Slashdot Mirror
Are Americans Addicted to Technology?
jomammy writes "According to a recent Wired article, the majority of Americans are becoming increasingly dependant on their gadgets. High speed internet seems to be the one most determined to be a 'necessity'. A third of the country is said to pay more than $200.00 a month for their addiction, where 4 out of 10 pay between $100.00 and $150.00 a month. Other items in this list of 'gadgets' include, mp3 players, dvd players, laptops, handhelds, etc." How addicted are we? How addicted are you?
Posers!
Help! I keep refreshing Slashdot! Oh no!
Ha, I'm not addicted I can go all the way around the world without using any technology! (are we there yet?)
Utinam me logica falsa tuam philosophiam totam suffodiant.
"According to a recent Wired article, the majority of Americans are becoming increasingly dependant on their gadgets."
And Japan is what? In the dark ages?
I can quit any time I want.
Oh, please. This is just more useless drivel written to sell magazines. Just because something makes your life easier or more fun, doesn't mean everyone is "addicted" because they enjoy using it. Are Americans adicted to tooth brushes, too? 99% of us admit to using them at least daily! OH NO!
Just raise the taxes on crack.
I could not exist without my coffee grinder.
No, that's lack of skill.
I've always thought that Barney was a much more reliable news source. Of course, not that Fox News is any more usable.
In Soviet Russia, backwards is everything.
Well, I'm on vacation and I'm reading Slashdot.
That about says it all.
There are two kinds of people in the world: those with loaded guns, and those who dig.
They misspelled 'porn'.
I'm Sri Lankan. I can tell you I'm sitting here in Sri Lanka reloading slashdot, digg, and engadget all the time. Why? Because I like technology and gadgets too. I'd be nowhere without a cellphone or laptop. Even when I travel outside my town. A local cell phone company (not even the best one) recently boasted over 10% of the population was their customer.
Technology improves quality of life, so why shouldnt we utilize it? Isn't that the whole point?
"My name is Bob, and I have been without the compulsion to constantly check my email for a month now."
"Everybody clap for bob!"
It is already happening, but I could quit whenever I want! Honest!
No sig for you, two weeks!
If this is the case, am I addicted to food?
My 3D Texturing Skinning work (under construction)
I think what they're trying to say is that we are addicted to out little electronic gadgets. (Time for me to get off the computer and go back to having a real life) Literally speaking, technology has been around since man learned to craft a spear from sticks and flint.
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
And this is NOTHING to be concerned about. Technology is defined as: " 1. The application of science, especially to industrial or commercial objectives. 2. The scientific method and material used to achieve a commercial or industrial objective. " Ok - FIRE is a technology. So are things as simple as forks, or spoons, or plates. The human race is addicted to technology, for better or for worse. America's only addicted to the most recent advancements more than the rest of the world. There is nothing wrong with this "Addiction" - They say it like it's a bad thing. Without technology, we'd still be running around like apes.
http://www.TheGamerNation.com/Forums
How addicted are you?
I don't have any problems with addiction. In a weird coincidence though, if I'm away from my computer for more than 10 minutes mysterious bugs appear and start crawling under my skin. Weird, huh?
I'm a big tall mofo.
...but is it, really? Yes, we're dependent on our technology, but calling it an "addiction" is merely one perspective. Instead, couldn't we just as easily call it symbiosis? It could be that we're taking the first steps towards becoming cyborgs, or something.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
If we are talking cliniacal definitions of addiction, i.e. falsely convinced that we cannot live without something and willing to orob/maim/kill/destroy our lives, to obtain it then it depends. I think ther we need to specify the technology in question.
If we are talking a general "growing too soft/dependent upon specific tech" then I would say yes, especially with the internet. I know far too many people who feel the need to have a machine up all the time.
But I think we should really go more basic than that; Electricity.
The standards that we are used to in America, and the rest of the industrialized world (stable, widely available power that rarely if ever goes down) is a) uncommon in the rest of the world, and b) an anomoly in human existence. Few of my peers know how to make a fire or even what to do when the power goes down (hint, the electric can opener will no longer work).
The level of panic surrounding the Y2k bug should have made this clear to anyone. Far too many people (some of them policymakers) panicked at the thought of "global power outages" and, as Katrina showed, far too many were left stranded, unprepared, and unaided when a real disaster struck.
In my opinion "addiction" to mp3 players is just icing on the cake.
in general)I know too many others who *have no clue*
We are the Borg... We will assimilate your technology into our own and pay you for it... Resistance is futile.
Sort of silly, but why consider just Americans as being addicted to technology? What about people in Japan or Hong Kong (I know it's a City)? Net cafes in Seoul? Super Hi-NRG Euro Techno?
I suppose America is the land of $150 monthly Cable TV bills-- that probably has alot to do with it?
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
Compared to the insanely cool, science-fiction advanced consumer tech, everything from cell phones to high-speed internet available in Europe, Japan and South Korea, the US is dowdy and backwards. Cingular ain't got squat on DoMoCo, and even a Mielle washer/dryer set is lightyears ahead of the stone-age clunkers Kenmore and Maytag inflict on the American household.
When it comes to technology obsession, the High Street in London and the Akihabara in Tokyo are where it's at.
SoupIsGood Food
Yes. Absolutely. I'm looking at this on my new 21" LCD (yea, buddy!) while I listen to my iPod. I am waiting for a call on my bluetooth-enabled cellphone. I am downloading Knoppix with my laptop. My PocketPC is chirping because my alarm clock is going off. My MythTV box is currently recording the latest offerings from Science Channel. Tomorrow night, I will be setting up my four-old son's new computer in his room (complete with wi-fi, of course).
