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It depends on the context - selling items on eBay is addictive and habit-forming. So is running your own business, or running marathons. I notice that you have

It depends on the context - selling items on eBay is addictive and habit-forming. So is running your own business, or running marathons. I notice that you have 2258 karma. I think it's safe to say that you've formed a habit or even addiction to HN, but hopefully a rewarding one.

neilk 17y ago
I disagree that these things can be conflated. Just because you find something rewarding, it does not mean you are addicted, or (more broadly) that any of one's reward systems are being manipulated. If my internal reward systems are telling me that running is good, for the most part it's because running is good. Even on HN, there's a fundamentally useful activity -- contribution to discussion. The measurement system is distributed to users, but that's because the benefits are similarly distributed. Things cross into "drug" territory when most of their value comes from tricking your reward system. Even drugs can be beneficial from time to time, but when too much of a person's activity is about chasing simulated rewards, we start calling that person "addicted". Most drugs manipulate the brain's desire for pleasure, or the rush of excitement. If we believe the author of the OP, FarmVille manipulates our desire for social connectedness.
- jim-greer 17y ago
  So you can't be addicted to running? Or posting on Hacker News? You have a fair point, the dictionary definition of addiction includes words like 'damaging' and 'pathological'. But the mechanism of addiction is very similar whether the ends are beneficial or not. And a lot of the people use the word to apply to things that are not terribly negative.
  - neilk 17y ago
    Oh, I'll agree with you on that. Sometimes people even use 'addiction' in a positive sense, to describe their dedication to something. But in the context of this debate I want to draw a clearer distinction.

neilk 17y ago

I disagree that these things can be conflated. Just because you find something rewarding, it does not mean you are addicted, or (more broadly) that any of one's reward systems are being manipulated. If my internal reward systems are telling me that running is good, for the most part it's because running is good. Even on HN, there's a fundamentally useful activity -- contribution to discussion. The measurement system is distributed to users, but that's because the benefits are similarly distributed. Things cross into "drug" territory when most of their value comes from tricking your reward system. Even drugs can be beneficial from time to time, but when too much of a person's activity is about chasing simulated rewards, we start calling that person "addicted". Most drugs manipulate the brain's desire for pleasure, or the rush of excitement. If we believe the author of the OP, FarmVille manipulates our desire for social connectedness.

jim-greer 17y ago
So you can't be addicted to running? Or posting on Hacker News? You have a fair point, the dictionary definition of addiction includes words like 'damaging' and 'pathological'. But the mechanism of addiction is very similar whether the ends are beneficial or not. And a lot of the people use the word to apply to things that are not terribly negative.
- neilk 17y ago
  Oh, I'll agree with you on that. Sometimes people even use 'addiction' in a positive sense, to describe their dedication to something. But in the context of this debate I want to draw a clearer distinction.