Our Addiction to Technology

At the gym the other day I actually saw someone typing on a mini-laptop while working out.  Most people wouldn’t think twice about this except to wish they had one of their own.  As I began looking around the gym, I noticed that others were on their cell phones, listening to I-Pods, or watching TV.  I have to admit I was one of them.  The gym that day was just a snapshot of how much we utilize technology throughout the day.  As I switched the podcast on my I-Pod, I began to wonder if most of us recognize our addiction to technology.  The word addiction is very subjective and even if we do acknowledge we have a problem, the many advantages seem to outweigh the risks.  After literally having technology at our fingertips, it’s hard to remember life without a cell phone, GPS, or even email.  After all, technological advancement has enabled our ability to multitask-but have we created a monster?  How dangerous could our addiction to technology really be?

I started to ask myself, what constitutes an addiction? Merriam-Webster dictionary defines addicted as “to devote or surrender (oneself) to something habitually or obsessively”.  In the past I had battled an addiction to smoking cigarettes but was somehow able to quit.  I thought about how I had spent ridiculous amounts of money, put my health at risk, and smoked habitually every few hours.  Something had taken control over my body and mind…an addiction.  In order to finally quit I had to take drastic measures.  This meant steering clear of chain-smokers (including my friends) or areas where smoking was allowed.  Today’s smoking bans in public places, higher costs for cigarettes, and huge health risks, may help deter individuals from smoking.  However, these types of regulations would be impossible to implement when it comes to technology-considering how much of our everyday lives is consumed with cell phones, emailing, and social networking.  How could we ever scale back when it permeates our jobs, homes, and social lives?   

One major part of addiction seems to be the inability to admit when you are an addict-whether it’s alcohol, drugs, gambling, etc.  This gives me the impression that our society DOES have an addiction to technology because most people wouldn’t admit they are an addict or might just laugh it off.  The only thing people really seem to be concerned about is the expense and the amount of time they spend on technology.  I heard a friend say to me the other day, “I just don’t know where the time goes when I’m online!”  I know some people who would surgically replace their hand with an I-Phone if it would allow them to text faster.  Have you ever heard someone say they “lost everything” when their cell phone drowned or computer crashed?  Personally I have actually cried in these instances.  I will admit that I’ve battled an addiction to Facebook over the years and finally feel I have it under control.  However, the problem that I have with social networking interactions is that they are purely superficial.  For some, it’s easy to forget the importance of making real connections with other people.  Writing on someone’s wall or sending them an email is so much easier, but it’s more of a surface relationship.  Is real human contact overrated or is our addiction to technology facilitating a breakdown in the human connection?