5 ms·

> The dopaminergic effects are not dissimilar to drugs and social media is just as addictive. I'm sorry, this sentence doesn't explain to me why banning social

by htag 3y ago

> The dopaminergic effects are not dissimilar to drugs and social media is just as addictive. I'm sorry, this sentence doesn't explain to me why banning social media is necessary. What are "dopaminergic" effects? Why is it so awful that social media is addictive?

49erfangoniners 3y ago
"Please explain everything to me from scratch so I can summarily dismiss anything you say."
- pyuser583 3y ago
  The phrase “the dopaminergic effects are not dissimilar to drugs and social media is just as addictive” is very unclear. Very few people know what dopaminergic means. It might not be a real word. “Is not dissimilar from” is a stock phrase used in an academia and by people trying to sound very smart. The poster included just enough technobabble and stock phrasing to imply they are a specialist. But specialists know when speaking to non-specialists you should avoid technical language and stock phrasing. So it really just seems the poster was signaling “I am very smart and possibly have a degree in something related and a current on research.”
  - htag 3y ago
    "Dopaminergic effects" clearly means something along the lines of 'activity of dopamine within the human brain'. I just think we need more than an analogy to reach the conclusion that social media needs to be banned. The sentence "the dopaminergic effects of exercise are not dissimilar to drugs" is equally as true. Clearly dopaminergic effects alone aren't enough to ban something. When I read that the top comment thought banning social media was clearly necessary I was flabbergasted. I read the comment multiple times looking for a compelling argument. I read the article multiple times looking for a compelling argument too. I'm still struggling on this. I would really like to read a concise logical argument for why we should ban social media.
    - tastysandwich 3y ago
      If you're interested in the topic, Jonathan Haidt has written a fair bit on this. He's got a number of articles if you Google his name, and he's also appeared in a few podcasts (eg Lex Fridman's).
  - tastysandwich 3y ago
    I'm not a specialist and I'm not in academia. I just sometimes listen to Andrew Huberman's podcast. Dopaminergic literally means "related to dopamine". It's the first Google result. And how is the word "dissimilar" academic technobabble? Let's have good-faith discussions in future as I think this is a really interesting topic :)
  - jen20 3y ago
    > It might not be a real word. It is a real word though.
dereg 3y ago
Do you think it’s okay to allow children to gamble?
- smabie 3y ago
  I dont have a problem with it
- jibe 3y ago
  Some gambling is fine. Many playground games have gambling elements. Physical trading cards have a gambling element. Kids need to learn about risk and reward, and a little loss in the real or virtual world is a good way to do it.
  - YurgenJurgensen 3y ago
    It's not hard to find 'kid steals parent's credit card, spends thousands of dollars on loot boxes' stories. These losses are neither little nor virtual.

by htag 3y ago

49erfangoniners 3y ago

"Please explain everything to me from scratch so I can summarily dismiss anything you say."

pyuser583 3y ago
The phrase “the dopaminergic effects are not dissimilar to drugs and social media is just as addictive” is very unclear. Very few people know what dopaminergic means. It might not be a real word. “Is not dissimilar from” is a stock phrase used in an academia and by people trying to sound very smart. The poster included just enough technobabble and stock phrasing to imply they are a specialist. But specialists know when speaking to non-specialists you should avoid technical language and stock phrasing. So it really just seems the poster was signaling “I am very smart and possibly have a degree in something related and a current on research.”
- htag 3y ago
  "Dopaminergic effects" clearly means something along the lines of 'activity of dopamine within the human brain'. I just think we need more than an analogy to reach the conclusion that social media needs to be banned. The sentence "the dopaminergic effects of exercise are not dissimilar to drugs" is equally as true. Clearly dopaminergic effects alone aren't enough to ban something. When I read that the top comment thought banning social media was clearly necessary I was flabbergasted. I read the comment multiple times looking for a compelling argument. I read the article multiple times looking for a compelling argument too. I'm still struggling on this. I would really like to read a concise logical argument for why we should ban social media.
  - tastysandwich 3y ago
    If you're interested in the topic, Jonathan Haidt has written a fair bit on this. He's got a number of articles if you Google his name, and he's also appeared in a few podcasts (eg Lex Fridman's).
- tastysandwich 3y ago
  I'm not a specialist and I'm not in academia. I just sometimes listen to Andrew Huberman's podcast. Dopaminergic literally means "related to dopamine". It's the first Google result. And how is the word "dissimilar" academic technobabble? Let's have good-faith discussions in future as I think this is a really interesting topic :)
- jen20 3y ago
  > It might not be a real word. It is a real word though.

dereg 3y ago

Do you think it’s okay to allow children to gamble?

smabie 3y ago
I dont have a problem with it
jibe 3y ago
Some gambling is fine. Many playground games have gambling elements. Physical trading cards have a gambling element. Kids need to learn about risk and reward, and a little loss in the real or virtual world is a good way to do it.
- YurgenJurgensen 3y ago
  It's not hard to find 'kid steals parent's credit card, spends thousands of dollars on loot boxes' stories. These losses are neither little nor virtual.