Comment by Animats
3 months ago
With a heavy enough dosage, people get lost in spiritual fantasies. The religions which encourage or compel religious activity several times per day exploit this. It's the dosage, not the theology.
Video game addiction used to be a big thing. Especially for MMOs where you were expected to be there for the raid. That seems to have declined somewhat.
Maybe there's something to be said for limiting some types of screen time.
Part of the problem with chatbots (similarly with social media and mobile phone gambling) is that dosage is pretty much uncontrolled. There is a truly endless stream of chatbot "conversation," social media ragebait, or thing to bet on, 24/7.
Then add that you can hide this stuff even from people you live with (your parents or spouse) for plenty long for it to become a very severe problem.
"The dosage makes the poison" does not imply all substances are equally poisonous.
The fact is, for majority of people, life sucks, so when something appears that makes it suck a little bit less for a second, it's difficult to say no. Personally, I can't wait for AI technology to improve to the point that I could treat AI like a partner. And I guess that's something that will appear sooner rather than later, considering the market size.
Video game addiction is still absolutely a major thing. I know a ton of middle aged dudes who do absolutely nothing but work and play video games. Nothing else. No community involvement, no exercise, not social engagements, etc.
Wouldn't you say that most multiplayer video games are their outlet for social engagement and even community involvement?
I wanna mention that these are generalizations meant to apply to the general population. There are always exceptions, but those dont apply to most people.
No because the product isn't real. There is no actual shared benefit besides a quick dopamine release. I can't stress enough how important an actual physical thing is in human satisfaction. Video games do not give you a real physical thing. Social interaction through a video game is, generally, not fulfilling in anywhere near the same way as actual social interaction. Working on a project together in person that results in a thing you can see/hold/touch is drastically different than shooting virtual monsters or doing a virtual puzzle.
Social engagement and community involvement are very different than psuedo-interactions online. It involves physically being around others, creating or doing something together in person, looking at each other's faces and maybe even touching. Random things might happen to you that would never happen in a virtual world.
Yes, I'm aware that many people will say "I've had lifelong friends I met through video games." Yes, that's true. No denying it. That's not really what is being discussed, and a lot of those relationships often move into the real world anyway.
People drastically overstate how beneficial video games are while minimizing the things they give up for those video games(social interaction, uncomfortable situations which produce growth, new experiences in general, etc). Then as their actual social skills atrophy, they lean into it and say "I have social anxiety" when in reality it's self inflected and if they just got outside they would relearn those social skills.