I could not imagine my life without said items. Seriously. I would think that means the answer, at least in my case, is yes.
bash: rtfm: command not found
We love luxuries. Listening to music wherever you are is a luxury. Being able to use a computer at your favorite cafe is a luxury (laptops). Being able to send pictures to your website from your cell phone MOBLOGGING is "perhaps" a stretch of a luxury, but remains a luxury. Perhaps we should use the term "Luxury 2.0" in jest, since these are the luxuries of the technological world.. Whose got some more!
In Canada, 3Mb/s is $48 per month... cheaper if you go with a smaller provider !
The US is sooo expensive.
This
i have friend whose dad is a tech junkie. All kinds of gadgets high-speed, workstation laptops etc. One day his son (my friend) got fed with it all, and moed to middle of Mojave desert, where he get no electricity, and certainly no television signal. And he has to drive 5 miles just to get to the closest payfone.
But his daughter, who has doesn't even know what a television is, is very wise for her age (i.e. 7 yrs). Here, I make a distinction between knowledge and wisdom. She may not have all the knowledge, but she is certainly wiser then other kids of her age or even some grown ups.
Would you do something like this? Would you make such a daring move for you children's sake?
Consensus is good, but informed dictatorship is better
On one hand, yes I'm addicted -- I can barely go a day without at least briefly connecting to the internet, and I don't even want to know how many hours I've logged playing my little gnome mage on World of Warcraft.
However, for many of us, the dependence is more than just a regular old physical/psychological addiction. My marks at school, for example, depend on my being able to get on a computer and access the internet on a regular basis. Many assignments are made available solely through a class website or WebCT, and in two of my classes this past term, every single assignment had to be handed in via the Unix handin command (or the web-based Windows equivalent). Admittedly, I am a computer science student, but there aren't all that many courses in which computers or other forms of technology are completely absent -- even arts students are expected to write essays, and few professors will accept handwritten submissions these days.
US? Have you been to Japan?
I'm posting this from my mobile, listening to my iPod, while my laptop works on a torrent. 'nuff said.
I'm addicted to fire, electricity, housing, cooked food and sharpened metal tools.
Or maybe sometimes technology improves your life so you use it.
Addiction is when something makes your life worse, but you keep using it because you are irrationally drawn to it.
====
Crudely Drawn Games
Who pays $200 a month for home internet service? I can think of high bills for those who live in remote areas, but satellite is at most $100 a month ($60, if you don't rent the equipment). I know, I checked into getting it before the phone company made DSL available where I live. Even the small business commerical service in my area is less than $100.
Those crazy Japanese typically have at least 100 Mbps up/down connections for usually less than $30USD a month, while we suffer with 6M down/512k up (if you're very lucky that is) for prices at least double that of Japan's. This holds true for where I live (Chicago, near O'Hare even), so don't give that "Japan is highly dense" bullshit.
And all those Korean kids playing Starcraft, some even dying as a result. So I'm going to say, "No, America does not have a technology addiction."
'Yes, firefox is indeed greater than women. Can women block pops up for you? No. Can Firefox show you naked women? Yes.'
Just look at Japanese stuff like QRIO and Asimo.
Hell, even the new reincarnations of the old Aibo are impressive.
"Broadband addiction" (whatever that means) is nothing compared to this.
Soon you'll probably have people stating that in Japan robots are getting addicted to humans beings which they see as some sort of organic gadgets. And I'm not just trying to be fun.
Honestly, I love the internet and computers in general. But I consider it more of a habbit or routine than an addiction. Every morning I check my email while I have some juice. Then I get to work and check it again. At lunch I read the news online and do some more emailing....etc.
Yet, on days when I don't have my usual routine (like weekends) I often don't even touch a computer until sometime in the afternoon. And then it is just because I feel bad thinking someone might be waiting for a reply, or maybe checking the weather or a movie time. Generally though, weekends are technology (as in computers and gadgets) free for the most part. I see enough of them in my work week that I am ready to unplug from the routine on the weekend.
Wow Internet is expensive down south. Up here in Canada its between $20 to $50 for DSL or cable including the modem rental. I read somewhere Canada was claiming the worlds cheapest Internet, was some brochure or something.
That shows how governments need to nationalize the net, provide it to everyone for free. Then they can make do without forms for businesses, taxes etc.
I'm not addicted to cell phones, pdas, mp3 players, TV. I dont have that list (company provided cell phone). I'm a little addicted to the automobile, but I suppose it only replaced the horse. I'm addicted to the Internet... and the computer. But thats just the demographics I fall under, being on slashdot and all.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
By that reasoning, we must also be addicted to taxes, because I know I pay well more than $200/month in income, sales and other taxes. Who do I talk to about giving up taxes?
In other news, Microsoft Windows users are now covered under the Americans with Disabilties Act...
Its not a bad addiction, in fact it is probably the best addiction one can have. Humans depend on its technology and tools to survive, more today than ever before. Having an entire nation obsessed with having the newest and latest is a great way to advance areas of technology more useful for survival; though many advances are purly extravagance they are often the building blocks for greater things, such as hobbiest rocketeer's leading to German rocket weapons to the American and Russia space programs to satellite comm to landing on the moon to (hopefully one day) spreading our selves among the stars (and ofcourse then increasing our survivability against world ending catastrophies like the genesis of highly intelligent creatures.)
Demented But Determined.
But then again this is Wired News + /., so what do you expect?
BTW, from TFA... "The bill for being thoroughly plugged in to entertainment and communications runs more than $200 a month for a third of the households in this country. Four in 10 spend between $100 and $150 a month, according to the poll of 1,006 adults taken Dec. 13-15."
Is it really news now that people buy a lot of gadgets in December? Next thing you know you will see a breaking news article about how sales of fireworks go up in late June/early July or about how sales of candy goes up in late October...
Mathematics is made of 50 percent formulas, 50 percent proofs, and 50 percent imagination.
Japaneses, Koreans, Germans, Englishs, Aussies, French, Polish, Finnish, Swedes, Norwegians, Dutch, Flatlanders, Spaniards, Porteguese, Italians and God knows how many other countries that have dipped into the Internet.
