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> Being addicted to anything is a massive trigger for depression, especially when it displaces productive activities and replaces them with sedentary consumptio

> Being addicted to anything is a massive trigger for depression, especially when it displaces productive activities and replaces them with sedentary consumption. If you can't use something without becoming addicted, it's best to not use it at all. I know it sounds trite but I feel like social media today (or maybe all forms of media honestly) makes the barrier to ill-will extremely easy. If you were a young adult (at least from what I'm told) in the 50s/60s/70s it was hard to be addicted to TV because it would literally go off the air at 11 pm (or midnight?). What happens after I watch a show on Netflix? It immediately plays the next one. You couldn't get lost in extreme opinions because in order to see those extreme opinions you've had to of met an extreme person (on a soapbox with xeroxes so I've been told), you wouldn't run into 100s of them as you do when going onto FB, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, tik tok, etc. How can I as an individual compete with billion dollar companies that literally hire neuroscientists/psychologists to make something as addictive as possible?

minikites 5y ago
>How can I as an individual compete with billion dollar companies that literally hire neuroscientists/psychologists to make something as addictive as possible? You can't, which is the reason we need government regulation. This clearly isn't self-regulating (like most things) and the purpose of government is to act in these matters on behalf of society.
- reedjosh 5y ago
  I quit. I self regulated. I don't like these companies, and I think they're evil. I still don't think it's the government's job.
  - cycomanic 5y ago
    Do you believe the government should regulate if alcohol should be sold (and advertised) to children/teenagers? What about other drugs?
PragmaticPulp 5y ago
> How can I as an individual compete with billion dollar companies that literally hire neuroscientists/psychologists to make something as addictive as possible? If someone can't moderate their own consumption of something despite their best efforts, abstinence works. Similar story with alcohol: Plenty of people have no problem moderating their consumption, but a small percentage of people really struggle with limiting their intake. For the latter group, not drinking any alcohol at all is a great solution. I think this defeatist concept that social media is too addictive to resist sets a lot of people up for failure. It's not only possible to use social media without getting addicted, but it's the norm for the vast majority of people who use social media. If you're in the minority of people who can't moderate your own usage, then abstaining completely might be the best choice. But don't assume that addiction or uncontrolled doom-scrolling is inevitable.
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > If someone can't moderate their own consumption of something despite their best efforts, abstinence works. No, if someone can’t moderate their own consumption, abstinence usually fails. If a person finds something both easily resistable without immediate past use and hard to moderate immediately after use, abstinence works, but that’s not a super common response. People who have trouble moderating use immediately after a prior use also usually have problems resisting initial use.
  - drdeca 5y ago
    Not saying you are wrong, because I wouldn’t know, But like, how are you able to tell that generally people would have difficulty moderating their use of something shortly after they first begin to use it, generally tend to also have difficulty not beginning use? That seems like it would be hard to measure/observe ?
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    It works because it's easy to understand. Simple rules for a complex world. If the rule is "don't do it", you know whether or not you're supposed to do it in any given case. That's not true if the rule is "be reasonable". If the first beer was reasonable, so is the second. One additional beer never really changes how reasonable your total consumption has been, even though the total range of reasonability is quite wide.

minikites 5y ago

>How can I as an individual compete with billion dollar companies that literally hire neuroscientists/psychologists to make something as addictive as possible? You can't, which is the reason we need government regulation. This clearly isn't self-regulating (like most things) and the purpose of government is to act in these matters on behalf of society.

reedjosh 5y ago
I quit. I self regulated. I don't like these companies, and I think they're evil. I still don't think it's the government's job.
- cycomanic 5y ago
  Do you believe the government should regulate if alcohol should be sold (and advertised) to children/teenagers? What about other drugs?

PragmaticPulp 5y ago

> How can I as an individual compete with billion dollar companies that literally hire neuroscientists/psychologists to make something as addictive as possible? If someone can't moderate their own consumption of something despite their best efforts, abstinence works. Similar story with alcohol: Plenty of people have no problem moderating their consumption, but a small percentage of people really struggle with limiting their intake. For the latter group, not drinking any alcohol at all is a great solution. I think this defeatist concept that social media is too addictive to resist sets a lot of people up for failure. It's not only possible to use social media without getting addicted, but it's the norm for the vast majority of people who use social media. If you're in the minority of people who can't moderate your own usage, then abstaining completely might be the best choice. But don't assume that addiction or uncontrolled doom-scrolling is inevitable.

dragonwriter 5y ago
> If someone can't moderate their own consumption of something despite their best efforts, abstinence works. No, if someone can’t moderate their own consumption, abstinence usually fails. If a person finds something both easily resistable without immediate past use and hard to moderate immediately after use, abstinence works, but that’s not a super common response. People who have trouble moderating use immediately after a prior use also usually have problems resisting initial use.
- drdeca 5y ago
  Not saying you are wrong, because I wouldn’t know, But like, how are you able to tell that generally people would have difficulty moderating their use of something shortly after they first begin to use it, generally tend to also have difficulty not beginning use? That seems like it would be hard to measure/observe ?
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  It works because it's easy to understand. Simple rules for a complex world. If the rule is "don't do it", you know whether or not you're supposed to do it in any given case. That's not true if the rule is "be reasonable". If the first beer was reasonable, so is the second. One additional beer never really changes how reasonable your total consumption has been, even though the total range of reasonability is quite wide.