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"I do believe that the plethora of instant stimulations is having a major impact on our cognitive processes. Some good, some bad. The bad I see is that it seems that people have a much more difficult time quieting down their minds or enjoying peace. If you watch people, there is a subtle but strong constant desire for stimulation. In fact, its almost odd to see someone waiting for anything without pulling out their smartphone and poking at it." This. PG did a good blog post about this a while back, "The Acceleration of Addictiveness" or something like that. If you're building stuff, and what you make is habit-forming, you win. So people build habit-forming things and create habits in other people. So most people have habits that are not necessarily beneficial for them at all, but which are beneficial for whoever built their favorite app, or game, or gadget. How many people check Hacker News more often than they really want to? I regularly uninstall my Twitter clients because they're too habit-forming. This is my third or fourth Hacker News login; I get disgusted with the sheer amount of time I spend on here, I sign out, throw away my password, and then come back anyway. Porn and video games make better link bait than Hacker News or Twitter, but the truth is that habit-forming entertainment is a serious problem. Also, as an aside, I fucking hate how people use the term "addicting" when they really mean "habit-forming." The technical meaning of addiction requires a physiological change where the body cannot function without a given substance. I think I'm on the losing side of this battle, but I haven't made peace with it. I'd even agree that "addiction" in the more general sense is a bigger problem than pure addiction in the literal sense, but it still just drives me fucking nuts. |