5 ms·

> The effects of increased internet usage could be seen before reaching that stage. But that's true of any addiction - alcohol, drug, gambling, etc. You can se

> The effects of increased internet usage could be seen before reaching that stage. But that's true of any addiction - alcohol, drug, gambling, etc. You can see the effects before it reaches the extreme stage.

gtirloni 7y ago
My point is not about this specific type of addiction but that there's no switch that flips once you reach the "addiction" stage of internet usage. Working it backward, you'd see the bad effects before being considered an "addict", the extreme case. I'm just saying the title isn't completely click-baity.
- elfexec 7y ago
  > Working it backward, you'd see the bad effects before being considered an "addict", the extreme case. You can see the bad effects on people on their way to extreme addiction. There is a difference between that and the vast majority of ordinary users of the internet. It's like the difference between someone who plays the lotto once in a while or drinks on special occasions vs people on their way to gambling or alcohol addiction. > I'm just saying the title isn't completely click-baity. The title is clickbait. Sciencedaily is well known for doing that as they take science press releases and fluff it up in order to get traffic. I guess in this tough media environment, you can't blame them since everyone clickbaits. The internet doesn't reduce study skills. Problematic internet use does. So the title is absolutely clickbait since most people who use the internet aren't affected.
m11a 7y ago
I don't know what you're getting at here. These are all bad addictions that would result in "reduced study skills" I'd imagine. Similar for other addictions, like gaming or television. But I'm not sure an addiction to reading, or an addiction to painting, would necessarily have the same negative effect. Sure, an obsessive addiction where you can't do anything else, but that isn't what's discussed here. I'd hypothesise some addictions have a worse effect on study skills than others.
- StavrosK 7y ago
  "Addiction" is defined as a behavior that impairs other aspects of your life to a large degree, so yes, even a reading addiction would have these effects by definition.
  - thaumasiotes 7y ago
    The definition of "addiction" varies by field. In economics, "addiction" is the phenomenon of a behavior having increasing returns on investment. (Which means that if you do some, you'll want to do more.) This has the disadvantage that it is near-totally unrelated to what most people think of as "addiction". But it has the advantage that it is a coherent concept, which isn't true of most offered definitions. In the vernacular, "addiction" just means that you disapprove of someone's behavior. In medicine outside psychiatry, "addiction" refers to the phenomenon of physical withdrawal symptoms in the absence of something. For no particularly good reason, you are not considered to be addicted to oxygen. But that's not part of the definition, it's an implied codicil. Psychiatry defines a single "addictive disorder", which is compulsive gambling. Nothing else is considered addictive. This seems to be a response to the fact that no one has ever provided a workable definition of addiction. (See e.g. https://www.porticonetwork.ca/web/fundamentals-addiction-toolkit/introduction/dsm-critieria https://www.porticonetwork.ca/web/fundamentals-addiction-too... : "The term addiction is no longer used to describe substance use disorders. It was felt that the term was so loaded with associations that it lacked precision.") This comic ( http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2014-03-21 http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2014-03-21 ) provides an amusing illustration of the issues. But for a less irreverent joke at psychiatry's expense, this formal paper ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5328289/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5328289/ ) spends some time making fun of the fact that compulsive gambling is the unique "addictive disorder" while compulsive stealing, which is mostly identical except in the specific behavior expressed, is an "impulse control disorder". Here's how the different systems classify caffeine: Vernacular: addictive if you're a Mormon; not otherwise. Economics: not addictive; no increasing returns. Medicine: addictive. (Withdrawal causes severe headaches.) Psychiatry: not a substance use disorder. (Consumption of caffeine may be compulsive, but it is not a "disorder", itself not a well-defined term.) I suggest to you that the definition you provided, "a behavior that impairs other aspects of your life to a large degree", comes from psychiatry, but is actually part of the definition of a "disorder", not an "addiction".
cma 7y ago
If non-addictive threshold internet use is similar to non extreme drug addiction then doesn’t that fit with the headline?

gtirloni 7y ago

My point is not about this specific type of addiction but that there's no switch that flips once you reach the "addiction" stage of internet usage. Working it backward, you'd see the bad effects before being considered an "addict", the extreme case. I'm just saying the title isn't completely click-baity.

elfexec 7y ago
> Working it backward, you'd see the bad effects before being considered an "addict", the extreme case. You can see the bad effects on people on their way to extreme addiction. There is a difference between that and the vast majority of ordinary users of the internet. It's like the difference between someone who plays the lotto once in a while or drinks on special occasions vs people on their way to gambling or alcohol addiction. > I'm just saying the title isn't completely click-baity. The title is clickbait. Sciencedaily is well known for doing that as they take science press releases and fluff it up in order to get traffic. I guess in this tough media environment, you can't blame them since everyone clickbaits. The internet doesn't reduce study skills. Problematic internet use does. So the title is absolutely clickbait since most people who use the internet aren't affected.

m11a 7y ago

I don't know what you're getting at here. These are all bad addictions that would result in "reduced study skills" I'd imagine. Similar for other addictions, like gaming or television. But I'm not sure an addiction to reading, or an addiction to painting, would necessarily have the same negative effect. Sure, an obsessive addiction where you can't do anything else, but that isn't what's discussed here. I'd hypothesise some addictions have a worse effect on study skills than others.

StavrosK 7y ago
"Addiction" is defined as a behavior that impairs other aspects of your life to a large degree, so yes, even a reading addiction would have these effects by definition.
- thaumasiotes 7y ago
  The definition of "addiction" varies by field. In economics, "addiction" is the phenomenon of a behavior having increasing returns on investment. (Which means that if you do some, you'll want to do more.) This has the disadvantage that it is near-totally unrelated to what most people think of as "addiction". But it has the advantage that it is a coherent concept, which isn't true of most offered definitions. In the vernacular, "addiction" just means that you disapprove of someone's behavior. In medicine outside psychiatry, "addiction" refers to the phenomenon of physical withdrawal symptoms in the absence of something. For no particularly good reason, you are not considered to be addicted to oxygen. But that's not part of the definition, it's an implied codicil. Psychiatry defines a single "addictive disorder", which is compulsive gambling. Nothing else is considered addictive. This seems to be a response to the fact that no one has ever provided a workable definition of addiction. (See e.g. https://www.porticonetwork.ca/web/fundamentals-addiction-toolkit/introduction/dsm-critieria https://www.porticonetwork.ca/web/fundamentals-addiction-too... : "The term addiction is no longer used to describe substance use disorders. It was felt that the term was so loaded with associations that it lacked precision.") This comic ( http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2014-03-21 http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2014-03-21 ) provides an amusing illustration of the issues. But for a less irreverent joke at psychiatry's expense, this formal paper ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5328289/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5328289/ ) spends some time making fun of the fact that compulsive gambling is the unique "addictive disorder" while compulsive stealing, which is mostly identical except in the specific behavior expressed, is an "impulse control disorder". Here's how the different systems classify caffeine: Vernacular: addictive if you're a Mormon; not otherwise. Economics: not addictive; no increasing returns. Medicine: addictive. (Withdrawal causes severe headaches.) Psychiatry: not a substance use disorder. (Consumption of caffeine may be compulsive, but it is not a "disorder", itself not a well-defined term.) I suggest to you that the definition you provided, "a behavior that impairs other aspects of your life to a large degree", comes from psychiatry, but is actually part of the definition of a "disorder", not an "addiction".

cma 7y ago

If non-addictive threshold internet use is similar to non extreme drug addiction then doesn’t that fit with the headline?