Leave me along and let me go back to my Crackberry.
Sheesh!
Addiction is defined by use despite consequences. So are there consequences for our behavior? I suppose different opinions could exist.
Technology isn't a neutral soma, its use reflects an underlying need for expression, that's the addiction. You don't see people spending a fortune on elaborate heating systems, which are just a utility. Control, pleasure and voyeurism are most likely the expressions strongest beneath the American psyche. It's human nature to extend and embrace all those aspects. Look at the biggest sellers, I'm guessing phones, cameras, sex related, guns... and what do the corporations and Hollywood push at us all the time?
you could turn off the power to the house and unplug the car battery for one day to see how reliant you are to it. I wouldn't necessary be worried about addiction more so too much reliance on it.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
I haven't used the internet in years...
Okay, new poll. Who here pays more than $75/month for their internet connection?
Most of us have cable or DSL. Cable is probably averaging $55-60/month for residential customers, and DSL is probably about $10-15 cheaper on average (my guesses, but based on some knowledge). The highest end plans cost more obviously, and Slashdot probably has a much higher percentage of high-end plans than the normal population. I simply cannot believe that $100-$150 is around 40% of the US population. Maybe these people are still using dialup, and their ISP is out of their area code so they have to pay per minute long distance charges and they took that into account when computing the cost. My T1 to my house only cost just a bit over $200, and that's definitely not a common option for people. Now I have business class cable instead of the T1 and it only costs $150, so what services are these people getting that they pay this much? I really want to know, because maybe there's better/faster options out there that I just don't know about.
Didn't RTFA but I would doubt the statement that so many americans are addicted, but rather their lives are integrated with technology. It's become a way of life. I'm a 22 year old college student. Every single college student I know (and most adults) has a computer, mostly laptops. My internet connection is constant and AIM is always signed on. If I need to get a hold of one of my friends I send him an IM, then check his away message and then call him. I live in NYC and I order my groceries online and they are delivered to my house. I recieve and turn in my school assignments across the web. I have a media center to serve up content throughout my house which is on a network. I bought most of my christmas presents online, pay my bills online, and check my bank online. Anywhere I take my laptop with me I can almost always get some sort of wireless connection, which allows me to access any of my files from home. I have a GPS navigation system in my car to keep me from getting lost and help me in unfamiliar areas. The list goes on and on. But my point is I'm not the only one living my life around technology. I grew up with computers (technology) and it's just a way of life with me and many others. The way techonology has evolved has created a global network and made venues for delivering information instantly. I think everyone has grown accustomed to that instant delivery. I wouldn't call it an addiction but rather a way of life. I can't even imagine what the life for my children is gonna be like (no slashdot jokes!).
They have pills that will take care of that for you. See you doctor.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
There is NO WAY I'm going to actually figure out my monthly budget for electronics. If it weren't for all the junk clipped to my belt, stuck in my ears, clamped to my head, installed in my car, wired into my walls, broadcasting into the air, and sewn into my clothes (not to mention the 500 pounds of normal computer gear on my desk), I could probably retire at 35.
I guess things depends on the way you look at it. What one might call addiction, another might call a way of life.
Most people will obviously have severe cravings for electricity if put in a remote village (without electricity). Does it mean that we are addicted to electricity. I would say not.
I would call a habit an addiction if it has harmful (side) effects (eg. playing quake for 3 full years screwed me in undergrad; I would call that an addiction).
I am addicted to technology. Japan is my dealer, ever pushing more and more sophisticated high-end digital smack on me... I need faster internet... I'm hoping Verizon FIOS will be available soon, so I can download off my premium usenet feed at 15mbps...
I'm not the only one around here, it turns out. On a lark, I went war-walking with my new Ceramic White PSP the other day (It's worth noting that the Japanese models have longer wifi range), and found that here in Downtown Middlebury, VT-- a place I wouldn't really expect this to be the case --all the ground I covered had complete wifi coverage... (Ninety percent of which was totally unsecured...) So even here you can access the internet from just about any spot downtown... Granted, it's not the middle of nowhere like say, Fargo, but for sure, this isn't exactly Tokyo.
Friend: "The NIC is misconfigured..." Me: "No prob, I'll just telnet in and fix it." *Silence*
If I had a choice between all the things my computer can do except for access the internet, and a computer that could just access the internet, I'd choose the latter.
"A third of the country ..." and "... 4 out of 10 ..."
That makes 7.33/10 spending more than $100 per month.
Paying half of a $40 per month cable bill makes me in a small, lucky, majority.
I'm surprised no one starting listing there toys.
Otherwise, "dependent" would have been spelled correctly in the opening text.
That could probably be more accurately stated, "Only 1% of Americans admit to not using a toothbrush daily."
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Can someone mod this entire article as Flamebait? It _is_ slashdot, after all.
Commodore64_love: I don't comprehend people who're so frightened of death that they'll bankrupt themselves to stay alive
I would have to say food is by far Americas biggest addiction. This can be seen by the percentage of our population that is catagorized as obese. How much does the average American household(family of 4) spend on fast food monthly?
How addicted are all tech-literate people around the world?
Asia anyone? How 'bout those crazy folks in Europe?
IMO we're all about the same. The gadget that drives what we want/need/accept as normal, we can't live without.
Once something becomes an ingrained part of life, it stops being something we're considered "addicted" to. But ask anyone from a developing nation whether it seems odd that most everyone here owns at least one vehicle from the age of 16 onward and see if some of them don't describe our use of cars as an "addiction".
At my job we can't do a damn thing without internet access..... so we keep some beer in the fridge for days when the net is just too damn slow to get any work done. If it was an all guy office we'd probably sit around drinking beers and playing some lan games... but as we have a few hot girls in the office it invariably turns into a flirt and bad joke day ;-p not that I'm complaining...
