Perhaps a stupid question, or, more accurately, not even a question—but I don’t understand this attitude. If you enjoy going on the Internet, why would you want to stop? If you don’t enjoy it, why would it tempt you? It reminds me, and I mean no offense by this, like the attitude addicts have towards drugs. But it really stretches plausibility to say that the Internet could be something like a drug.
Perhaps a stupid question, or, more accurately, not even a question—but I don’t understand this attitude. If you enjoy going on the Internet, why would you want to stop? If you don’t enjoy it, why would it tempt you?
Wanting is mediated by dopamine. Liking is mostly about opiods. The two features are (unfortunately) not always in sync.
It reminds me, and I mean no offence by this, like the attitude addicts have towards drugs. But it really stretches plausibility to say that the Internet could be something like a drug.
It really doesn’t stretch plausibility. The key feature here is “has addictive potential”. It doesn’t matter to the brain whether the reward is endogenous dopamine released in response to a stimulus or something that came in a pill.
This is confusing to me. Intuitively, reward that is not wireheading is a good thing, and the Internet’s rewarding-ness is in complex and meaningful information which is the exact opposite of wireheading. For the same reason, I’m confused about what tasty foods are not seen as a dangerous evil that needs to be escaped.
there are things that can too easily expand to fill all of your time while only being a certain level of better than baseline. If you want to feel even better than just browsing the internet you need to not allow it to fill all your time. I also value doing DIFFERENT things, though not everyone does. It’s easier to do different activities (ie the threshold cost to starting them, which is usually the biggest emotional price you pay) if you’re NOT doing something fairly engrossing already.
if your base state is 0 hedons (neutral) an hour, internet is 5 hedons an hour, and going to go out dancing is maybe 1 hedon during travel time and 20 while doing it, it’s easier to go dancing if you’re deliberately cutting off your internet time, because you don’t have to spend −4 hedons to get out of the house.
Another concern is when people care about things other than direct hedons. If you have goals other than enjoying your time, then allowing internet to take up all your time sabotages those goals.
it really stretches plausibility to say that the Internet could be something like a drug.
The brain appears to have separable capabilities for wanting something and enjoying something. There are definitely some things that I feel urges to do but don’t particularly enjoy at any point. A common example is lashing out at someone verbally—sometimes, especially on the internet, I have urges to be a jerk, but when I act on those urges it isn’t rewarding to me.
I guess I can’t identify with that feeling. I don’t think I’ve ever felt that way—I’ve never wanted something that I could have identified as “not rewarding” at the time that I wanted it (regardless of the how long I reflected on it). The only times I wanted something but didn’t enjoy it was because of lack of information.
Perhaps a stupid question, or, more accurately, not even a question—but I don’t understand this attitude. If you enjoy going on the Internet, why would you want to stop? If you don’t enjoy it, why would it tempt you? It reminds me, and I mean no offense by this, like the attitude addicts have towards drugs. But it really stretches plausibility to say that the Internet could be something like a drug.
Wanting is mediated by dopamine. Liking is mostly about opiods. The two features are (unfortunately) not always in sync.
It really doesn’t stretch plausibility. The key feature here is “has addictive potential”. It doesn’t matter to the brain whether the reward is endogenous dopamine released in response to a stimulus or something that came in a pill.
This is confusing to me. Intuitively, reward that is not wireheading is a good thing, and the Internet’s rewarding-ness is in complex and meaningful information which is the exact opposite of wireheading. For the same reason, I’m confused about what tasty foods are not seen as a dangerous evil that needs to be escaped.
there are things that can too easily expand to fill all of your time while only being a certain level of better than baseline. If you want to feel even better than just browsing the internet you need to not allow it to fill all your time. I also value doing DIFFERENT things, though not everyone does. It’s easier to do different activities (ie the threshold cost to starting them, which is usually the biggest emotional price you pay) if you’re NOT doing something fairly engrossing already.
if your base state is 0 hedons (neutral) an hour, internet is 5 hedons an hour, and going to go out dancing is maybe 1 hedon during travel time and 20 while doing it, it’s easier to go dancing if you’re deliberately cutting off your internet time, because you don’t have to spend −4 hedons to get out of the house.
Another concern is when people care about things other than direct hedons. If you have goals other than enjoying your time, then allowing internet to take up all your time sabotages those goals.
The brain appears to have separable capabilities for wanting something and enjoying something. There are definitely some things that I feel urges to do but don’t particularly enjoy at any point. A common example is lashing out at someone verbally—sometimes, especially on the internet, I have urges to be a jerk, but when I act on those urges it isn’t rewarding to me.
Aaanyhow, your sentence is also the worst argument :P
I guess I can’t identify with that feeling. I don’t think I’ve ever felt that way—I’ve never wanted something that I could have identified as “not rewarding” at the time that I wanted it (regardless of the how long I reflected on it). The only times I wanted something but didn’t enjoy it was because of lack of information.