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Any research on association of joblessness with internet addiction? I know China has entire state-sponsored treatment programs for internet/video game addiction
by reader5000 10y ago
Any research on association of joblessness with internet addiction? I know China has entire state-sponsored treatment programs for internet/video game addiction; they think it is a real problem. I think if a person is consuming 8-9 hours of electronic media per day (which is around average), particularly internet or video games, then their motivation/capacity to interface with the real world is severely damaged. In many ways reality is not as rewarding/stimulating as the internet, but is also more difficult and risky. Just take the case of mating: I can enjoy simulated physical intimacy with literally thousands of physically attractive women with 0 risk of rejection and 0 effort, or I can take on the risk of painful rejection and enormous effort of achieving "social status" and being "charismatic" in order to attract an "actual" woman with whom I get to have "actual" sex, which at the end of the day is just not as good as fake sex with 100s of different electronic women. And really, if I have no need to find a real woman, what need do I have to find a job? Electronic stimulation is severely fucking up the reward/motivation functioning of the human brain, at least for some people, in the same way alcohol is a huge problem for some people.
I think the other factor is simply technological productivity. A handful of software engineers can run e.g. Facebook, a social networking site for billions of people. A handful of farmers can produce food for billions of people. Every job opening receives 100s to 1000s of resumes because the world's productivity to consumption of human labor ratio increases every day. If you're not like a top .01% skill level person, you're really not needed. Your brain has been obsoleted.
- pcurve 10y agoThe problem is, this has been a long term trend that pre-dates proliferation of internet by decades.
- reader5000 10y agoHow you mean? Young people dropping out of society I thought was a relatively recent thing. In Japan "hikikomori" started getting noted early 2000s.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]