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
Should be +5 Informative. We all know that the Internet is for porn...
'Yes, firefox is indeed greater than women. Can women block pops up for you? No. Can Firefox show you naked women? Yes.'
I have to answer my cell phonce, txt my friend and check my email first.
Oh well, what the hell
An addiction is a reliance that is detrimental to an individual's homeostatic health.
The crap journalism that flashes hot terms to flaunt specious thinking to sell advertising space may be a better description of addiction than the wide, successful adoption of new technology by a large segment of the population.
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
I always wondered what I would do if all this technology were to suddenly disappear. So I ask myself, what would I be doing if I lived in the medieval times?
Monk, cook, 'wizard'... ?
Not me...Addicted, no way! I'm not addicted, I just like it. No really, I'm fine. I'm not addicted. Shut up, I'm OK. I could quit at any time. Just watch! Any time. No really.
I kill harmless processes for sport
How about that whole 'it costs $200 per month to pay for this addiction' crap.
Just buying 1 laptop could account for an entire year. Is buying 1 laptop an addiction nowadays?
Guys it is a slow newsday. This reporter needed his christmas bonus so he put in a small non-article with a nice headline that while at the same time being properly alarmist is also nice and safe not to ruin the giftmas feeling.
It also got iPod in it wich is always good.
Bleh.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I can't walk in a place without hearing someone gab on their cell phone or I walk past and hear someone's iPod blaring. I can't go 3 hours w/out checking my email or I feel disconnected. Now only if I get that Wifi Laptop and Web-enabled cell phone for christmas...
Ethernet (n): Device Used to Catch the Etherbunny
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
addiction? why are we forced to feel guilty if something occupies more than a certain percentage of our time or money (especially if it makes us happy), and why is television allowed to take up so much time?
...
Tell a person who uses a digital camera that they have to use a film camera for a month.
Hah! You thought Mac zealots were bad.
I don't like big words..., does that make me anti-semantic?
The reason people were "left stranded, unprepared, and unaided when a real disaster struck" when Katrina hit was because they were dependant on the government, not technology.
A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over. -Benjamin Franklin
Smell the smoke c. 500,000 B.C.E. Though, one could argue that the body is a machine. It's the Americans, particularly, who would like to believe that they are independent and free of all ties to anything else in the universe - under mum's dress clung firmly to her leg. Step One: We admitted we were powerless.
I bet they would not concur, but hey they are using computers too ;)
I mean, they entertain people and may be used as devices to attract not-so-good-looking members of the opposite (or whatever you prefer) sex.
i use the computer a lot because i use it for a lot of things (movies, music, info, work, etc). just because you use something frequently doesn't mean your addicted. otherwise, you could say i have a serious toilet paper addiction. i can't exactly imagine someone getting the shakes or some other withdrawal issues from not using a computer.
What an odd thing to say, that humans are becoming increasingly dependant on technology. Even if we were to throw away everything electronic, we would still depend on technology to do anything. Everything a human has created to carry out a purpose is technology. The wheel? technology. Pencils? Technology. Even things such as baseballs and shirts are technology. the sharp pointy sticks our ancestors used to kill animals were technology as well. We humans don't have the corner on any market. Our eyes, ears, noses, and tounges are less sensitive than most animals. Our reflexes are pretty slow. Shoot, pound for pound, the common sugar ant has us whipped in weightlifting. Our only strengths are opposable thumbs and our intelligence. So throughout our entire existence we have found the need to put both to work to shape things in new and creative ways in order to carry out the same tasks other animals can do naturally. We couldn't bite our prey to death like the predatory cats, so we created pointy things to do it for us. As our needs have evolved, our technology evolved with it. And as technology evolved, it lessened our workload enough to develop culture. We then created technology to assist us in culture. That's why we have such "unproductive" things as mp3 players and video games. In a way we're addicted to technology of all kinds, just like lions are addicted to their teeth and elephants their trunks. They can't survive without them, and we cant survive without tech.
Right now the Tivo I gave my mother is "broken" because the channel lineup data is missing or wrong (possibly the wrong cable data is being pushed out). We tried changing the dialup number a couple times and have it now set to the 800 number, all to no avail.
But we have become so used to having Tivo record based on the Season Pass feature that it is difficult to go back to using the native remote and the cable box's software. My sister who is visiting for Christmas asked a similar question the Slashdot article poses: How dependant are you on Tivo? My half-joking answer, "As dependent as we are for everything else" which my sister immediately took for as cars and food. I didn't refute her.
Been refreshing all day to get the new Slashdot article you guys! This is my comment. Hi Mom!
Ok now the race begins for the next article.
F5. F5. F5. F5. F5. F5. F5. F5. F5. F5. F5. F5.
Just before reading this article I was apologizing to my friend for taking so long at the store because they had this gadget there that I had to play with, though I didn't actually buy one. It was a flashlight and radio with no batteries, but just a crank you use to charge it up. I thought it was really cute, but obviously my addiction isn't too bad, since I didn't buy it. Or maybe that was because I couldn't hear any good radio stations there?
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Read! Read!
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
it's not an addiction to a particular thing as it is to distraction in general
i've read numerous studies on national happiness (i admit to being well on the periphery of my country's politics and viewpoints and values -- so i'm no where near happy) and the US has yet to rank in so much as the top 10.
what's also amusing is while apparently consumption of Shiny Things(tm) is up so are prescpritions for the attention getting of both adults and children.
no i didn't read the article.
In Canada, 3Mb/s is $48 per month... cheaper if you go with a smaller provider ! The US is sooo expensive.
My fiber-optic Verizon FIOS service gives me 5 M/bps downstream and 2 M/bps upsteam for $34.95 US per month. I'm not sure of the current exchange rate for Canadian to US dollars (assuming you were quoting Canadian dollars) but I'm not sure you're getting a much better deal than I am (if at all).
