I think I've gotten a different impression. There's definitely a casual use of the word "addict" that is well-understood to be different than clinical, destructive addiction.
And that destruction is obviously where the distinction lies. One might label themselves a "coffee addict" because they spend a lot of money on coffee or find themselves more dependent on it than they might like. But I think the average person recognizes that is very different from a spending addiction that leaves you $100,000 in debt and fired from your job because you can't stop shopping online when you should be working.
I have no problem with the distinction you presented. The problem I have is with organizations like WHO that pathologize normal behaviors. In 2018 WHO not only added "sex" to their addiction list. They also added computer games. Not to mention "toxic masculinity" "disorder". So, these are now "well understood clinical destructive addictions" too? Because, hey, this is what clinical psychologists in places like EU use to diagnose "disorders" and "addictions". ICD is the name of the diagnostic book issued by WHO and yes, stuff like this was added by them in 2018 into the latest iteration of ICD-11. So if you happen to be more conservative than WHO would like you to be, don't be surprised to be labeled "computer games addict" (targeted specifically at males, somehow there is no "social media addiction" mentioned that would target females), "toxic masculinity disordered", "homophobic" too. They should change name to "clinical liberal ideology" or more honestly "New Middle Ages Crusaders" for all I care. This is not science anymore and I think ideologist running ideologies like "psychology" are on the collision course with majority of population. Actually have been for some time. Which we know from elections results in places like US (Trump), UK (Brexit), France (Le Pen), Germany (AfD), Eastern Europe, not to mention places where I don't think anyone pays attention to their left-invented disorders like Russia and China. Wondering how it will play out for them long term.
But hey, this is the risk you take when you decide to be more of an ideologist than scientist.
Yeah but learning or completing tasks give a bit of dopamine so maybe learning in short bursts becomes addicting through successive iterations.
When you work, you have large tasks, you break them up into smaller tasks, you learn along the way, and you get fueled by dopamine to continue. You learn and use your knowledge to work through tasks that are standard and dynamic in terms of change. Easier to do large projects/tasks by breaking it in small tasks rather than one big task. Lots of 'getting things done' or todo management plans gamify the dopmamine hits into small tasks. Each task can remove or add more work depending on how you complete them or how much you think about them to optimize or reduce work. There is weight to each decision but also forward movement and tasks being completed which gives dopamine.
With online communities you are both learning and teaching on each iteration (comment/post) which when you post is a task being completed. The process is pretty standard and easy to repeat and focus on your points. The learning part is new information you get, the teaching part is formulating your response and refinement. Repeated actions like this refine and polish your ideas and understanding of the world. All of that is probably a dopamine hit combined with a bit of social aspect that may increase it. The impact of that task is low so it is easy to attack repeatedly, much like an addictive game cycle. There is little weight to each decision but also forward movement and the appearance/feeling of tasks being completed which gives dopamine.
When you are sitting in front of your big project with all the tasks and smaller tasks that have real impact, next to the addicting short burst communities with all sorts of new and old ideas and discussions from learning about space or politics to jokes and memes with low impact, the online communities/information/learning can outweigh your work/project as the former seems to become a bigger draw if you aren't careful. It is almost easier to feel like you have been doing things posting on reddit/HN until you break out of a focus state and realize that is taking from your work time, but easy to slip into due to the amazing breadth of information and topics, where work is just focused usually.
Both situations your brain is probably in plasticity states and getting dopamine from the learning and teaching short tasks.
It is probably best to have multiple projects you are working on one serious and one with more open creative mode so that procrastination is at least on work during worktime and addiction to distractions is limited. Creating addicting game cycles to give dopamine hits and repeated addictive cycles is very evident also in social media or online discussion, like the little reddit notification. You can easily go spend 15 minute breaks from work and end up hours into a reddit/HN/social discussion.
The plasticity of the brain in internet discussions also has our mind in a receptive state, so that is why online misinformation/disinformation is probably so able to propagate as well. The brain is open to new information and marketers/propagandists probably love that state to manipulate.
