system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[LOTR] Why did the ring have such a quick effect on Smeagol and Deagol and yet bilbo and frodo were able to spend so much time without it corrupting them to that level?
gpt
Part of it was their character - Bilbo and Frodo were basically good people before they came into possession of the Ring, while Smeagol was always a little mean and prone to thievery prior to his big birthday.  The Ring would enhance the negative aspects of its owner, and so it had an easy time with Smeagol, but took longer (and in Frodo's case, more dire circumstances) before it would wear on the hobbits.

Part of it was the means of possession.  Gandalf notes that Bilbo likely escaped a lot of the Ring's hurt because he found it by chance, and because he escaped from Gollum with an act of pity - refusing to kill this wretched creature - even though he had the opportunity.  That act of pity made it harder for the Ring to start to affect him, and it was likely the same with Frodo, who earned the Ring as an inheritance and didn't use it for anything malicious.  Smeagol took the Ring by force, through murder, and that had serious consequences.

Part of it was environmental - while Bilbo kept the Ring with him at all times, he wasn't usually paying much attention to it, because he had an otherwise fulfilling life going on around him.  He adopted a ward to give him a family at home, he threw parties with his fellow hobbits, and he was a generally social guy.  And the same with Frodo, who didn't especially change his life upon gaining the Ring.  But Gollum was fairly quickly kicked out of his community, forced to wander his way under the Misty Mountains and spend all of his time either looking for food, or else worshipping his Precious.  It had his whole mind ensnared from early on and he had no other distractions to keep it from taking him over entirely.

And lastly, part of it was usage.  Bilbo would only ever actually *use* the Ring on occasion, usually to avoid an annoying relative.  Frodo basically never used it prior to his Quest.  But Gollum would wear it to go hunting goblins, not only semi-frequent use, but also usage for evil purposes, which we already know gives the Ring more power to corrupt its owner.  Everything that Gollum did was an advantage to the Ring, while most of what Frodo and Bilbo did was antithesis to it - good deeds and time spent with friends were the best protections they had against its influence.  

Thorin's last words were a little prophetic, in that sense:

>If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.