I'm a big tall mofo.
Even their dogs are robotic!
I so love that phrase because it suggests weakness of some sort. As if governments didn't exist to protect and help the people and anyone who thinks otherwize deserves a rude awakening.
In the case of Katrina the very government agencies that we have formed, funded and trained to care for the sick, the elderly, the disposessed of our society, were placed in the hands of self-centered morons whose only interest was in settling the "shirtsleeves up or down" issue. People who could not leave because they were too sick and didn't own cars were being told to "take some cash and drive away". Even now no reliable plan exists to get them home and Karl Rove is directing the reconstruction efforts.
We form governments to protect us as a whole, because individual humans, however many guns they have, are weak and likely to die. To suggest that people who looked to the government that they supported to help them were "weak" or overly dependent" is in my opinion incorrect. Rather wwe should say that the government failed the people. The government failed in its most essential function. What's worse it did so because people let it fail, perhaps even made it fail not because it should not have succeeded.
Very
As I type this into one of two laptops on my bed while watching a DVD with surround sound.
How about electricity, indoor plumbing, toilets in general. Don't forgent anything to do with farming. Plows, harvesters, trucks to ship food. I would say that if all technology disappeard tomorrow, 99% of the population would die. So, yes we are addicted, as most of the world is.
Sometimes I wake up in the morning and there are all these gadgets laying around me.
I'm addicted to tall gorgeous busty blond women who happen to be supermodels. Someone help me please!!!
Case: email Case: IM Case: online gaming Case: forums Case: surfing Case: RSS Case: interactive purchasing Case: downloading entertainment Case: blogging Case: social infrastructure Go on. Run the sieve. Tell me what's not addictive. We're social and interactive creatures. Ask the question again. What knid of dumbass question is this? Yo: Cowboy Neal--> learn to ask a reasonable question.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Yeah, are bees addicted to honey? Are sheep addicted to wool? Are whales addicted to plankton? Are we addicted to oxygen? Humans no longer evolve significantly genetically, we protect our weak, our sickly still breed, and genetic mutations still get passed on. That is not necessarily a problem. The human form of evolution is through technology. We don't need thick fur to survive the cold, we have clothes. We don't need four legs to move great distances quickly, we have bicycles and cars. We don't need great eyes to see far, we have glasses and telescopes. Computers and other such things enable us to use our minds differently and sometimes more efficiently (this doesn't necessarily mean productively: ie computer games). Various elements of technology are ways of enhancing the human race. This isn't a problem, its media hype.
-Da3vid-
Of course we're addicted to technology - all of us. I'm pretty sure most people would find life without running water, telephones, electricity, central heating, cars and all that pretty cumbersome, for example, and those are all examples of technology.
FWIW, we're not just addicted to technology, either; we're also addicted to food, water, air and sleep, to love, sex and physical contact (between loved ones, at least), to friendship, humour, entertainment, and lots of other things.
All of that may seem pointless, of course, but the reason why I'm saying it is that addictions are not necessarily bad things.
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
Lets see...
;-)
-I have synchronous internet service with cable and dial backup
-I have a pbx
-I have remote internet access
-I always carry my laptop computer
-I host my own email
-I have all IP based phones
-My lights in the house are electronically controlled
What on earth are you talking about addicted.
I think the OP forgot the most obvious of them all: The cellphone.
As a college guy who's parents wont pony up for one w/ the plan (or at all for that matter), I'm acutely aware of how every tom dick and harry (and Jane, Janet and Janice) have one.
You had me at Are.
We in America might be addicted to technology but it's nothing compared to Japan IMO.
Japan has toilets with buttons that sprays water at a temperature adapted to your anal temperature and whatnot, loads of electronics that we won't see for at least months to come and so many cellphones that all look like hello kitty or another japanese known animal.
Japan is by all means a really cool country with electronics more advanced than ours so really, are WE technology-addicted or are the people with electronic toilets?
That is not to say that it's weird. I'd love to own one of those toilets. I'd take a shit every minute to mess around with the buttons.
Ultima Linux, high speed Internet, a 2005 Epson all-in-one printer, a $375 machine built from stuff ordered at TigerDirect.com, a Dell machine I got for $55 on eBay, my 1997 Micron XPE laptop, a 1998-ish Olympus digital camera, and a few other pieces of computing equipment. Just about everything else I own is mostly various other electronics stuff, a lot of it from the 80's and therefore older than me (my TV and VCR both fall into that category). Used to carry around a Palm m125 but after about 2 1/2 years it got a bit worn down, stuff I own tends to get abused.
Damn, I could have sworn I had more than that, it really does look like next to nothing on paper.
Creative misinterpretation is your friend.
You tell me... all I can tell you is that I can't remember how many times I read slashdot today. :-)
Why oh why won't Slashdot let me mod down the whole idiotic article!
Give me a break. Why not just fill the closet with sand and lock the kid up? Call it closet schooling.
You don't have to live in the desert to live wisely. You can turn off your gadgets if they don't do anything useful for you.
Most people like their cell phone because they can pick it up and call anyone in their family anytime they want at little or no cost.
Most people like their internet because they can use it to share information better than any previous communication method short of moving into the same house with all of your letters, photos, music, projects and everything for a good chat. I don't want to begin to remember how crappy to get all my news from TV and printed news papers.
Leaving all of that because one or two people you know are silly about gadgets is counter productive and self defeating.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
It is only an addiction if it causes harm to other aspects of your life. Sine i cna find no chemicals that affect your brain coming from cell phones, the choice to use technology must be voluntary and made with a sound mind. People then are able to reason that they value tech more than the money, and so it shouldn't matter how much they spend, even if you wouldn't spend that much. Everyone likes different things. The whole debate about productivity is pointless. I say tech is more productive becuase it satisfies our wants, better than anything else, otherwise we would be buying those things
I really like technology (surprise :-), but it really amazes me the people who apparently can't get along without it at all. Not just prefer not to do without it, but as in real danger of freezing to death if the power is out for an extended time.
