wrote this in a class on cigarettes, and was getting tired of writing...
While the inherent risks associated with each of these vary, and though addicts of these media of self-gratification are motivated by different and unique goals, one claim does seem to envelop the colloquial and academic usage of the word addiction: a cause-and-effect model is consistently present among those considered (dialectically or medicinally) to be addicted, wherein the cause is the literal act of instigating the reward, whether it is the accomplishment of decimating the mighty Big Mac or the simple reward of watching a joint bank account wither away according to a wife’s impulsive purchases made while the husband toils away at his dead-end, middle-management job in hopes of filling the impressive void forged by the plastic-wielding lady of the house.
While the inherent risks associated with each of these vary, and though addicts of these media of self-gratification are motivated by different and unique goals, one claim does seem to envelop the colloquial and academic usage of the word addiction: a cause-and-effect model is consistently present among those considered (dialectically or medicinally) to be addicted, wherein the cause is the literal act of instigating the reward, whether it is the accomplishment of decimating the mighty Big Mac or the simple reward of watching a joint bank account wither away according to a wife’s impulsive purchases made while the husband toils away at his dead-end, middle-management job in hopes of filling the impressive void forged by the plastic-wielding lady of the house.