
Facebook, Twitter more addictive than alcohol, tobacco - Slimy
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/facebook-twitter-more-addictive-than-alcohol-tobacco/8530
======
zacharyvoase
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.

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

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barnaby
So then could Reddit and HN be considered more addictive than Heroin?

In all seriousness.

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StavrosK
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
If you didn't need to breath to stay alive (aka a biological need) it would
certainly be an addiction.

~~~
StavrosK
It's only an addiction when it's harmful.

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rjd
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
Personal anecdotes do little to sway statistical significance.

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railsmax
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.

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aresant
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>

~~~
tomjen3
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
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_addic...](http://cybercrimenews.norton.com/articles/social_media_addiction/index.html)

Higher % to support your statement: "Is Generation Y Addicted to Social
Media?"
[https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:IWRpW7Mg81gJ:...](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://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-
instant&ix=...](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)

[http://www.myaddiction.com/education/articles/sex_statistics...](http://www.myaddiction.com/education/articles/sex_statistics.html)

~~~
tomjen3
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.

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

