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A tech addict who works in the tech industry
- navs 8y agoThis may sound silly but I think I have my first Macbook to thank for removing me from the world of addictive gaming. If I wasn't gaming, I was reading or watching movies. Like the person in this article, I would ignore friends and largely spent much of my childhood and teenage years alone. It's hurt my ability to relate and converse with people. I don't know if it's the main reason for my depression and social anxiety diagnosis but there does seem to be a correlation if not causation. I ultimately stopped my serious gaming when I moved completely into the Apple ecosystem. Nothing ran well and those that did weren't in the genre I was interested in. It was a roadblock. That didn't do anything for the other aspects of internet consumption (which I'm still working on) but one down, a few more to go.
- kizer 8y agoI can totally see that. Once I went to college, I stopped watching TV because my roommate and I were both too lazy to get one for the dorm room. I haven’t had cable since (5 years later).
- twic 8y ago> That didn't do anything for the other aspects of internet consumption (which I'm still working on) Have you considered getting internet service from CenturyLink?
- gshack 8y agoLook Man, I'm not looking forwards to dying
- kizer 8y agoAlso, my strategy for progressive change in habits is to make a simple pair of lists, which I call “do(s)” and “don’t(s)”. Every day just focus on avoiding the don’ts. If time allows and you are willing, do a do, so to speak. After ~8 months (anecdotal) you will kick the bad habits and hopefully replace them with better ones.
- 1123581321 8y agoI had the same experience. I got badly into League of Legends in 2009 and don’t think I’d have weaned myself off of it as quickly if I didn’t buy a used MBP in 2010.
- kizer 8y agoGod, my roommate punched a hole in our wall when he lost once back in college. That’s the behavior of an addict, I assume. Then of course he paid our greedy landlord who demanded the whole apt be repainted.
- pcr0 8y agoI got into League of Legends pretty bad as well. Unfortunately for me, the MacBook Air I got in 2013 ran the game on low settings perfectly in OSX.
- j45 8y agoThis is a nice subtle side effect of owning Apple. - non tech friends stop asking you for tech advice once you have a MacBook because people assume you're dumb as a door knob carrying apple products. - you rarely from them once you advise someone to buy an apple product because things generally work in the ecosystem.
- navs 8y agoAnd let's not forget that Apple premium leaving you with little more left to spend.
- j45 8y agoNo doubt. Current price increases may be unsustainable.
- hopler 8y agoOnly extremely competitive insecure gadget geeks think only dummies use Apple.
- j45 8y agoI used Windows + Linux heavily until Vista came out and it forced me to Apple to run XP, ironically. The most popular Apple devices, iPhone + iPad are designed for the average user in the masses first, and not the power user. One is a much larger group of sales. Most of the non-tech people I know with an iPhone do so because "it just works" and they "aren't very good with tech". A lot of these users buy an Apple laptop for an overpriced but reliable web browser, again for ease of use and not being a power user, and not having to fight with a historical windows OS that will slow to a crawl. It's the same people that before an iPhone would have a window laptop and always be asking for help with it. I think a segment of these users are being well served by chromebooks too.
- sl1ck731 8y agoI've been attempting to do this by weening myself off onto Linux dual booting so I can get more things done. Unfortunately I find so many issues with UI/UX that I just get tired of looking at it and fiddling with countless distributions. I never considered a Mac for the same purpose. The most productive I've ever been was when I had a junk HP laptop with only Arch and no internet at home.
- systematical 8y agoI switched to linux in 2010 for this reason. Removed my dual boot this year. Unfortunately curiosity and boredom got the better of me and I was able to get Star Craft 2 running in wine recently.
- Klover 8y agoHm, I guess games don’t work that well without a graphics card? On a desktop computer you could physically remove it so you’d have to plug it back in when you want to play games. Funny thread of comments with all the ways people go about things! Here’s one, perhaps: do nothing. Set a timer on your phone, then just lie down and close your eyes and do nothing until the timer is over. Could even satisfy your information desires by mulling over old information to think of new things or remembering forgotten information!
- ansible 8y agoI have some bad news for you then... Valve has made it easier than ever to run some Windows-only games on Linux with Steam Play, which uses a special version of Wine with better graphics support. It has been hit-or-miss for me when I wander off of the pre-approved game list, but it does make it easier.
- AndrewKemendo 8y agoI've always wondered if my form of computer use constitutes "addiction." When I first got a computer in the house, I guess it was '92, I spent an inordinate amount of time reading stuff on the encyclopedia disks and using mac paint. When we got the internet in 95 or so, it was the same but on an entirely different level - geocities sites about everything, car forums, etc... Fast forward twenty years and I spend an inordinate amount of time on the internet...reading. Mostly I read science articles, CS/ML papers, wikipedia articles and watch videos from PBS, nerdwriter, 3blue1brown and the like, but I also comment here and on twitter, and surf memes on reddit. I'm certain it's at an "unhealthy" level, but at the same time it feels like it's productive because it's about stuff I'm interested in and work. I find a lot of the reading and things consumed are useful and inform my other daily life and work so when you look at what addiction generally means its basically: "Negatively Interferes with life." Maybe it would be considered addictive, but I've built my life around this way of doing things and it seems to be working out great, I suspect a lot of techies are like this too.
- dannyw 8y agoIf you think about it, even obsession is very different to addiction. The key tenant of addiction is that it interferes with your life.
