>However, the fact that participants underestimated the potential task motivation during the thinking period may indicate that people avoid thinking not because it is aversive but because it is expected to be aversive.
>Such an inaccurate expectation may lead people to unnecessarily avoid spending time thinking in their daily life.
>For example, the current widespread availability of the Internet and mobile phones makes it extremely easy for people to kill time when they have nothing to do, and our results suggest that people’s continual engagement in electronic devices may in part reflect inaccurate metacognitive beliefs about the value of not doing anything
I found that hiking helps me break the addiction (or dopamine hits or whatever you prefer to call it) to the internet. I observe a similar effect to that described in the paper (not because it is aversive but because it is expected to be aversive) -- the act of filling my water bottle an getting in the car sometimes takes every ounce of my will, but after I am over that I absolutely enjoy the exercise and sense of clarity it brings to let my mind wonder for a few hours.
As an experiment I just changed my HN bookmark to point to this story, to remind me that I shouldn't be refreshing HN for the 12th time today, and then add one more click to get to the homepage.