A very relevant reference. I see clear differences between addiction and redirection of emotions though. Most of the examples I gave at least don’t look like addiction.
I don’t like the differences and distinctions people find between “addiction” and “{insert all the things people call addiction besides addiction}”.
As a definition, we could say addiction is the threshold of need whereby an individual will (a) die or (b) be incapacitated without an activity of substance, but even then you’d have trouble defining (b) in my mind.
To Metus’ pet Everything-is-Porn Theory, I’d say at least that many more people are “addicted” to many more things than we realize, it just doesn’t kill, or incapaciate them according to a broad enough definition. I wouldn’t know where to begin with examples—many peoples’ lives are basically controlled by many of the drives in your post.
There people who spend 15+ hours a day on Reddit—addicted? How about 5+ hours on Reddit and another 8 on WoW? Have the 13+ hour/day Reddit/WoWers who scrape together enough for rent each month (but have no savings) managed to climb above the threshold for “addiction”?
This is my view too. A good portion of the people in my life are addicted to something at any given time by this broader definition. I’ve experienced short periods of it myself ranging from gaming to geeking out way to much on a particular topic at the expense of proper food and sleep. I see it as a result of access to an ever increasing range of pleasure induces experiences at ever lower costs and hyperbolic discounting—too much of a good thing with blinders to future costs.
On what Gunnar_Zarncke has named Extreme Curiosity: “Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man.”. -David Hume
An essay from Paul Graham which explores this idea and the future trends:
The Acceleration of Addictiveness
A very relevant reference. I see clear differences between addiction and redirection of emotions though. Most of the examples I gave at least don’t look like addiction.
See also this applicable rationality quote: http://lesswrong.com/lw/jsm/rationality_quotes_march_2014/an1k
I don’t like the differences and distinctions people find between “addiction” and “{insert all the things people call addiction besides addiction}”.
As a definition, we could say addiction is the threshold of need whereby an individual will (a) die or (b) be incapacitated without an activity of substance, but even then you’d have trouble defining (b) in my mind.
To Metus’ pet Everything-is-Porn Theory, I’d say at least that many more people are “addicted” to many more things than we realize, it just doesn’t kill, or incapaciate them according to a broad enough definition. I wouldn’t know where to begin with examples—many peoples’ lives are basically controlled by many of the drives in your post.
There people who spend 15+ hours a day on Reddit—addicted? How about 5+ hours on Reddit and another 8 on WoW? Have the 13+ hour/day Reddit/WoWers who scrape together enough for rent each month (but have no savings) managed to climb above the threshold for “addiction”?
This is my view too. A good portion of the people in my life are addicted to something at any given time by this broader definition. I’ve experienced short periods of it myself ranging from gaming to geeking out way to much on a particular topic at the expense of proper food and sleep. I see it as a result of access to an ever increasing range of pleasure induces experiences at ever lower costs and hyperbolic discounting—too much of a good thing with blinders to future costs.
On what Gunnar_Zarncke has named Extreme Curiosity: “Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man.”. -David Hume