Addiction. I grew up reading newspapers in the morning, which was my gateway drug to bitesize information. When the first feed readers appeared, in the late ‘90s, there was no going back.
Information is a hell of a drug.
Information is a hell of a drug.
Also the anticipation of wanting something to happen, but still hasn't happen yet, things where you cant really do it yourself. Nuclear Fusion breakthrough, Solid Battery breakthrough, MicroLED breakthrough ( So we can throw away those awful PWM OLED ), collapse of property pricing. etc.
Good point. A lot of my news reading is like this. Not ‘what is happening in the world?’, but ‘what’s the latest progress on X?’.
I once made a 14 days Vipassana silent retreat. Nothing but meditation, eating, and sleeping. Obviously no phones or anything that could distract you from the purpose was allowed (books, conversations, etc).
I'm the biggest information junkie, and I had no troubles letting go. When I came back into the real world the habit grew progressively again.
TL;DR: No withdrawal symptoms.