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A comment on Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you'... by vharuck on Friday October 25, 2019 @09:35PM (#21361012)
In my college days, I played World of Warcraft too much. It got in the way of attending classes. Then my graphics card broke. So I started reading psychology textbooks totally unrelated to my classes.

Procrastinators gonna procrastinate. And time-wasters gonna waste time.

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Re:Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you'... by andrepd on Friday October 25, 2019 @10:00PM (#21361148)
Your story is actually probably what the parent was trying to illustrate. Instead of wasting time with WoW, you "wasted" time with something more meaningful (all this being relative of course).
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Re:Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you'... by jaxn on Friday October 25, 2019 @10:04PM (#21361165)
I'm not as quick to assume reading a textbook is inherantly more meaningful than playing WoW.
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Re:Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you'... by wyldfire on Friday October 25, 2019 @10:39PM (#21361331)
I suspect WoW might be like several other games in that the marginal benefit of continued play after an initial phase is small.

But if it's social/multiplayer and your group feels a personal connection while playing (maybe w/people you know IRL), you might get a greater benefit from the game.

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Re:Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you'... by dwaltrip on Saturday October 26, 2019 @02:06AM (#21362013)
Sure, perhaps not inherently. But do you think, looking across the world, that the median hour spent playing WoW is likely less meaningful than the median hour spent reading a textbook?
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Re:Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you'... by jdpigeon on Saturday October 26, 2019 @04:42AM (#21362548)
Hell yes. 90 hours of cumulative textbook reading time is pretty much an undergraduate degree. 90 hours of WoW is like.. getting to level 40
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Re:Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you'... by andrepd on Saturday October 26, 2019 @09:09AM (#21363431)
Hence my very last (caveat). I'm sure you understand my point though.
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