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I think the world situation has pushed people into escaping with online media. I don't think think most of these dopamine detox/digital addiction framed argumen

I think the world situation has pushed people into escaping with online media. I don't think think most of these dopamine detox/digital addiction framed arguments have the causation the right way around. People aren't feeling bad because of continuous scrolling on news and social media. People are looking for something to take their minds off whatever difficulty they are facing. People should do what they think will help but I don't think the framework of addiction is the right way to approach it. You don't have withdrawal and assuming the compulsion to return is because of the content and not because you want to escape holds you back from addressing the real issues. Doing a "dopamine fast" will also force a person to reevaluate their current situation and not escape using tech. The outcome will be positive but I feel that term addiction should be limited to things that seriously impact your life in a negative way. Bad habits aren't the same as addiction.

HPsquared 5y ago
The same can be said about other addictions, especially substances or alcohol: they provide an (unhealthy, dangerous) escape from other stressors in the person's life.
- helloworld11 5y ago
  Alcohol, tobacco and other narcotics can and often easily do create a certain level of physical dependence on their consistent use, even after what triggered starting with them in the first place has stopped being the case. This is not the same as escaping the need to think about personal difficulties in life by developing a habit of randomly browsing the internet. Some of the motivations behind the two sets of escapist activities are similar but the physiological aspects are very different.
  - skohan 5y ago
    Have you never been at a social event like a dinner or a party, where you are in a good mood and have plenty of nice people to talk to, and felt compelled to check your phone?
    - helloworld11 5y ago
      Sure, and so? Like many mild to moderate psychological habituations, it's not quite comparable to the persisten chemical addictions created by certain narcotics
      - helloworld11 5y ago
        An alcoholic, or a heroin addict or even many heavy smokers are going through their own special types of hell that are capable of literally killing their physical health or taking their lives, and it trivializes them to compare these things to someone having a heavy social media-checking habit.
        skohan 5y ago
        The existence of a greater social ill doesn't preclude the existence of another. I tend to think the harm from social media is more related to negative externalities: i.e. political instability, loss of social cohesion, and the spread of misinformation. If the vector for those problems is something which is extremely habit forming to the point that people can't go two hours without engaging with it while in a healthy social environment, that doesn't seem like something to dismiss to me.
skohan 5y ago
> People aren't feeling bad because of continuous scrolling on news and social media. People are looking for something to take their minds off whatever difficulty they are facing. It can be both right? For instance with substance abuse, part of the "vicious cycle" is that when addicts are feeling stressed, they reach for their drug of choice rather than actually solving the problems which are making them stressed.
- alpaca128 5y ago
  It's absolutely both to some degree. When someone's trying to distract themselves on the web and then reads headlines about some new desaster or another case of corruption it's not going to improve their mental state. There's always something bad happening somewhere in the world.
jokethrowaway 5y ago
Addictions are the hallmark of being depressed. When I got depressed I became more obsessed than normal with social media, chats (think being constantly refreshing your messages), compulsive browsing, mild drinking, mild eating garbage food. It's a normal phenomenon: your life is shit and you look for ways to make it less worse. Fasting from your addiction does work remarkably well: I cut off social media and chatting for a year and then gradually allowed chatting more and more in my life once I wasn't as depressed. Replacing with healthier alternative is also a great strategy. At that point though, is becoming a better musician any better than learning something from YouTube or becoming very skilled at a multiplayer FPS? You can surely get addicted to exercise and practicing music, but we don't consider it as bad as gaming or watching content online. That said, I too don't think internet addiction is as bad as other addiction. Sure, you're wasting time, like in all other addictions, but at least you're not damaging your body (Eg. By eating too much, drinking too much, doing harmful drugs, getting cancer smoking, etc).

HPsquared 5y ago

The same can be said about other addictions, especially substances or alcohol: they provide an (unhealthy, dangerous) escape from other stressors in the person's life.

helloworld11 5y ago
Alcohol, tobacco and other narcotics can and often easily do create a certain level of physical dependence on their consistent use, even after what triggered starting with them in the first place has stopped being the case. This is not the same as escaping the need to think about personal difficulties in life by developing a habit of randomly browsing the internet. Some of the motivations behind the two sets of escapist activities are similar but the physiological aspects are very different.
- skohan 5y ago
  Have you never been at a social event like a dinner or a party, where you are in a good mood and have plenty of nice people to talk to, and felt compelled to check your phone?
  - helloworld11 5y ago
    Sure, and so? Like many mild to moderate psychological habituations, it's not quite comparable to the persisten chemical addictions created by certain narcotics
    - helloworld11 5y ago
      An alcoholic, or a heroin addict or even many heavy smokers are going through their own special types of hell that are capable of literally killing their physical health or taking their lives, and it trivializes them to compare these things to someone having a heavy social media-checking habit.
      - skohan 5y ago
        The existence of a greater social ill doesn't preclude the existence of another. I tend to think the harm from social media is more related to negative externalities: i.e. political instability, loss of social cohesion, and the spread of misinformation. If the vector for those problems is something which is extremely habit forming to the point that people can't go two hours without engaging with it while in a healthy social environment, that doesn't seem like something to dismiss to me.

skohan 5y ago

> People aren't feeling bad because of continuous scrolling on news and social media. People are looking for something to take their minds off whatever difficulty they are facing. It can be both right? For instance with substance abuse, part of the "vicious cycle" is that when addicts are feeling stressed, they reach for their drug of choice rather than actually solving the problems which are making them stressed.

alpaca128 5y ago
It's absolutely both to some degree. When someone's trying to distract themselves on the web and then reads headlines about some new desaster or another case of corruption it's not going to improve their mental state. There's always something bad happening somewhere in the world.

jokethrowaway 5y ago

Addictions are the hallmark of being depressed. When I got depressed I became more obsessed than normal with social media, chats (think being constantly refreshing your messages), compulsive browsing, mild drinking, mild eating garbage food. It's a normal phenomenon: your life is shit and you look for ways to make it less worse. Fasting from your addiction does work remarkably well: I cut off social media and chatting for a year and then gradually allowed chatting more and more in my life once I wasn't as depressed. Replacing with healthier alternative is also a great strategy. At that point though, is becoming a better musician any better than learning something from YouTube or becoming very skilled at a multiplayer FPS? You can surely get addicted to exercise and practicing music, but we don't consider it as bad as gaming or watching content online. That said, I too don't think internet addiction is as bad as other addiction. Sure, you're wasting time, like in all other addictions, but at least you're not damaging your body (Eg. By eating too much, drinking too much, doing harmful drugs, getting cancer smoking, etc).