Technology is actually useful!? Americans should be ashamed of themselves for taking advantage of such great convenience!
My vetenarian was complaining today that she used to have a system which used Ricochet, a dumb terminal in her truck, and a Xenix server in her office to access horse medical records remotely. This provided a 38Kb/s connection. Since Ricochet went out of business, that's no longer possible. Data over cellular is less available, slower, harder to set up, and more expensive. Yes, you can set up a VPN, and "web enable" the server, but it's more trouble than it is worth.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to play my DS, defrag 6 hard drives, burn 10 DVDs, sync my PDA, re-setup my surround sound system, and put a computer in the bathroom so I don't have to stop using the internet because of stupid bodily functions.
in fact, Americans are addicted to money.
(It's no flamebait, just a fact - it's Ze capitalist country after all.)
This summer, I went to Mexico to visit some relatives for two weeks. I could have brought my laptop, but I decided not to, just to see what two weeks without my computer and an internet connection would be like. It turned out to be a fun two weeks, and I didn't miss my computer that much.
The day I got back home, I arrived from the airport at around 1:00 AM and I was pretty tired because I hadn't been able to fall asleep on the plane. I preceeded to spend the next six hours catching up on everything that I had missed.
+ 10 Fascinating.
/. underground.
Dude.
Ah the joys of the AC
Anyone read "The Time Machine" and remember the Eloi, the surface dwelling
...
flower children that used the technology that was left them, but after
generations forgot how it worked. Do you happen to recall that they were
food for the cannibalistic Morlocks? This is what happens with dependency.
Think back though history and does anyone know when there was ever a group
of people dependent on something, that another group did not find out about
and take advantage of? Opium/China, Oil/USA, Grain/Russis, Cocaine/USA,
Cheap Labor/USA, CheapGadgets/USA
Lucky we have lots and lots of money in the back isn't it? Huh??????
Is this the same Wired AND Slashdot that will periodically bemoan the lack of broadband in rural America, that will cry and moan and complain about how S. Korea and other nations are outpacing the US in their depth of broadband usage. I call Shenanigans, and pot calling the kettle black on this one. Check the mirror /., then tell me that I'm the addict.
...to technology, in the same way that I am addicted to my throat and ears.
For example, self-checkout lanes.
It seems particularly incongruous at the high-end "would you like to sample the brie with the Slovenian raspberry compote today, Sir" grocery we frequent that is just converting over to the d*mn things. Not only does it seem advantageous to help the poor folks keep their jobs at the till (not everybody's going to retrain to be a rocket scientist), what is the appeal of slogging your own stuff past the scanner when there is someone there to do it for you? Yet, self-service is very popular and they've phased in about 1/3 of the traffic in a month. I don't get the attraction of being your own checkout clerk.
In retrospect, it seems like there was less excuse and more wisdom to the Afrikaaner woman who told me in the '80s, "Sure we could get a washing machine and a dryer and a power mower, etc. etc. -- but hiring a servant provides a job."
It's not that we're addicted. We're natural augmenters. You might as well say that people are addicted to their pencils/pens, their cars, their oven, whatever. Create a technology that helps us do something we want (*NOT* need, it's all about want) to do better/faster/in a more interesting way, and we'll use it.
...but the article makes it sounds as if it is a bad thing. Without tech, we would be reduced to killing each other for wealth, power, resources, women, etc. Now that we do have it... oh.. heh... la dee daa...
Hello, My name is Andrew, and I'm addicted to Technology.
I can quit anytime I want to, I just don't want to right now, that's all!
MoM++ - A Classic Expanded - [Master of Magic 1.5]
http://mompp.sourceforge.net/
sadly, I must agree. Though getting a decent group can be a real pain.
Forest tribes are addicted to technology just like americans. They cannot live without bows, arrows, and fire tools.
There you are, staring at me again.
I am typing this comment from my toilet on my laptop... oh and I'm American
You really forgot Japan this time! American's suck at technology in most cases. Half og you don't know how to program your VCR. The other half never knew anything about SMS either. The people who are really 'into' technology knowledge are the Finnish/Swedes/Dutch. The people who have successfully ingrained technology into their lifestyle are the Japanese.
Get your head outta your ass, there is more to the world than the US and by no means are you the ideal standard.
Where's my free iPod!? Until then, I'll settle for a kiss...
I honestly never fell in with the "kill your television" crowd.
You know what helps kids develop? Attention. Help kids find an interested in investigating the world around them.
But you don't have to kill your TV (or anything else) to do it. Just find the right time for them. If it takes killing the TV, then do it, but honestly it just seems like the only reason to have to do so is as a replacement for self-control. And electricity doesn't cancel out attention either.
As to his daughter being wise, I'm sorry, it's impossible to actually be wise at 7. Heck, I might even agree if you said it was impossible to be wise at age 18 (thus bolstering your argument that she could be as wise as some "adults"). Note that kids at that age just basically want to please their parents. And they're smart enough to know what their parents want. It's pretty easy to mistake doing what will make their parents happy for actual consideration of consequences.
If I thought doing something would help my kids development, I'd strongly consider it. Of course the net effect has to be considered. If I'd lose my ability to earn money and thus support them, then no, I wouldn't do it. This might preclude moving to the Mojave Desert in my case.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
This question is so stupid that if you unscrewed your cranial cap, removed your brain, stuck it in a jar slopping-full of liquid LSD, marinaded it for a year, then baked it in a rotisserie at 450 for hours until it shriveled up to the size of a pea, then rectally inserted it until your tonsils tickled, you *still* would not be anywhere near the collasal stupidity required to generate such a question.
