www.allconsuming.net is addictive

I spent the last 5 hours adding books that I have read to www.allconsuming.net. Scary. Some would feel squeamish about telling everyone what they like, but since Amazon already knows my purchasing habits, it might as well be in an accessible form.

I really can't call it addictive, considering my last long post. I don't think it was a waste of time, because other people who meet me will read over my lists and get an idea of the kind of reader I am. Okay, so it was a little bit of a waste of time, or maybe I don't know. I've really been concerned with the time wasting nature of most videogames nowadays. Are they addictive? From my last post I have to consider the possibility. Dawn is playing Sims 2 right now. She's been playing it all day, after I upgraded her machine last night. Tomorrow she'll break down, telling me that she regrets spending all that time playing that game. This won't alter her decision; she's told me all this before. I've gone on gaming purges in the past, and they rarely last. I was going to go on one recently, and Dawn stopped me. I got a Wii recently, and realized what I really wanted from gaming was something more physically and mentally challenging, or maybe I'm just coming up with more excuses to continue my habit.

Some of my gaming is good for my brain. I have Sudoku on my cell, my iPod, my DS, and in books. I do play it on breaks or before I go to bed or if I'm in line waiting. I find it mentally stimulating, and studies have shown that playing games can stave off mental decay. However, I don't condone long game-playing sessions, especially if they get in the way of living. Odd that I say that, since I have a PS2, a Wii, a DS, and my computer which has lots of games on it. I think the answer lies in moderation.

Now, only if I can develop that habit.

New habits...

Dawn introduced me to Covey's 7 Habits book, and I was looking carefully at the Venn diagram on Habits last night during my reading session. There are the three main circles of Skill, Desire, and Knowledge, and of course Habits was in the middle. Mathematicians draw these diagrams to contemplate what happens in each of the 7 regions, which leaves all of the two-without-one regions. Oddly, it made sense to label these three regions with negative monikers:

• Skill^Knowledge^~Desire=Procrastination
• Knowledge^Desire^~Skill=Ignorance
• Desire^Skill^~Knowledge=Addiction

This makes total sense to me. If you know why and how to do something, but don't want to do it, that's a natural definition of procrastination. If you know why to do something and you want to do it, but you don't know how, this is ignorance. If you want to do something you know how to do, but aren't sure that you should be doing it (or are willfully ignoring the consequences), this suggests addictive behavior.

Some questions naturally occur with this line of inquiry. If you don't know why you are doing something, is this the same as willfully ignoring the reason? I would suggest yes. You should have a moral reason to do the things you do. If reasons to possess a certain behavior are proven wrong later, you have a reason to change your behavior, and not taking this action shows dependence on the behavior. Does the broaden the range of addiction? Sure it does; even people who take vitamins after the suggested benefits are disproved are showing an addiction to the habitual action (and possible placebo effects of) that behavior. Isn't there a fine line between procrastination and ignorance? I would suggest that the perfection effect (being paralyzed by inability to perfect the task you're attempting) is a struggle between procrastination and ignorance, and is really just using ignorance to cover for your procrastination. This is indicated by the ease in which ignorance is cured (by research) as opposed to procrastination (where said research turns into aimless wandering).

Finally, after looking at these negative conditions, doesn't the Venn diagram seem kinda lopsided? It could be an effect of the internet; the increasing ease in which ignorance is curable allows for the other parts of the diagram to dominate. Something to think about.