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I had a really effective inoculation against the Skinner box 20+ years ago, when I became addicted to an MMO. It took my life utterly turning to shit and barely
by madaxe_again 4mo ago
I had a really effective inoculation against the Skinner box 20+ years ago, when I became addicted to an MMO. It took my life utterly turning to shit and barely escaping being kicked out of university for me to wake up.
Since, I’ve always been aware of and wary of the possibility of this kind of dopamine cycling.
I see it in others. My wife discovered YouTube shorts a year or so ago, and now she’ll lose entire days to watching 20 second clips of reality TV.
Thing is, with a grown ass adult you can’t limit their screen time. You have to let them dig to the bottom of the pit all by themselves, and only when they ask for help to get out of it can you help - otherwise nothing is learned.
It’s honestly not at all dissimilar to friends who I’ve seen fuck their existences up with drugs. They’ve had to hit rock bottom before they quit - or they died. Can’t think of anyone who just went “actually, today I won’t have any heroin”.
- gonzo41 4mo agoThis is why i have an xbox and not a gaming pc. Can't have a crack dealer in the house.
- 21asdffdsa12 4mo agohttps://www.alibaba.com/signal-jammer-suppliers.html https://www.alibaba.com/signal-jammer-suppliers.html Yes, yes you can..
- cucumber3732842 4mo agoFeds will shoot your dog for that. And the exact same people complaining about the screens and saying that something must be done will cheer because "we live in a society" or whatever.
- bcjdjsndon 4mo agoYet you're still sat writing mini essays to strangers because of the dopamine hit....
- jrflo 4mo agoI think drugs is an apt analogy. Hackernews is like alcohol, it definitely can be addicting but generally most people dont have a problem with it. Short form video is like meth
- madaxe_again 4mo agoYup, HN is just my morning pint of wine.
- j4102_ 4mo agoJust because you're aware of it doesn't make you any better
- kuerbel 4mo ago20 years ago? Aahh, good old World of Warcraft is my guess. Played far too much far too long myself.
- simoncion 4mo ago> World of Warcraft I was lucky(?) enough to have played enough RPG video games that had good stories and combat to be completely unimpressed with WoW when it came along. I got to level three or five or something, said to myself "Shit, this is boring." and never looked back. That said, I put a ton of time into Guild Wars 2, so don't misinterpret this comment as me sneering at folks who did (or do) put a ton of time into WoW.
- madaxe_again 4mo agoAnarchy Online of all bloody things.