Haven't you seen the buzz around the Microsoft-Mozilla collaboration over the RSS icon? It's gonna revolutionize our lives!!! Yes, the americans are addicted, and rightly so!
Any crazy fool paying $200/month for internet access - must be a rich farmer with all the gov subsidies.
In soviet russia, gadgets are turned on by you!
Klatu Brata Nicto
I recall being able to buy food and cigarettes with a cell phone years ago, nearly six years ago actually. Definitely a much greater dependence upon technology when nearly 60% (hxxp://www.businessweek.com/1999/99_18/b3627033.h tm) of the population carries a cell phone back in 1999.
a slut did tulsa
...How addicted are you?
Well, I have a subscription to Slashdot and a under 200K number.
This speaks volumes.
Plus, if my DSL craps out. I don't know if I could handle going through a modem again.
i find it strange that i have absolutely nothing to do when my internet goes down....
"Times have not become more violent, they have just become more televised." - Marilyn Manson
The whole world has been addicted to technology as soon as agriculture was invented and the human population exceeded the number that could be sustained by hunting and gathering alone.
...but is it art?
... I think americans don't even know how to spell "nerd" correctly.
;)
It's called Otaku, anyway.
Wonderful Charles Dickensian prose here, and just in time for a production of "A Christmas Carol". But hold on -- are things actually as he describes?
Or did he forget some quite old technologies of yesteryear that invalidate everything he said?
At the company where I work, we ship bridge segments. Our shipping/billing tickets are 5-copy carbon copy forms. Our database records *are* computerized on Microsoft Access, but that's just for one person because nobody can modify the system. The rest of us keep track using a pencil and paper spreadsheet, and it's no big deal.
Our purchase orders are 3-copy carbon copy forms. (Whoops... for those of you not in the know, "carbon copy" refers to a paper that has a thick layer of carbon-heavy ink on the back. When you write on the top copy, carbon paper echos the writing down to lower levels.)
Our information is stored on pegboards on the walls. We don't have hundreds of typists -- in fact, I'm the only typist. Before that, we simply wrote things by hand.
Oh... and we're a Fortune 500 company.
Yes, our drafting department does use computers nowadays. But I've been through drafting myself, and the computer doesn't save more than about 40% of the jobs. For a company like ours, that means that it causes a workforce reduction of about 1%. No big deal.
Indeed, for every work hour saved by not needing a personal secretary, several hours of more expensive time are wasted by executives having to respond to emails, phone calls, and faxes every 3 minutes. Technology allows such inflated-importance immediacy, which is extremely damaging to productivity.
I, for one, have to say that the technology has *not* greatly helped.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
On a recent trip to the UK, I managed to sit on a switch in my Palm for the entire 8 hour flight, totally draining it past the reserve. And of course my US spec CDMA phone doesn't work over there. So I was virtually without technology for 3 weeks. I had to revert to my other addiction. You know, the kind the Brits serve at slightly warmer temperatures, in not so frosty pint glasses, imported from Dublin.
OK, I'll confess, the iPod and RoadTrip still worked, but that was strictly medicinal: to save my sanity from BBC 1-4. And the laptop is so passee that it doesn't really count as technology. Especially when the only high speed Internet is in the bar (see pints above).
If one defines addiction as not being able to live without something then the military is definitely addicted to technology. A friend of mine during his military service took part in a joint training involving various of armies from NATO states. He always said the easiest thing to do was to secretly snitch the American's GPS devices. They were totally lost without them. Just his 2 cents.
from the to-stupid-for-words dept.
is often considered as a typical sign of it.
According to wikipedia , addiction is a compulsion to repeat a behavior regardless of its consequences.
I know a bunch of people who are trully addicted to e-mail. They feel the need to check it during the whole day. They 'll use it as their sole way to communicate with other people. They 'll even send mails to the guy/girl sitting next to him/her rather than talk to them.
And as a result they loose their ability to normaly communicate and socially interract with people. They'll feel lost and cut off from the world when they don't have access to their email. I would say this is typical compulsary behavior regardless of its consequences. However while many people start
falling in that catagory, few are going to admit it.
red.
'Jennifer Strother, a mother of two young children who lives in Smithfield, Virginia.'
"I'm hungry for adult conversation."
Can we have an email address?
How addicted are we? How addicted are you? I cannot believe you just asked /. that question.
What a luddite thought....technology addiction. Mankind has been a technological species since it's beginnings. It's one of our key evolutionary advantages. The ability to make, use, and most importantly...improve tools. We cannot be addicted to something which we, by definition, have always depended on. Are we addicted to air, water, and food now (yes, I know there are incredibly stupid people who will claim that there is an addiction to food...ignore the morons)?
Every year since 2000, I have broken my addiction cycle somewhat during the summer, 2004-2005 have been the worst. I go up to a campground every summer and spend the summer. In 2004 a management change forced us to change plans and 2005 I had more gadgets (and time to play video games). The reason I say broken somewhat, is I change from computers and Internet to Video games. This year was the worst. I had my personal laptop, I did not use it everyday (don't ask me to do the same with my desktop at home). I also had my MP3 and digital camera, but I did not use these too frequently. I did however put some decent hours into my friend's PS2, but I was spending time with him, but he put decent hours on his iPod too. I am a techo geek, I can't totally stop using high-tech stuff, but I can shift to what my environment allows. Here is an example of the two environments I have. Home: -Full AC Power -Full Phone service (landline and cellular) -Internet (DSL as of November 2005) -Full power Desktop PC (crap to most of you, I will won't list specs as it will be off topic) -Cable TV -Sewer Connected Toilet System Campground: -Limited AC Power (30 AMP 120VAC for everything 3.6 KW MAX) -Poor Phone Service (Pay Phone, POOR Digital Cell Service) -WAP on Cell Use/another computer with Cable -PIII laptop -OTA TV (analog) -Toilet with holding tank / Full service (shower included) public Restroom -(2005) Friend living in full time (except for time at dad's) -(1999-Present) NES, Sega Genesis -(1998-2001) Game Boy -(2001) Game Boy Color -(2002-Present) Game Boy Advance -(2003-Present) N64, NEC Turbo Grafix -(2004-Present) SNES
sudo mod me up
If an addiction is so only because it disrupts a person's ability to live their life (whatever that is supposed to mean), then the problem disappears when a different kind of life is chosen. Perhaps there is a certain kind of life in which drinking every day is the proper thing to do. The question then becomes whether onlookers give a damn. If they don't, then it's not an addiction. Of course, psychologists, those bystanders to life, always take the time to give a damn, because they like to "help people", which is to say they like to impose upon people the expectations of normality which their profession --and maybe God and Country-- impart upon them.
