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I think my wife is addicted, she will pick up her phone to do one thing but first goes to Facebook and scrolls, then she forgets what she was using her phone fo

I think my wife is addicted, she will pick up her phone to do one thing but first goes to Facebook and scrolls, then she forgets what she was using her phone for. Maybe not addicted but she has a habit of going to Facebook every time she uses her phone.

cutler 5y ago
To my partner the internet was down, not Facebook and Instagram. I tried to explain the difference but to no avail.
root_axis 5y ago
That doesn't seem at all like addiction to me, that's just a mundane routine. If she had a panic attack when FB went down this week then I think we could say it's an addiction.
- klyrs 5y ago
  Sounds like that Afroman song, to me. "I was gonna clean my room, but then I got high..." If a habitual behavior is bad enough to interrupt somebody's ability to accomplish routine tasks, then it's pretty conclusively an addiction.
  - root_axis 5y ago
    but it's not. the vast vast majority of people spend a few minutes scrolling through fb, the same way people here scroll through HN, it's a totally meaningless time waster.
    - klyrs 5y ago
      When you open your phone to do something other than look at HN, get distracted by HN, and forget why you opened your phone, that's a problem. Scrolling a few minutes here and there isn't the problem.
      - root_axis 5y ago
        It's really not, that's just human nature, this happens to people all the time for all sorts of distractions on their phone.
- ed_elliott_asc 5y ago
  I think you are right, I was interested what would happen while it was down and she was fine once she knew it was down, until then she kept saying her internet wasn’t working.
vb6sp6 5y ago
"wellness" settings can limit the amount of time per day she spends doing it if she wants to alter her behavior.
- ed_elliott_asc 5y ago
  I’m not sure she wants to stop tbh
speedybird 5y ago
"Addiction is a biopsychosocial disorder characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli despite adverse consequences." "Despite adverse consequences" is a key component of addiction. For instance, many people can consume alcohol fairly regularly without the alcohol causing trouble for them. But if the alcohol starts to get in the way of work or disrupt your family life, that is a textbook warning sign of alcoholism. If her compulsive use of facebook is getting in the way of things she wanted to do instead, that sounds an awful lot like addiction.
- samfar90 5y ago
  Thank you for this definition
pier25 5y ago
That was me for years. The way I quit was to log out. I compulsively kept opening a new tab but having to log in was enough to make me close the tab. The compulsion vanished much quicker than I thought. In a week or so Facebook was out of my life.
KingMachiavelli 5y ago
Is that worse than spending time on Reddit, HN, Youtube, etc.? What about watching TV or movies? You could make the argument that the content is worse in some way but even that is debatable since depending on who you follow on FB (groups, etc.) really changes what the content is.

cutler 5y ago

To my partner the internet was down, not Facebook and Instagram. I tried to explain the difference but to no avail.

root_axis 5y ago

That doesn't seem at all like addiction to me, that's just a mundane routine. If she had a panic attack when FB went down this week then I think we could say it's an addiction.

klyrs 5y ago
Sounds like that Afroman song, to me. "I was gonna clean my room, but then I got high..." If a habitual behavior is bad enough to interrupt somebody's ability to accomplish routine tasks, then it's pretty conclusively an addiction.
- root_axis 5y ago
  but it's not. the vast vast majority of people spend a few minutes scrolling through fb, the same way people here scroll through HN, it's a totally meaningless time waster.
  - klyrs 5y ago
    When you open your phone to do something other than look at HN, get distracted by HN, and forget why you opened your phone, that's a problem. Scrolling a few minutes here and there isn't the problem.
    - root_axis 5y ago
      It's really not, that's just human nature, this happens to people all the time for all sorts of distractions on their phone.
ed_elliott_asc 5y ago
I think you are right, I was interested what would happen while it was down and she was fine once she knew it was down, until then she kept saying her internet wasn’t working.

vb6sp6 5y ago

"wellness" settings can limit the amount of time per day she spends doing it if she wants to alter her behavior.

ed_elliott_asc 5y ago
I’m not sure she wants to stop tbh

speedybird 5y ago

"Addiction is a biopsychosocial disorder characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli despite adverse consequences." "Despite adverse consequences" is a key component of addiction. For instance, many people can consume alcohol fairly regularly without the alcohol causing trouble for them. But if the alcohol starts to get in the way of work or disrupt your family life, that is a textbook warning sign of alcoholism. If her compulsive use of facebook is getting in the way of things she wanted to do instead, that sounds an awful lot like addiction.

samfar90 5y ago
Thank you for this definition

pier25 5y ago

That was me for years. The way I quit was to log out. I compulsively kept opening a new tab but having to log in was enough to make me close the tab. The compulsion vanished much quicker than I thought. In a week or so Facebook was out of my life.

KingMachiavelli 5y ago

Is that worse than spending time on Reddit, HN, Youtube, etc.? What about watching TV or movies? You could make the argument that the content is worse in some way but even that is debatable since depending on who you follow on FB (groups, etc.) really changes what the content is.