I think I’ve discovered the source of my Internet addiction. I hate the feeling of not knowing! Oddly, I used to pride myself on my ignorance of current events. It’s just that the more I learn the more it feels like I need to know. Classic addiction pattern.
I think I’ve discovered the source of my Internet addiction.
Probably not. First off, that’s entirely too logical. ;-) Second, the aspect of behavior you describe is more parsimoniously explained by simple dopamine-driven behavior modification.
The reason you’re surfing the internet instead of some more interesting source of dopamine, however, might well be something to do with a SASS threat, but you won’t know what, specifically, unless you investigate.
Information that comes from outside you and sounds logical is generally the least likely source of good information about why you’re doing what you’re doing.
All right, I asked myself what it would be like if I hardly ever used the Internet. I got a feeling of “missing out.” Perhaps that points to loneliness, which is ironic because my net use hampers my offline social life, but it could be case nonetheless.
Emotional-brain answers don’t “point to” things. They just are what they are. Ask what, specifically, you’re “missing out” on, as the “pointing to” bit is just a logical-brain speculation.
At the moment, the evidence still supports a most-parsimonious hypothesis of dopamine addiction as an avoidance strategy for getting away from something else… that you haven’t actually asked yourself about. What is it that you want (or think you want) to be doing instead of being internet addicted? That’s the thing you should be asking questions about.
90% of the time, our initial ideas about what problem we need to solve are overly-narrow, because the unconscious mind almost always hands the conscious mind a problem specification that doesn’t involve questioning any of your basic assumptions. ;-)
I’m not sure where intermittent reinforcement fits with your theories, but I think part of the hook of surfing the internet is that you never know when you’ll run into something really cool. The fact that you don’t even know what sort of really cool you might find adds to the hook.
I’m not sure where intermittent reinforcement fits with your theories,
Also known as “dopamine-driven behavior modification”, as I said above.
That being said, novelty addiction seems (at least in my experience) to be something that’s only really satisfying/compelling when you don’t have anything better to do, or you’re trying to avoid something else. When I’m being positively motivated, I’ll sometimes go for days without reading my usual blogs, webcomics, etc. and be surprised when I have a lot to catch up on.
That’s why I’d always check for a negative motivation explanation long before I’d consider the novelty-seeking to be particularly important in and of itself.
I think I’ve discovered the source of my Internet addiction. I hate the feeling of not knowing! Oddly, I used to pride myself on my ignorance of current events. It’s just that the more I learn the more it feels like I need to know. Classic addiction pattern.
Probably not. First off, that’s entirely too logical. ;-) Second, the aspect of behavior you describe is more parsimoniously explained by simple dopamine-driven behavior modification.
The reason you’re surfing the internet instead of some more interesting source of dopamine, however, might well be something to do with a SASS threat, but you won’t know what, specifically, unless you investigate.
Information that comes from outside you and sounds logical is generally the least likely source of good information about why you’re doing what you’re doing.
You mean RMI?
Yes.
All right, I asked myself what it would be like if I hardly ever used the Internet. I got a feeling of “missing out.” Perhaps that points to loneliness, which is ironic because my net use hampers my offline social life, but it could be case nonetheless.
Emotional-brain answers don’t “point to” things. They just are what they are. Ask what, specifically, you’re “missing out” on, as the “pointing to” bit is just a logical-brain speculation.
At the moment, the evidence still supports a most-parsimonious hypothesis of dopamine addiction as an avoidance strategy for getting away from something else… that you haven’t actually asked yourself about. What is it that you want (or think you want) to be doing instead of being internet addicted? That’s the thing you should be asking questions about.
90% of the time, our initial ideas about what problem we need to solve are overly-narrow, because the unconscious mind almost always hands the conscious mind a problem specification that doesn’t involve questioning any of your basic assumptions. ;-)
I’m not sure where intermittent reinforcement fits with your theories, but I think part of the hook of surfing the internet is that you never know when you’ll run into something really cool. The fact that you don’t even know what sort of really cool you might find adds to the hook.
Also known as “dopamine-driven behavior modification”, as I said above.
That being said, novelty addiction seems (at least in my experience) to be something that’s only really satisfying/compelling when you don’t have anything better to do, or you’re trying to avoid something else. When I’m being positively motivated, I’ll sometimes go for days without reading my usual blogs, webcomics, etc. and be surprised when I have a lot to catch up on.
That’s why I’d always check for a negative motivation explanation long before I’d consider the novelty-seeking to be particularly important in and of itself.