_khl
That should about say it all for me.
As for huge houses that cost a fortune....maybe we can afford them.
No is it just our banks give out too much money since they expect to make a killing from intrest from mortgages?
I drive my car to and from work every day. I couldn't live without it here in Dallas where everything is spread out so far. Oh, and I use the telephone to conduct business.
What kind of news is this? OMG, people are using more tools to perform daily functions. Oh noes!!!
Farmers have been using plows forever, does it mean they are addicted to technology? If so, who cares?
I work at a HSI support center, we currently have over 60 people on hold waiting for us. Apparently these people have no friends or family to spend the holiday season with.
from the article:
Some people freely admit to being high-tech junkies.
"The internet connection is my lifeline," said Jennifer Strother, a mother of two young children who lives in Smithfield, Virginia. "It's the connection to friends, e-mail -- especially for stay-at-home moms. I'm hungry for adult conversation and any news that isn't Dora the Explorer or Blue's Clues."
How is this an admission to being a hi tech junkie? The very reason for her use of the internet is not tech, but communication. As with most of the article the authors attempt to classify us as "junkies" fails. He or she fails to see that for the most part, tech purchases are so that we may consume media such as TV or Music or communicate with others. This is not an hi tech additiction as the author would have us believe, because the technology itself is not the motivator for purchase.
And if your friend had his maps stolen by an African tribesman, could he successfully navigate by the stars?
It's all relative.
That being said, the reason so damn much high tech crap goes to the military is because "national security" is a great word to get ahold of federal money to siphon off to companies (defense contractors, construction types, etc) in your state.
Consider the F-22 Raptor. The F-22 has a unit cost of somewhere above $150 million. Now, I recognize that technology is great and all, but you have to wonder whether the F-22 could really maintain the 10:1 kill ratio against an F-16 or something that costs in the $15 million range. Yes, it's got doohickies and all that, but who are you planning to fight with this thing? Who do you need to out-technology? Tribesmen in Africa? Rebels in Iraq? Hell, at some point your simple crashes-due-to-accident becomes significant.
I think that every time I read about recent US military operations (Iraq, Somalia), there are problems with the sheer number of incompatible communication networks (everyone wants to develop their own network -- lots of $$$).
Any program relying on (nontrivial) preemptive multithreading will be buggy.
Are "we" addicted to technology??? Duuh! Technology starting with perhaps fire constitutes a metaphorical ramp up which we have been grinding slowly, with much sweat and blood for eons. There really are no guardrails on this ramp, and at this point in time the elevation of the ramp above "a normal elevation for the species" is more than adequate to ensure a terminal velocity should one fall off the sucker. I as an expert in such things recommend an immediate crash course. Try just for 1 day, eating out of a dumpster... Not up to that? Well, sleep on the back porch, don't stint yourself, use that big fluffy acrylic comforter. Maybe better would be to just give the matter a little thought. This bird flu thing might just reward a few momments of reflection in spades
"Are we selling our first-born children in order to satisfy our lust for new gadgets? Hardly. Is this fixation with technology making it difficult for us to live our lives? No. (In fact the technology sometimes makes our lives easier--hence it is a (partially) pragmatic desire.)"
I think, to some extent we as a society ARE selling our children to pay for this expensive technology. To spend $100-$200 per month on cable TV, cell phones, broadband internet, etc. when most of us don't save enough (or at all) for retirement, is shortsighted and irresponsible. Who's going to take care of the baby-boomers when they retire? Tax dollars, paid for by our children, that's who.
So many married couples feel they can't afford a stay-at-home parent to raise their small children, and our children are suffering for it. Maybe they could afford to stay at home if they were willing to do without a little more. Families hardly share a mealtime together anymore, and how many times is it just a meal thrown into a toxin-producing, nutrition-depleting microwave, interrupted by conversations on the cancer-causing cellphone, and watched in front of the brainless, cultural wasteland of TV?
There's a lot of "keeping up with the Jones's" in our society, and most of what we're paying for just serves to make us that much more stressed and unavailable to ourselves and the people who really matter in our lives. How much happier are we now, really?
Seriously? How can you be addicted to a tool? Tools are created and become a part of how we operate. That's how we evolve people. It isn't addiction.
Also, to be clear, "dependency" is not "addiction". An addiction only exists if the thing interferes with normal life and causes distress to the individual or those around her.
www.blueapples.org
I guess using a spellchecker is too much to ask though.
Only dweebs that think only in terms of "consumer electronics" and some model of sin if we aren't using manual typewriters would miss the fact that internet, cell phones, home computers, etc. help us do what we do a lot more productively and with a lot more information and convenience. The face of media is changing as increasingly all of us browse and share information and opinions. The entire face of business has changed. Large sections of how we socialize and with whom have changed to include a much larger circle. Are we "addicted" to more abundant and productive living? You bet! And as long as there is an ounce of gumption and worth in us we will continue to be. It is a good thing.
No cell/mobile no pda no tv/vcr/dvd no car 2 bicycles 2 laptops 2 servers 1 land line
Sig Hansen?