4 ms·

Facebook, Twitter more addictive than alcohol, tobacco

23 points by Slimy 15y ago

StavrosK 15y ago
Meanwhile, breathing continues to top the list of addictions, with 100% of test subjects unable to desist for any appreciable amount of time in studies performed.
- jQueryIsAwesome 15y ago
  If you didn't need to breath to stay alive (aka a biological need) it would certainly be an addiction.
  - StavrosK 15y ago
    It's only an addiction when it's harmful.
- justncase80 15y ago
  Followed closely by interacting with other people. Who knew?
barnaby 15y ago
So then could Reddit and HN be considered more addictive than Heroin? In all seriousness.
aresant 15y ago
The net waste & damage from unbridled access to social networks, online content, "social games", porn, etc is going to be the subject of many a sociologist of the future, have to wonder where it's taking us. Paul Graham's "Acceleration of Addictiveness" is a great primer on the subject, and he sums up beautifully that the iPad is the "hip flask" of digital addiction: http://www.paulgraham.com/addiction.html http://www.paulgraham.com/addiction.html
- tomjen3 15y ago
  Why did you put porn in there? There are plenty of porn users (most males with access to the internet) but very few of them are addicts (in the sense that they can't function correctly without it not in the sense that they keep using it regulary because they enjoy it). Facebook, or even hn, is far more addictive.
  - salemh 15y ago
    Do people become nonfunctional via HN / FB over Pornography? Sex addicts ~3-5% of populace, harder to narrow down to nonfunctional stats. "There are plenty of HN / FB users but few are addicts (in the sense that they can't function correctly without it not in the sense that they keep using it regularly because they enjoy it). "Far more addictive" is a strong and weird statement. GOOG search:3-6% social media. http://cybercrimenews.norton.com/articles/social_media_addiction/index.html http://cybercrimenews.norton.com/articles/social_media_addic... Higher % to support your statement: "Is Generation Y Addicted to Social Media?" https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:IWRpW7Mg81gJ:www.elon.edu/docs/e-web/academics/communications/research/vol2no1/01Cabral.pdf+&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESg_8lK-5wStApGrKsfZmtlrt-hHLdQkgYPyg3VVD9XB6KNPnISSOB3c4mHQjnqpvq74Bd-uYjO1LgapPWhTzKxE5C4N_HBL6Ldh1wLNW1kq15Djp9cPFzMuKWWrQgPOf7PIe3s0&sig=AHIEtbTAXOFzxOaVZtLNAPxPqM9-Ih1Hng https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:IWRpW7Mg81gJ:... https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ix=seb&ie=UTF-8&ion=1#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=populace+addiction+social+networking&pbx=1&oq=populace+addiction+social+networking&aq=f&aqi=q-w1&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=4496l25768l0l25873l29l23l0l0l0l4l236l3391l0.15.6l21l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=4d179b11806c7eeb&ix=seb&ion=1&biw=1199&bih=645 https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ix=... http://www.myaddiction.com/education/articles/sex_statistics.html http://www.myaddiction.com/education/articles/sex_statistics...
    - tomjen3 15y ago
      During the sopa protests I was annoyed that I couldn't access my favorite porn site, but nothing more than that. When I restricted myself from hn for a week, I spent way too much time thinking what I was missing and too much time waiting for it to become Friday.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
udp 15y ago
Great, another almost content-free article with a link bait title. Can we start submitting/upvoting interesting things instead, please?
railsmax 15y ago
I think not only twitter, facebook, etc, etc... - but the whole sphere of entertainment in internet is like a drug! because what is drugs ??? - substances that give us the opportunity to provide endorphins - happy hormones. And we live for this.
zacharyvoase 15y ago
1) "205 participants between the ages of 18 and 85 with BlackBerry devices in and around the German city of Würtzburg" -- ridiculous selection bias. 2) "the participants were asked to message whether they were experiencing a desire at that moment or had experienced one within the last 30 minutes, what type it was, the strength of it, whether it conflicted with other desires, and whether they resisted or went along with it." -- volunteer bias (the desires and outcomes reported are exactly that: reported). It looks to me like a case of a researcher using a heavily-biased study to project their views onto society at large, using a small sample and totally untrustworthy data.
jasonabelli 15y ago
I spend more time on hacker news. I get scared I'm going to miss an interesting tidbit.
rjd 15y ago
I'll call bull shit on this. Its a great temptation to check it when its just there. I check mine a lot. But when I'm busy I can easily go an entire week without missing it. I spend easily 80 hours per average week on a computer so I guess I'd be in the upper thresholds of users out there. I recently spent a month in thailand which included a fortnight without power, did I miss the internet? not really, only in the evenings when I realised I was't tired and there wasn't anything else to do. If anything the amount of entertainment I expect has increased but nothing else. Perhaps an emotional dependancy thats easily placated by other mediums. But not addiction, theres no physical dependancy, no withdrawals, you aren't going to go into shock and cold sweats from missing out on twitter after 24 hours. I sure as hell don't get a stress headache like when I haven't had a coffee in a few days...
- justncase80 15y ago
  Personal anecdotes do little to sway statistical significance.

