this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2026
19 points (62.7% liked)
Showerthoughts
40670 readers
1211 users here now
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS
If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I am not referring to addiction. I am referring to the effects of intense, periodic, prolonged mental concentration over years and years. It will warp your perspective as surely as abusing your average recreational drug.
The way I understand it the brain makes pathways that get reinforced through usage and time. In this respect if we do anything repeatedly it will reinforce those pathways. Reading lots of books would reinforce this type of pathway.
I think the element you are missing is the damage. What damage does reading do if it is not an addiction and only reinforces pathways in the mind. When you do drugs it reinforces other pathways but also does actual damage through a number mechanisms.
Drugs do damage and that's the difference? Rather broad and speculative.
It depends on the drug honestly. But yes, generally there is irreversible neural and physical damage caused to the body.
Take huffing for instance. It is a very powerful addiction that causes a lot of brain damage. But is it really the chemical being huffed or is it another mechanism like oxygen deprivation.
This is why I say it depends and once again I think most the damage would come from the results of addiction (which is just pathways being reinforced in the mind). A lot of time with drugs like meth most of the damage comes from people not taking care of themselves (not eating, sleeping, etc.).
Yes, I get the concept of damage. The point is the difference here. Because I'm comparing the derangement of the two. The damage is not really relevant to that. It's the fact that there's derangement that matters.