Oh sweet, sweet internet...

So I read an article a while back that said in China, psychologists have begun to treat what they refer to as a "technology addiction." This is basically the growing trend of people to forsake meaningful human contact for the cold, lifeless series of tubes that is the internet. The funny thing is that they are talking about it in China, and I have yet to hear it brought up stateside. Isn't this the kind of thing that Oprah usually blows the cover off?

So I come down to my basement office today, and on my favorite gadget blog, find this Dilbert cartoon, that so completely expresses the psycho-emotional dilemma that I experience daily, and in sharing it I almost don't need to comment.


Almost... I'll keep this one to a brief list of 5 pieces of evidence that our society already has an unhealthy technology addiction, and if not our society, well, me...

1 - Text Messaging. If you doubt this, go to a restaurant, order a large water, and watch. I guarantee that you will see several tables where, rather than meaningful conversation, two people are sitting and simultaneously texting other people. What does it say when we are so preoccupied with "keeping in touch" that we fail to engage on a meaningful level? What? Did you say something, sorry, I got a text...

2 - Social Networking Sites. Now I confess I love Facebook. You can find people that you haven't taken the effort to keep in touch with or wouldn't have the stones to track down, and engage in a conveniently superficial relationship limited to 1-3 sentence "wall posts," status updates (and their associated comments), a personal message if you want to go really crazy, and then of course the endless stream of surveys, applications, causes, and all the other stuff that really amounts to a whole lot of nothing. Why not just call someone? Because you can't do that from your blackberry during a meeting, and the Jr High crush that tracks you down to apologize for being unkind would seem a lot more creepy to your spouse if she called you out of the blue.

3 - Cell Phones. These things are awesome. Not only do they bankroll this little operation of mine, but how cool is it that we have access to virtually everything and can strap it to our hip or throw it in our pocket or purse. The world is our phone booth (Remember phonebooths?) and our car becomes entertainment central. Even my 1-year-old picks up ANY phone, opens it if it is a flip, says "Hello? Ummmmm..." and then frantically presses keys with her thumbs,, as if she is sending a text message. How cool is that? An entirely untapped market of the cell phone companies to start targeting. The crazy thing is that I have seen people who lose their house or car due to financial troubles, but they won't cancel their cell phone because they have to be connected. Well, if you are homeless, at least people can still get ahold of you...

4 - TV. I love TV. I know, it isn't really something that you tell people, but let's be honest, it is an escape from the cruel, cold, unexciting, and rather anti-climactic world that is painfully devoid of a soundtrack. Now, as if voluntary subjection to radiation, normalized laziness, and complete withdrawal from reality aren't enough, we have digital video recorders that allow us to watch more TV in the same amount of time by eliminating commercials. Good thing, because when it boils down to it, there really are a lot of good things on...

5 - Blogs. Oh the irony. Rather than reading books, newspapers, or magazines, we read bite-sized chunks of information, conveniently concise enough that when our attention span starts to wane, we can move on to the next random, impertinent topic that the blogger feels wont to direct our attention to. We keep track of family and friends conveniently on our computers, and no longer have to tell people what we are doing, we just blog it and leave the ball in their court. The sad thing is that if you watch news programs, many of the anchors are now forced to Blog while on the air, in order to seem "in touch."

Now, after reading blogs, texting, skipping commercials, networking socially, our attention spans are reduced to being capable of little more than brief, insubstantial focus and can only be captured by sensationalism and emotional pandering. I wonder what will "they" come up with next. I am sure what ever it is it will be great, and I will embrace it a full two years before anyone else, probably because I read about it on my favorite blog, and a friend listed "it" as something they are a fan of on their facebook page... Wait are you still reading? Sorry, I moved on 2 paragraphs ago and I am currently chatting with a former employee through google talk. Sorry... Seacrest OUT!