Hyperstimuli are Understimulating

There’s a phrase I keep seeing around—I think it originally comes from addiction theory?—of “wanting versus liking.” I find it more helpful, when thinking about it to myself, to phrase it as craving versus liking, because “wanting” seems more conscious/chosen/considered to me. Basically, the idea is that how much you want something does not necessarily have much to do with how much you enjoy it when you get it. From your own experience you probably know this to be true. The discourse around hyperstimuli is usually about extreme pleasure. Porn, junk food, video games, etc etc etc are talked about as if they offer surreal, ahistorical amounts of enjoyment. I don’t think this is true at all. Of course, it’s always easier to notice what’s acually present in any experience than what isn’t present in it. But I feel like the stuff that gets called a hyperstimulus is at least equally characterized by missing something as it is by having too much of something. This is pretty obvious when you co

saved by

• Shubham Chandel
• Rishabh Thukral
• Liam Hinzman