrawal like heroine or nicotine. Computers don't do that.
It just replaced my grandpa's TV. He would spend hours watching Direct-TV. Then he found Netflix and the same thing. Now its browsing any random shit he finds on YouTube or Facebook.
There is no epidemic. He is just board. Being forced to use a smart phone, he uses this rather than his computer because its more daunting. Rather than reading a book or watching the TV, we now just shit post on the internet for fun.
Though, even as I say this, even I want to tell my grandpa to turn the TV on once in a while.
...Just count how many "computer addicts" are pimping themselves out to random strangers so only they can afford to play another session of WoW?
Are interactive computing devices, whether networked or not, addictive in nature?
No. You can easily make any device frustrating enough to use that people will hate using it even if it saves them hours of work.
What kind of applications appear to be the most addictive?
This is the heart of the issue, the applications! A significant amount of neurological research has gone into how to trigger the reward centers in the brain which is what causes some software to be addictive. Some people research this and only this because it's become a very lucrative field.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
"rewire the neurons in your brain" = learning. We all do it all the time. Re: "Are Interactive Computing Devices Addictive?" -- Social media services; Facebook, Twitter, etc.; are designed to be as addictive as possible. They make their money out of having lots of eyes on their web pages so they hire gaming (read: gambling) consultants to "game-ify" their services, and like the gaming industry, they do it regardless of any negative effects this may have in people's lives. The biggest difference is that the gaming industry is strictly regulated, social media is not. Cory Doctorow gave a presentation about how this works at TEDxObserver a few years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... I hope this helps :)
Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
>"Myself and [...] until we reached college."
Eeek, try "I"! Did you finish college? Anyway...
>"Are Interactive Computing Devices Addictive?"
Absolutely. But just about anything can become "addictive." The human brain almost seems to be wired to become "addicted" to all kinds of things. I watch many people twitch when denied access to their phones for just short periods of time, as if they can't survive 10 minutes of just silent thinking, contemplation, or even just a hour of conversation (often the same people walking off the curb into traffic, swerving while driving, and ignoring everyone around them at a dinner table).
I do think the word "addicted" is overused and twisted around a lot. "Dependent" might be a better description for some of the more common things we see now.
>"perpetually distracted and interrupted, we're not training ourselves in the quieter, more attentive modes of thought."
Exactly. As if everyone has become ADHD and yet also just living in the present moment.... no thought to the future or re-examining the past.
Interactive things tend to be more addictive than dead things. I mean... think about it... How addicted are you to your dead friends, dead pets, dead rocks? Aren't the interactive ones more fun?
Any activity that causes the body to releases dopamine or happy-fun chemicals like norepinephrine can be addictive. Video games, exercise, sex, drugs. I would think that some things, like playing with your phone or getting swole, are more innocuous.
At 91 my eyes are not what they used to be and my energies also have dropped somewhat. To have a desktop which puts me in immediate touch with any news event, any comment, any reference for arcane information at the touch of a keyboard plus that the type can be easily enlarged to meed my visual decline. If anything, my contacts with the world and people of similar interest is far more intense than ever before. To characterize this as an addiction is, to say the least, a total misinterpretation of reality. Are people these days addicted to automobiles rather than horses, to airplanes rather than dreaming at isolated spots of seeing the world? This judgement strikes me as most peculiar.I think far better these days now being far better informed of the dynamics of the planet. I do not feel deprived of sitting beneath a tree and studying the bugs.
I thought the whole idea of games, social media and other apps like these that they were designed to be addictive - otherwise how are users going to tell other people about them ("Man, I just can't stop playing this" or "This is the same game Alec Baldwin refused to stop playing when the plane was supposed to take off").
There's really two issues here. The first is that various apps are addictive and the answer to that is yes because they are designed to be.
The second, which I think is much more important, are the various apps not developing and harming long term thinking and reasoning skills? Are they turning us into purely reactive entities that don't think through their responses?
Is Donald Trump president?
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Slashdot readers are attentive? TIL. Flutters away to read something else.
I come to slashdot and other tech forums because it makes me feel better, as opposed to CNN. After reading that i want to off myself. ya these tech sites really seem to be a type of meditation almost... I think you all know what i mean... You have to be fully focused on what your doing (coding), or reading in regards to tech.... it takes your mind off the bad things quite well... especially if you got the BUG for it... you know what i mean about the BUG... that drive that makes you want to code... that feeling... its a beautiful thing.
[($)]
There's a great video on addiction by Youtube user Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell, that offers up the following: "The opposite of addiction is not sobriety. The opposite of addiction is connection." It's almost too simple to be correct, but it makes sense.
Does mental "down time" perform any useful function?
Because that's what we're eliminating: time you spend neither doing something explicitly purposeful nor being entertained.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
For most of those people staring at a screen, it's not the device that interests them, but rather the content. They have found a way to interact with more interesting people who are not in physical proximity. Here's a nice article on neurochemicals the brain uses to reward behavior. It's possible to design computer games that stimulate the release of these chemicals, particularly dopamine. In some cases, this can lead to behavior that qualifies as addiction. Most of the time, you're seeing people replacing behavior that's valued by someone in their physical proximity with behavior that's valued by people who are more distant. Whether the support systems in our society are sufficiently good that we can so frequently disregard physical proximity as an organizing factor in the web of value exchange that we use to construct our place in society is a discussion worth having, and probably worth having in secondary school. However, it's not a discussion about addiction.
Yes
If you gave me a choice between a printer and a giraffe with explosive diarrhoea, i'll get my ladder and my raincoat
These devices and apps revolve around instant gratification which I think is the root of all addiction. If you have an addictive personality then using technology can become your vice. Or maybe it's not so much we're addicted to technology but we've been socialized to need it.
There comes a time when after youve done the school and the books, you need the cliff-notes, the reference data, the meat-and-potatoes, on a particular subject at a particular time. Computers help get you that one fact, so that you can get to the next thing. You could even give up books entirely if you have a career, because, meh, you'll read an interesting few later. Git er done, because your body is on its way to degrading permanently or youre gonna be kilt tomorrow. Do as thou will.