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If you’re reading books but not applying the knowledge to build something, isn’t it just as unproductive as doom-scrolling the internet?
No. Full stop.
I study rhetoric purely for personal pleasure and use my developing "talents" to...argue with people on the internet. Well, I'm in graduate school, and writing assignments are basically cake walks these days. So, that is an actual, productive use of my personal study of rhetoric, but other than that, I'm not producing anything with that information (even though, like the YouTuber, I do want to be productive with it....anyway...)
A lot of topics and subjects are "inoculative". By that, I basically mean that merely having the knowledge probably prevents you from believing the opposite (often false) things. An anthropologist is unlikely to be convinced by the arguments of creationism, for example. Rhetoric is like that, except...on steroids. It's a little bit of logic and art; of grammar and style; of history and current affairs; of science and the humanities. Because rhetoric is about the means by which people persuade others, in this polarized era, being able to spot and clearly identify the different methods modern persuaders use is instrumental in not being fooled.
My knowledge about computers innoculates me against "YOUR COMPUTER NEEDS TO BE UPDATED! DOWNLOAD HERE!" messages. And my knowledge about rhetoric and the different types prevents me from believing poorly structure arguments that are frequent in politics on every side. A rocket scientist that needs to account for the rotation of the earth will be able to identify why a flat earth simply doesn't make sense.
In other words, accruing and having real knowledge prevents declined productivity.
Time wasted doing something you enjoy even with no purpose is not time wasted at all. It only becomes a problem when it reaches DSM levels of addiction where you're actually neglecting things in your life that are important, like hygiene and family, or completely losing touch with reality like a bunch of people did with COVID.
Yup. Live life aligned with your priorities. There's nothing wrong with internet being a priority. Just don't let it get out of balance.
OP seems to mention a bunch of things that can be summed up as belonging to "grind mentality" or the need to feel like everything you do should be productive in some way. That's capitalism tricking you into being a good little worker bee so you can be exploited for maximum profit. Life is too short to base ones personality too heavily around money and it's ruined so many hobbies as a result.
There is no need to be productive to be happy, that's internalized exploitation. Real addiction has a pathological meaning and always requires professional support. This sounds like ADHD dopamine hunting and impulsive hyper focusing. I'm not an armchair therapist, I'm not even a lawn chair therapist.
It's worth acknowledging when you're artificially pinging your dopamine system. When you eat tasty food, when you drink coffee, when you smoke weed. Stimulating yourself by browsing the Internet aimlessly falls into this category too.
Knowledge is important for its own sake. Life is best lived in harmony. Everything in moderation.
