[DiggyJohnson]

But isn't there more value in a reward leading you to run marathons than a reward leading you to waste your time (literally a net negative mental health wise) scrolling on a social site?

I genuinely believe that setting goals for yourself and achieving them is intrinsically more valuable than... not doing that, i.e. scrolling.

[gretch]

I think people want different things in life and I don’t think different leisure pastimes are inherently better.

Like in the previous example, I don’t see how a marathon isn’t also a colossal waste of time. You spend half a day running the and nothing has changed other than you feel good. Fair enough, but same thing with video games or music or social media.

Perhaps a useful hobby could be carpentry or something, but that’s a slim percentage of all hobbies, and even then, there’s probably a machine or a guy who can do it better than you and you can simply pay them.

[DiggyJohnson]

My point was based around the idea that setting goals for yourself and pursuing them is better for you than not doing that. Disagreement on the point would surprise me. I’m not saying we all have to run marathons or hike the AT, but, really, well anything you can set your mind to is good. It could be being a great father or husband, or carpentry, or marathons. Anything is better than doing nothing and scrolling.

I don’t see scrolling as a “leisure pastime”, maybe that’s the crux of our disagreement. But if all of one’s leisure time is spent scrolling I cannot see how that is good for the individual compared to just about anything else.