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I am aware of dopamine and I often watch videos related to this. My question is why studying is difficult but watching social media and movies seem easy. if it is about novelty that "When we experience novel things dopamine is released" then I am a research student, I read the novel and interesting ideas but still it's hard to focus on research papers than youtube videos!

Does the mind don't like hard/ challenging scenarios? How to overcome this issue? Dopamine detox? or something like this?

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  • $\begingroup$ Remember that most research papers are information dense and poorly written. The authors are trained in research, not in writing skills. They are not trying to entertain, they are trying to inform. Any paper written in a style that entertains the reader and evokes the emotional excitement that the author experienced would likely be rejected for publication. $\endgroup$
    – Ray Butterworth
    Commented Oct 26, 2021 at 12:59

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The research on "what makes games fun" focuses on Engagement b/c it's easier to measure.

There are several criteria which games/movies have that studying often does not (but could have)

  1. Tuned Difficulty Level. A well made movie/book will have layers of "mystery" to discover. The idea is that every consumer will be able to "just barely figure out" the mystery. Or perhaps figure it out sooner or later (as in The Sixth Sense. )
  2. Emergent Events - dramatic reveals or you get the "super gun" or magic sword in a video game and suddenly there is a power shift (as when Pac Man ate the power ups that allowed him (or Ms PacMan) to eat the ghosts.
  3. Observable Progress (games are better at this than books/movies).

The good news is that you could probably gamify your studying. I found it helps to have study groups. So if parts of the studying are easy for you, you can increase the challenge by teaching others, whereas you could learn the harder (for you) parts from someone else.

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  • $\begingroup$ There are a lot of bold claims in your answer without corroborated evidence. We work differently to many SE sites, where we have a strict policy that all answers should be backed up with reliable references so that the answer can be independently verified, regardless of the reader's/answerer's background. If you still have trouble with this, feel free to visit the help center or Psychology & Neuroscience Meta. Unreferenced claims can be challenged and lead to deletion of your answer. $\endgroup$
    – Chris Rogers
    Commented Oct 27, 2021 at 8:15

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