- akiselev 8y agoDoesn't "obsession" usually carry the connotation of "unhealthy obsession?" It's only in already begning contexts like work environments that it carries a more neutral tone. The first thing that popped into my mind was Ahab and his whale.
- barrkel 8y agoYou'd be hard pushed to find any activity that doesn't interfere with your life occasionally.
- kizer 8y agoThe worst things with regards to potential for unhealthy use, IMO, are passive feeds which require no effort on the user’s part. These simply become a timedraining habit. Reddit, HN, YouTube, any social media.
- analyst74 8y agoI find the definition of addiction by mainstream media really weird too. I was addicted to games at one point, then to partying, then to soccer. Partying 3 times a week has affected other areas in my life a lot more than gaming, my life basically disappeared outside of partying/recovery; and soccer has lead to many injuries, some permanent. Yet I don't see people calling out people addicted to partying, or to sports. It's almost as if those editors/writers are seeing the world through their own limited/biased lenses.
- lukeschlather 8y agoWhen you say partying/recovery do you mean heavy drinking/recovery?
- quicklime 8y agoThere is definitely a concept of "overtraining" in sport, and people do talk about it being caused by an addiction to exercise (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtraining#Cause https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtraining#Cause, https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/the-dangers-of-exercise-addiction/ https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/the-dangers-of-exercise-a...). It's a problem because it results in a lack of progress (e.g. it's hard to build fitness/strength when overtrained), and it increases a person's susceptibility to injuries. Strava even has a built in feature to warn users if they appear to be overtraining (I think you need a heart rate monitor though, and possibly the paid version too). But I would guess that this isn't well-known amongst the general public, since it doesn't affect much of the population - most people live sedentary lives and overtraining/exercise addiction is only a problem for a subset of active people. I presume by "partying" you mean "drinking", otherwise there wouldn't be much recovery involved. In which case that's an addition that is well-known and often talked about.
- paulcole 8y agoWhile a fashionable self-diagnosis, actual overtraining is essentially impossible for the average person to do. They’ll end up with soreness or other minor injuries that will prevent exercise before actual overtraining sets in.
- cdelsolar 8y agoYoshi's Story was not for the Super Nintendo. It was an N64 game that was far inferior to Yoshi's Island.
- throwmeback 8y agoI agree. I love all things Yoshi and I tried to like Yoshi's Story, but unfortunately it felt really vain.
- mercer 8y agoYoshi's Island is one of the best platformers ever, and I still get the music in my head regularly. The most recent game that that had a similar, rare combination of great gameplay and amazing soundtrack has been Celeste.
- blahblahblogger 8y agoSomeone else said it's an addiction if it interferes with your life. But for me, it's all my life is really. I don't have friends, relationships, etc. and haven't since I was a teenager (I'm in my thirties now). As such I don't have hobbies or whatever. I just go to work (programmer) and come home and browse reddit, hn, youtube, etc. until the next day.
- ficklepickle 8y agoI can relate. I was in a similar place. Just know it can get better. Best thing I ever did was find a therapist that I really clicked with. The accountability and lack of judgement really helped me make progress. And a bit of progress can be really encouraging. Support is really important. I wouldn't have made it on my own. My email is in my profile, so please don't hesitate to use it.
- m90 8y agoBefore prescribing something that is "better" you might want to find out if the OP considers their situation worth improving. I can't find any hints on if they are happy or unhappy about it. I get that you are acting in good faith, but at the same time I get the feeling you consider the OP to be in "a sad place" based on nothing but social norms.
- jacobush 8y agobased on biological norms - humans are not wired for that kind of life.
- m90 8y agoI wouldn't be wired for that kind of life either, but the only thing that allows me to make that statement is my own experience as an individual. Which does not apply to anyone else but me. 50 years ago many people would have told you that homosexuality is not something people are wired for based on biological norms. Luckily, this has changed. Maybe you have never made the experience yourself, but being told you need to change something about yourself that you are happy with just because it is not "normal" is a pretty terrible thing.
- lordnacho 8y agoTech addiction is one of my biggest worries as a parent. I spent a huge amount of time playing Civilization, Doom, FIFA, and so on. Years later I spend a lot of time on WoW. Nowadays games are even more addictive. You can play online. You can customize your character. And there's now 25 more years of advances in discovering what makes people hooked. I'm already seeing my kid's friends playing Fortnite all the time, and they're only 6 years old. Plus now you need a computer to study. And the computer is now the best way to learn useful things as well. So I'm gonna end up trying to show the kid all sorts of things that I as a parent think are good for him, but the same device can be used to waste his whole life. The thing is I've seen the computer lead people to both great things, or complete failure. Some kids get one and can code before university, they know how to find things out with it, and they can organise their lives with it. Others have literally lost their futures due to being unable to pull their eyes away from the screen.
- MuffinFlavored 8y agoLook at how much you gamed, and look how you turned out. Would that be ok for your children?
- sl1ck731 8y agoIn a similar boat as the parent as far as turning out alright. But in college I saw more people who gamed as much as I did flunk out than people who made it through with me. The games we used to play had some degree of extension like modding or scripting that at least caused me to branch out. The same can't be said of the current generation who will grow up with games like Fortnite that have no depth outside of the game itself. I guess there is minecraft but I don't know how that is doing and will probably be an exception not the rule in the future.
- lordnacho 8y agoSingle data point. There are others that didn't turn out so well.