Surely people get bored of them after a while?

I admit I used to use this site -- a lot, way too much really -- and I for some reason or another enjoyed internet stats. It started with b/p points, but those got old, quickly. EXP eventually died out and then it was just posts. At least posts allow you to express yourself creatively in some way; in that, you're actually writing something and communicating with others.

But I'm still surprised -- both here and elsewhere -- by just how many people can be addicted to collecting stats for characters in games, the internet, etc. Sure, it's fun, it's an outlet for people to just vegetate after work or whatever, but doesn't it ever dawn on people that, "oh, I've spent hours and hours of time just adding numbers to some online account, with absolutely no relation to my life."

Ok, let me step back: I understand the fun involved in video games, RPGs, etc; obviously I've played them and enjoyed them throughly. But RPGs, at least, have an end point, as well as most video games. You beat the final boss, the final level, etc. But online games, or on sites like Newgrounds, there is no endpoint. And the reward isn't very good either -- a new badge icon in your profile -- WOW!!

I mean, I do feel like I wasted inordinate amounts of time here. Not posting -- I don't feel that was a complete waste of time per se, but certainly in getting b/p points and gaining exp -- there was absolutely no reason to have spent that many hours doing what I did.

Maybe someone can explain this to me -- is this a sign of maturity now that I no longer take any interest in it? Perhaps as a kid I didn't recognize the value of my free time and spent it in silly ways -- like getting points on a website. But now I do, so I don't do that anymore. I don't know, this is just a rant anyway :/