3 ms·

What's the difference between addictive and fun?

by to1y 4y ago

julianbuse 4y ago
something addictive is something that you can't stop even if you want to. There are lots of reasons why someone would want to stop doing something that is fun, but if it is addictive they can't.
blagie 4y ago
A lot of fun things aren't addictive. For example, I've done a lot of sports. I enjoy them. I don't suffer withdrawal if I stop doing them, and I don't feel a compulsion to start doing them. Indeed, I need to motivate myself to do them. A lot of addictive things aren't fun. A gambler might be miserable but CAN'T stop. Likewise, there were a lot of time-wasting games in the 2010s which no one enjoyed playing, but which were very hard to stop. A popular model was: - Click on things to gather points / resources / etc. which you can trade in to be able to do more. - You have a constant feeling of progress. There is often exponential growth of some kind of points / diamonds / etc. as you can trade them in for things which produce more. - There is real-world time involved. For example, plants might grow in 8 hours, and whither in 24. You need to log in periodically or you lose them. There might be weekly rewards, which are one-shot (if you don't get one some week, you lose it forever). - There is an element of randomness on rewards (treasure boxes) and determinism on punishments (if you've failed to log in one week, you lose that reward forever). This was well-studied. Similar techniques are used by shopping vendors to get people to buy, employers to get people to work, etc. We've gotten really good at making things addictive. Right now, there's a similar thing happening with hate and polarization. People have a need to follow stories which often have no effect on their lives (in some cases, are statistical anomalies), but which serve to scare. We're wired to follow fear. That's a lot more effective than the 2010 model, and makes people hate each other. A lot of drugs create a dependence too, without being fun.

What's the difference between addictive and fun?

by to1y 4y ago

What's the difference between addictive and fun?

something addictive is something that you can't stop even if you want to. There are lots of reasons why someone would want to stop doing something that is fun, but if it is addictive they can't.

blagie 4y ago

A lot of fun things aren't addictive. For example, I've done a lot of sports. I enjoy them. I don't suffer withdrawal if I stop doing them, and I don't feel a compulsion to start doing them. Indeed, I need to motivate myself to do them. A lot of addictive things aren't fun. A gambler might be miserable but CAN'T stop. Likewise, there were a lot of time-wasting games in the 2010s which no one enjoyed playing, but which were very hard to stop. A popular model was: - Click on things to gather points / resources / etc. which you can trade in to be able to do more. - You have a constant feeling of progress. There is often exponential growth of some kind of points / diamonds / etc. as you can trade them in for things which produce more. - There is real-world time involved. For example, plants might grow in 8 hours, and whither in 24. You need to log in periodically or you lose them. There might be weekly rewards, which are one-shot (if you don't get one some week, you lose it forever). - There is an element of randomness on rewards (treasure boxes) and determinism on punishments (if you've failed to log in one week, you lose that reward forever). This was well-studied. Similar techniques are used by shopping vendors to get people to buy, employers to get people to work, etc. We've gotten really good at making things addictive. Right now, there's a similar thing happening with hate and polarization. People have a need to follow stories which often have no effect on their lives (in some cases, are statistical anomalies), but which serve to scare. We're wired to follow fear. That's a lot more effective than the 2010 model, and makes people hate each other. A lot of drugs create a dependence too, without being fun.