Re:Technology is Heroin (2009)
by Houshalter on Sunday September 08, 2013 @04:54PM
(#6350283)
The point is we really haven't evolved defenses against it. http://lesswrong.com/lw/h3/superstimuli_and_the_collapse_of_...
Yes you are right, people can choose to avoid getting addicted in the first place. But countless people try drugs and video games anyways. They are very tempting. And there is strong market pressure to make them even more tempting, and even more addicting.
Re:Technology is Heroin (2009)
by frozenport on Sunday September 08, 2013 @07:39PM
(#6351016)
The moment you can't pay your WoW bill its too late, imagine how fucked up you must be not to be able to pay $15 a month? Hell, Comcast is more expensive.
Perhaps "you lose your job and decide that your WoW bill is a non-essential expense, and make the one-time, non-trivial-to-reverse decision to cut it, which is much easier than every fifteen minutes crushing the urge to start playing."
Re:Technology is Heroin (2009)
by frozenport on Monday September 09, 2013 @11:33AM
(#6354052)
Yeah, but you lost your job!!!
But there are checks and balances against addiction in our culture. Your friends start to get concerned. You lose your job and can't pay your WoW bill anymore.
And these events afford us a time for reflection. I specifically don't do World of Warcraft (or amphetamines) because I know they're good at capturing my "brain time". My fear is bad for WoW's growth.
I do agree Internet addiction is a public health crisis. But I don't think we're as powerless to take it on, both individually an collectively, as the author implies.