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Meta and Google trial: are infinite scroll and autoplay creating addicts?
- tim-projects 8mo agoThe comment box is where addiction happens for me. Once I stay logged out and browse the pull is just not there anymore. I've been on this site for maybe 6 years and only just recently created an account. If I see the same problem this one will go too.
- Akronymus 8mo agoHN actually has an anti addiction feature, namely noprocrast, in the account settings.
- ekjhgkejhgk 8mo agoHuh what does this do?
- Akronymus 8mo agoLocks you out from viewing the site for a specified duration after looking at HN for up to a specified amount of minutes. from the FAQ: In my profile, what is noprocrast? It's a way to help you prevent yourself from spending too much time on HN. If you turn it on you'll only be allowed to visit the site for maxvisit minutes at a time, with gaps of minaway minutes in between. The defaults are 20 and 180, which would let you view the site for 20 minutes at a time, and then not allow you back in for 3 hours.
- pixel_popping 8mo agoTrying by accident this feature is the biggest fear of any serious HN reader.
- ekjhgkejhgk 8mo agoIt's not just that the scroll is infinite. It's mainly that the things displayed are optimized to keep you "engaged" (codeword for addicted). Yes, facebook intentionally does everything to get people to spend as long as possible on their website. It's their business model.
- Cpoll 8mo agoI wonder how much the infinite scroll amplifies the effect. Not showing page numbers is reminiscent of casinos eliminating indications of what time it is (i.e. ways to intuit that you've been sitting at a slot machine for 4hrs).
- stuaxo 8mo agoAnd of course the random choice of things displayed on the infinite scroll - deliberately emulating a slot machine effect.