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Comment by terminalcommand | Hacker News Reader

The question is, is it really an addiction? Can we specify it as a lifestyle choice? The individual in question thinks, has goals, becomes sad, happy and most importantly his intelligence is intact. He is not like an advanced heroine addict playing the same tape over and over again.

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Coffee and tobacco are addictions that let your intelligence intact. It's a choice only as long as he's able to chose not to; otherwise it's an addiction.

Not so. Addiction has a medical definition; it is the experience of craving.

Thus, if the gamer in GP stops playing games, then experiences intense overwhelming craving for the game, he is addicted, and his thought processes are compromised as a result.

Isn't that pretty much what I said?

having a craving !== having no choice

Yes but I think the fine distinction is being lost. "having no choice" (such as social collapse) is not the same as "having a craving." But, psychotic obsession on the same outcome (to execute the addictive behavior), endlessly and for days, is effectively no choice. The suffering is real, and the suffering is temporarily relieved by satisfying the addiction. This is not the same as having no choice, but I don't want to marginalize the experience of addiction as merely "having a craving".

It is if deep down he knows the Internet has fucked him. Maybe he looks back and thinks about all of that colossal waste of time he wanted to use for something else. And then he gets into the games and on Reddit and forgets everything. It's exactly like heroin (not the Wonder Woman type), the cycles are just longer.

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