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I can understand destructive pursuits but I don't understand this, or grinding in some RPG, or virtue signalling. When you're chasing money, sex, even drugs, at

by blfr 9y ago

I can understand destructive pursuits but I don't understand this, or grinding in some RPG, or virtue signalling. When you're chasing money, sex, even drugs, at least you get something. Here it's nothing. And there is no way to miss that it's nothing after the fact. Do you reminisce after writing a well-liked post? After a night spent levelling up?

gbacon 9y ago
Ego, pride, and little shots of endorphins.
jacek 9y ago
For a rational mind it is difficult to understand. However, social networks and many apps activate dopamine pathways in our brains [1]. The same pathway that activates when reward is "real" (according to your definition). Problem is, designers and engineers now understand this and use that purposefully to hook their users. To learn more about this phenomenon I recommend R. Lustig's new book "The Hacking of the American Mind". [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopaminergic_pathways https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopaminergic_pathways
- blfr 9y ago
  There's nothing real about a drug high, and I didn't say "real." The explanation that these fearsome psychology engineers make us refresh Facebook waiting for a notification sounds a lot like updated neuro-linguistic programming (they drop an anchor!). Frankly, I don't buy it. There's something deeper about people so desperately seeking an ersatz of connection over social networks. This alienation could not have been caused by Facebook. It just happens to be benefiting from the same trend that brought us an opioid addiction epidemic and below replacement TFRs.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
oaijdsfoaijsf 9y ago
And yet, here you are. :P We all have our vices. And there's not as much of a difference between these various stimuli as you seem to think. It's more a question of degree than a qualitative difference. In addition to the things you mentioned, I also don't reminisce about the (few) long nights of work I've ever put in. This line of thinking quickly leads to nihilism. Humans like doing things, and different humans like different things. Almost all possible human pursuits have some element addiction, because "addiction" is just a strong form of the way any behavior gets created and reinforced. To put it another way, what do you "have" after an instance of birth-control-protected sex? It's as ephemeral as anything else on the list. I definitely do not reminisce about each instance of this that's happened in my life.
Retric 9y ago
You have 3206 karma on HN, that's not from a single post but rather a pattern of behavior. Now, up-votes may not mean much on their own. But, it is a way of keeping score and there is a tendency to think of down-votes as a failure. From that standpoint it's easy to start thinking of up-votes as success and start to optimize for them.
erikb 9y ago
People don't chase something. People chase emotions. And if you can trigger emotions with a virtual button click, then why shouldn't it work?

by blfr 9y ago

gbacon 9y ago

Ego, pride, and little shots of endorphins.

jacek 9y ago

For a rational mind it is difficult to understand. However, social networks and many apps activate dopamine pathways in our brains [1]. The same pathway that activates when reward is "real" (according to your definition). Problem is, designers and engineers now understand this and use that purposefully to hook their users. To learn more about this phenomenon I recommend R. Lustig's new book "The Hacking of the American Mind". [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopaminergic_pathways https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopaminergic_pathways

blfr 9y ago
There's nothing real about a drug high, and I didn't say "real." The explanation that these fearsome psychology engineers make us refresh Facebook waiting for a notification sounds a lot like updated neuro-linguistic programming (they drop an anchor!). Frankly, I don't buy it. There's something deeper about people so desperately seeking an ersatz of connection over social networks. This alienation could not have been caused by Facebook. It just happens to be benefiting from the same trend that brought us an opioid addiction epidemic and below replacement TFRs.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

oaijdsfoaijsf 9y ago

And yet, here you are. :P We all have our vices. And there's not as much of a difference between these various stimuli as you seem to think. It's more a question of degree than a qualitative difference. In addition to the things you mentioned, I also don't reminisce about the (few) long nights of work I've ever put in. This line of thinking quickly leads to nihilism. Humans like doing things, and different humans like different things. Almost all possible human pursuits have some element addiction, because "addiction" is just a strong form of the way any behavior gets created and reinforced. To put it another way, what do you "have" after an instance of birth-control-protected sex? It's as ephemeral as anything else on the list. I definitely do not reminisce about each instance of this that's happened in my life.

Retric 9y ago

You have 3206 karma on HN, that's not from a single post but rather a pattern of behavior. Now, up-votes may not mean much on their own. But, it is a way of keeping score and there is a tendency to think of down-votes as a failure. From that standpoint it's easy to start thinking of up-votes as success and start to optimize for them.

erikb 9y ago

People don't chase something. People chase emotions. And if you can trigger emotions with a virtual button click, then why shouldn't it work?