Our "Legitimate" Addiction

Addiction: what does this word conjure to you? I think of the following:

• alcohol (our officially sanctioned "legal" drug)
• the long list of "illegal" drugs (heroin probably the most nefarious, pot the most benign)
• food (how many of us rely on food to address an emotional vacuum?)
• gambling (one of the most insidious addictions)
  
• cigarettes (I can vouch for this one; I've struggled with nicotine addiction since my early teens)
  
• porn (there's a reason why crime went down in the 1990s; porn exploded on the Web! people were too busy with porn to commit crimes)
• sex (the most basic human urge which can literally become an all-consuming addiction)

All of these addictions can have profoundly negative consequences, and to a large degree are socially reviled. But I think there's another type of addiction that's infiltrated our society, and that is addiction to media. What do I mean by "media"? I mean:

• your iPod
• your cell phone
• your 64" plasma (and its accompanying TiVo and 500 channels)
  
• your laptop (and its accompanying WiFi)

All of these media machines are perfectly socially acceptable. In fact, I would argue that two of them (the cell phone and the iPod) have practically become ubiquitous extensions of our physical selves. This "media" addiction is hardly socially reviled. In fact, we would be perceived as strange if we didn't have a cell phone, right? "Get with it!"

Now, the cell phone is a somewhat different form of media than the others listed above, because you are using it to communicate with another person; there is interaction, instead of passive consumption. But this other person is only "virtually" there. When we are speaking on a cell phone, it can alienate us from people who are physically with us. The same could be said for a laptop; there are opportunities for interaction (email, chat), but again, these are "virtual" interactions in cyberspace. What implications does this have for how we interact with other people in the physical world?

My concern with media addiction is that it contributes to our modern-day sense of alienation. How can we engage with someone with ear buds? How can we talk to someone who's blathering into his blue tooth ear piece? We can't just sit in a coffee shop anymore; we have to stare into our laptop screen, surfing blogs. And we certainly can't sit at home without the TV on!

Not only does it serve to alienate, but I think media addiction also robs us of opportunities for serious contemplation, introspection and solitude. The media bombards us constantly. (I was at the Rose Garden in a suite the other day, and there's a TV in the bathroom. Why do I need a TV in the bathroom?!)

In this day of constant media exposure and engagement, it requires us to purposefully and mindfully resist media so that we can open ourselves to the real potential for engaging with meaningful things, such as, other human beings!

A larger question is, what's feeding our addictions, be it "traditional" addictions of drugs and alcohol, or "new" addictions, such as media? I think all of these addictions are an attempt to anesthetize ourselves. Addictions are an attempt to escape the daily and compounding emotional pain that we all experience, to one degree or another. An addiction is something that makes us feel good and relieves pain, however temporary the good feeling and pain relief may be. The continued pursuit of addictions is because we're striving to recapture that good feeling and pain relief.