Technology Addiction: Are You a Victim?

Seems like everywhere you go nowadays, people are busy with their high-tech gadgets. It doesn't matter if they're driving, walking, shopping, out with friends, having a meal in a restaurant, waiting in a doctor's office, or even going to the toilet. Whatever the activity, they're connected electronically but disconnected from physical reality.

One fella asked this owner if he could see what was ahead of
his boat with this setup.

And, as I learned from research over the weekend, the same is true of the bass-fishing industry. Some pros and weekenders alike have been so bitten by the "electronic bug" that they can't resist adding more technology to their fishing arsenal. They are running around, in some cases, with as many as four or five big-screen fish finders onboard their boats, with all of them energized at the same time.

One bass fisherman passing another on the water said he glanced over at the other guy's rig and saw four units lit up. Know what the other guy was doing, though? Simply running a stretch of shoreline with a spinnerbait.

In another case of a pro with four units on his rig, he admitted that he routinely gets beaten in tournaments by fellas fishing with only two units on their rigs. And to top it off, this same guy was taking issue with the fact his son had convinced his grandparents to buy him an expensive set of LEGO blocks, then had the nerve to ask if they would buy the companion set as well.

The icing on this cake came when I found a couple of online discussions about the fact that officials now are starting to consider limiting the amount of electronics allowed for use in bass tournaments--just to "even" the playing field.

"Technology addiction," as some are calling it, is becoming so widespread among both adults and children that some insurance companies are beginning to cover treatment for it. I have to wonder if those "brains" who "thunk up" all this modern techno-mumbo-jumbo ever considered the possibility that it might one day, for lack of a better phrase, all come back to bite 'em squarely in the butt. Wouldn't be the first time that a blessing, for lack of safeguards, became a burden, or worse, a curse--now would it?

Another term being bantered about by some for this growing problem is "technology servitude," or the loss of personal freedom and independence because of uncontrolled consumption of many kinds of devices that eat up time and money. Victims never stop to question whether their quality of life is actually improved by the incessant use of technology products that are marketed more aggressively than just about everything else.

According to one researcher, "Those who think interactions with people through technology devices are the real thing have lost their sanity. Technology limits and distorts human, social interactions. Worse yet, people have lost their ability and talent for actually conversing with people face-to-face... ."

Consider these findings: A group of university researchers found that half of a study's participants reported checking their email once an hour, with some individuals checking it up to 30 or 40 times an hour. Another study revealed that 59 percent of PDA users check every single time an email arrives, and 83 percent check email every day while on vacation.

A 2010 survey found that 61 percent of Americans (even higher among young people) say they are addicted to the Internet. And yet another survey reported that "addicted" was the term most people use to describe their relationship to technology. Further, people had a harder time resisting the allure of social media than they did sex, sleep, cigarettes, and alcohol.

A final study found that 44 percent of cellphone owners sleep with their phone next to their bed. Worse, 67 percent had experienced "phantom rings," checking their phone even when it wasn't ringing or vibrating. The only piece of good news was revealed in the fact that 37 percent, up from an earlier reported 29 percent, of cellphone owners felt they could live without the device.

So what are people doing to break out of this trap? One family I read about said that, for the past five years, they have gone on vacation in a small Nebraska town of only 200 people. "While the phone barely has a scant signal, we don't have cable, Internet, Netflix, or any other tech stuff that can possibly get in the way of our quality time together," said the father.

Their adopted vacation activities include drives in the countryside, games, food, and fishing--but not from a boat with four or five big-screen fish finders. They simply fish from the bank with little baits like beetlespins, releasing most of their catch but occasionally keeping enough for a family fish fry.

The crucial questions here are twofold: What is a healthy use of technology devices? and Who is really in charge of my life? That's what people need to ask themselves if they want to have a chance to break the stronghold of technology on their lives. When you're able to live happily for a day, a week or longer without all those electronic devices, you once again will become the master, instead of the servant, of technology.