Comment by filoleg | Hacker News Reader

Comment by filoleg | Hacker News Reader

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> Well, yeah, but how is it not the device itself that causes it? I'm addicted to the dopamine rush from interacting with the device.

You wouldn't blame trees or paper if you were addicted to some books. And I bet there would also be a set of books that you just couldn't stomach reading, due to how uninteresting to you they were (but were liked by others).

Are the trees and paper the problem? Is it the shape/format of a typical book? Or is it just certain kinds of books that you get addicted too? What about people who also like the type of books that you are addicted to, but they aren't addicted to them like you are? That sounds like a book type+personal problem to me, not a trees and paper problem.

I think that certain aspects of the design of some electronic devices, particularly phones and tablets, are a huge part of the reason why they're so addictive. I'm specifically thinking about the screen resolution, brightly colored displays, and interactivity. How many people have you ever met who feel they have an addictive relationship to their kindle? I think if phones were grayscale e-ink displays with limited interactivity and no ability to play videos they would be much less addictive. When I turn my phone to grayscale it's immediately much less compelling.

If someone developed a new form of paper and suddenly millions of people were hooked on books published on that particular paper — wildly different books and only books printed on that kind of paper — it would make sense to conclude that there might be something about the new form of paper that's contributing to the problem. I'm sure I'm not the only one who found social media less compelling when I could only access it on a desktop computer. In my opinion the design of smartphones and tablets is not something we can just ignore when thinking about how and why they might be addictive. The devices themselves are brain candy just like the apps that run on them.

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