I highly suspect that the reason the internet is so much more addictive is the fact you can improve your status.
But improving your status on the internet takes a lot of time, and is very probably unconnected to the life outside of internet—most useful things done in real life do not contribute to your internet status, and your internet status does not contribute to things done in real life. That’s the problem: time and the disconnectedness. By improving your status in one world you lose your utility in the other world; improving your status tastes so sweet, but the rewards are very limited and can’t be converted.
It goes against our insticts, because we expect that increasing status should bring many benefits, and on internet, it does not. (Just like our instincts expect that sugar goes with vitamins.) In real life, if you have a chance to become a king, go for it, because as a king, you will be able to better satisfy your needs that you have temporarily ignored in order to focus more on becoming a king. But as a king of internet, you have nothing… except the pure refined virtual status.
In theory, you can draw some real-life benefits from the virtual status, but I guess most people fail to do it. Because as a first step, you must get outside of the internet for long enough time to create a strategy for real life… but while you are doing it, your internet status is rapidly falling, and your instincts scream at you to come back and rescue it.
(Just like our instincts expect that sugar goes with vitamins.)
We have the instinct to consume sugar because it is the most concentrated form of energy that humans can process, not because it is naturally paired with vitamins.
Fat does have more calories per gram than sugar, but I think sugar has more calories per cubic centimeter. (Not that I think that this one is the reason why it is more pleasurable to eat sugar than fat for most people.)
We have the instinct to consume sugar because it is the most concentrated form of energy that humans can process, not because it is naturally paired with vitamins.
Sugar is desirable as the most easily accessible form of energy. Being concentrated is more useful for long term storage in a mobile form, hence the use of the more concentrated fat.
But improving your status on the internet takes a lot of time, and is very probably unconnected to the life outside of internet—most useful things done in real life do not contribute to your internet status, and your internet status does not contribute to things done in real life. That’s the problem: time and the disconnectedness. By improving your status in one world you lose your utility in the other world; improving your status tastes so sweet, but the rewards are very limited and can’t be converted.
It goes against our insticts, because we expect that increasing status should bring many benefits, and on internet, it does not. (Just like our instincts expect that sugar goes with vitamins.) In real life, if you have a chance to become a king, go for it, because as a king, you will be able to better satisfy your needs that you have temporarily ignored in order to focus more on becoming a king. But as a king of internet, you have nothing… except the pure refined virtual status.
In theory, you can draw some real-life benefits from the virtual status, but I guess most people fail to do it. Because as a first step, you must get outside of the internet for long enough time to create a strategy for real life… but while you are doing it, your internet status is rapidly falling, and your instincts scream at you to come back and rescue it.
We have the instinct to consume sugar because it is the most concentrated form of energy that humans can process, not because it is naturally paired with vitamins.
That’s obviously false. Counterexample: fat.
Fat does have more calories per gram than sugar, but I think sugar has more calories per cubic centimeter. (Not that I think that this one is the reason why it is more pleasurable to eat sugar than fat for most people.)
Sugar crystal is about 1.5 grams per ml, while human fat is about .9 grams per ml, but fat has more than twice the calories per gram.
Sugar is desirable as the most easily accessible form of energy. Being concentrated is more useful for long term storage in a mobile form, hence the use of the more concentrated fat.