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Addiction Markets

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383 points toomuchtodo | 3 comments | 31 Oct 25 17:42 UTC | HN request time: 0.476s | source
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ToucanLoucan ◴[31 Oct 25 18:36 UTC] No.45775210[source]▶
> A quarter of bettors can’t pay a bill because of their wagers, a third have gambling debts, more than half carry credit card debts, and a quarter of them are afraid they can’t control their gambling.

No way. It's almost like these are addictive products being engineered to be as addictive as possible and deliberately punch people's brains in such a way to make them stay. That's so weird.

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supportengineer ◴[31 Oct 25 19:08 UTC] No.45775559[source]▶
>> addictive products being engineered to be as addictive as possible and deliberately punch people's brains in such a way to make them stay

The exact same argument could be used to make social media illegal.

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1. skippyboxedhero ◴[31 Oct 25 20:37 UTC] No.45776432[source]▶
Hopefully, the responses to this have highlighted the kind of people you are dealing with.

No-one can use social media because some people in our society can't control themselves. Socialise the losses.

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2. gassi ◴[31 Oct 25 23:00 UTC] No.45777660[source]▶
You can allow freedom of communication while restricting the algorithms that have poisoned an entire generation of children.

https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2025/05/430011/yes-social-media-mi...

3. ToucanLoucan ◴[01 Nov 25 14:36 UTC] No.45781946[source]▶
> Hopefully, the responses to this have highlighted the kind of people you are dealing with.

You know I'm right here, if you have an actual rebuttal and not just dismissive hand-waving.

> No-one can use social media because some people in our society can't control themselves.

I think a lot of people would be measurably better off if not for social media that algorithmically fucks with their brains.

> Socialise the losses.

I mean that's kind of the point of a society yeah? We pool our efforts to enable greater labor specialization and to achieve things no individual can. Like an electrical grid or a highway system. And when parts of those systems break down, we all contribute a little to sorting them out.