23 points by Slimy 15y ago

Meanwhile, breathing continues to top the list of addictions, with 100% of test subjects unable to desist for any appreciable amount of time in studies performed.

jQueryIsAwesome 15y ago
If you didn't need to breath to stay alive (aka a biological need) it would certainly be an addiction.
- StavrosK 15y ago
  It's only an addiction when it's harmful.
justncase80 15y ago
Followed closely by interacting with other people. Who knew?

barnaby 15y ago

So then could Reddit and HN be considered more addictive than Heroin? In all seriousness.

aresant 15y ago

The net waste & damage from unbridled access to social networks, online content, "social games", porn, etc is going to be the subject of many a sociologist of the future, have to wonder where it's taking us. Paul Graham's "Acceleration of Addictiveness" is a great primer on the subject, and he sums up beautifully that the iPad is the "hip flask" of digital addiction: http://www.paulgraham.com/addiction.html http://www.paulgraham.com/addiction.html

tomjen3 15y ago
Why did you put porn in there? There are plenty of porn users (most males with access to the internet) but very few of them are addicts (in the sense that they can't function correctly without it not in the sense that they keep using it regulary because they enjoy it). Facebook, or even hn, is far more addictive.
- salemh 15y ago
  Do people become nonfunctional via HN / FB over Pornography? Sex addicts ~3-5% of populace, harder to narrow down to nonfunctional stats. "There are plenty of HN / FB users but few are addicts (in the sense that they can't function correctly without it not in the sense that they keep using it regularly because they enjoy it). "Far more addictive" is a strong and weird statement. GOOG search:3-6% social media. http://cybercrimenews.norton.com/articles/social_media_addiction/index.html http://cybercrimenews.norton.com/articles/social_media_addic... Higher % to support your statement: "Is Generation Y Addicted to Social Media?" https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:IWRpW7Mg81gJ:www.elon.edu/docs/e-web/academics/communications/research/vol2no1/01Cabral.pdf+&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESg_8lK-5wStApGrKsfZmtlrt-hHLdQkgYPyg3VVD9XB6KNPnISSOB3c4mHQjnqpvq74Bd-uYjO1LgapPWhTzKxE5C4N_HBL6Ldh1wLNW1kq15Djp9cPFzMuKWWrQgPOf7PIe3s0&sig=AHIEtbTAXOFzxOaVZtLNAPxPqM9-Ih1Hng https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:IWRpW7Mg81gJ:... https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ix=seb&ie=UTF-8&ion=1#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=populace+addiction+social+networking&pbx=1&oq=populace+addiction+social+networking&aq=f&aqi=q-w1&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=4496l25768l0l25873l29l23l0l0l0l4l236l3391l0.15.6l21l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=4d179b11806c7eeb&ix=seb&ion=1&biw=1199&bih=645 https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ix=... http://www.myaddiction.com/education/articles/sex_statistics.html http://www.myaddiction.com/education/articles/sex_statistics...
  - tomjen3 15y ago
    During the sopa protests I was annoyed that I couldn't access my favorite porn site, but nothing more than that. When I restricted myself from hn for a week, I spent way too much time thinking what I was missing and too much time waiting for it to become Friday.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

udp 15y ago

Great, another almost content-free article with a link bait title. Can we start submitting/upvoting interesting things instead, please?

railsmax 15y ago

I think not only twitter, facebook, etc, etc... - but the whole sphere of entertainment in internet is like a drug! because what is drugs ??? - substances that give us the opportunity to provide endorphins - happy hormones. And we live for this.

zacharyvoase 15y ago

1) "205 participants between the ages of 18 and 85 with BlackBerry devices in and around the German city of Würtzburg" -- ridiculous selection bias. 2) "the participants were asked to message whether they were experiencing a desire at that moment or had experienced one within the last 30 minutes, what type it was, the strength of it, whether it conflicted with other desires, and whether they resisted or went along with it." -- volunteer bias (the desires and outcomes reported are exactly that: reported). It looks to me like a case of a researcher using a heavily-biased study to project their views onto society at large, using a small sample and totally untrustworthy data.

jasonabelli 15y ago

I spend more time on hacker news. I get scared I'm going to miss an interesting tidbit.

rjd 15y ago

I'll call bull shit on this. Its a great temptation to check it when its just there. I check mine a lot. But when I'm busy I can easily go an entire week without missing it. I spend easily 80 hours per average week on a computer so I guess I'd be in the upper thresholds of users out there. I recently spent a month in thailand which included a fortnight without power, did I miss the internet? not really, only in the evenings when I realised I was't tired and there wasn't anything else to do. If anything the amount of entertainment I expect has increased but nothing else. Perhaps an emotional dependancy thats easily placated by other mediums. But not addiction, theres no physical dependancy, no withdrawals, you aren't going to go into shock and cold sweats from missing out on twitter after 24 hours. I sure as hell don't get a stress headache like when I haven't had a coffee in a few days...

justncase80 15y ago
Personal anecdotes do little to sway statistical significance.