![]() We had arrived in the era of technology, and spent hours turning the knobs and watching the bright ball move back and forth across the screen. It was a futuristic mind-boggling game with the glam name of Pong. I remember the year our family made a Jetsons-type leap into the future, when Dad brought home a console game that hooked to the TV no less. Yes, and we walked uphill to school both ways. There were no mobile phones, either - back then, if someone said "cellphone," I'd have thought, "They give prisoners phones?" The only texting was in books, and wireless meant you had no power. There were no dishes, except in the kitchen, and a show that featured Maine country singers was a big hit. I remember us having maybe four channels, tops, on our TV at one point, with at least one from neighbouring Maine. How did this happen to me? It started innocently enough. My addiction appears less serious and is a plain old capitalist-induced one, on the level of people addicted to free Apple apps or new cars or yellow flowers. If one looks, there are many sites that detail serious addictions to video games and to the internet itself, with stories of families being torn apart and people losing just about everything. They say to go 24 hours without touching a keyboard. They say to apologize to those who have been hurt by your addiction. I thought of something I had read in an article on IT World's website, where the writer talked about ways to wean yourself off tech addiction, with a 12-step program. And then I manage to get past it, but I'm still thinking about all those things I don't need. So I'm driving past a Future Shop and wracking my brain about what I could possibly need in there before I pass it. You look forward to the shock therapy." 'My addiction appears less serious and is a plain old capitalist-induced one, on the level of people addicted to free Apple apps or new cars or yellow flowers.'-Brian Kemp Family members are planning to stage an intervention and check you into a clinic. You've considered constructing a biotech bathtub for your body to lie in, so you can plug your consciousness permanently into the internet. The crackhead description goes like this: "You get all shaky when you think about technology, always searching for your next fix. I took the possibly tongue-in-cheek quiz and found myself answering yes to as many as 49 of the questions - which led the quiz to classify me as a "crackhead." The questions range from, "Does your internet usage cut into the time you should be spending on personal hygiene?" and "Do you call people by their screen names when you see them in real life?" There is a quiz on, for example, that asks the relevant question: "Are you addicted to technology?" The site has 50 questions that you answer yes or no, and you receive a score at the end. There are many of us, it seems, and we are being mocked (a sure sign that tech product addiction is an issue). So where do I turn for help and are there others out there like me? I think I know when a product is given a small upgrade and it's sold as the biggest thing ever. How could this happen to me? Are the advertisers working their college-learned marketing black magic on me? I'm not naïve, I believe. It's not an addiction, but a religion for me. If I could, I would not hesitate to walk up to a tech store manager and say, "I want one of everything in your store. I want that wireless router, that wireless camera, that Apple laptop, that mini-projector, that 3D widescreen TV with three or more HDMI outlets so I can hook up my Wii, my computer, my Xbox. I want to fall to my knees not with fear and loathing, but with desire and consumerism. It's like Vegas, but bigger and brighter, with the gleaming boxes and products dancing a wild, peyote-inspired, roulette-wheel-circle before my wide, wanting eyes. ![]() It's sad, really - I take one step into a store full of the latest gadgetry and I start drooling. ![]() Little did I know that decades later that same song would apply to tech items, big and small, cheap and expensive - and beautiful. I do want them all. I heard that Queen anthem earlier in my life, and when I sang along I envisioned myself king of the world or owner of a heavily guarded private island where only beautiful people lived. Brian Kemp, who is a copy editor at CBCNews.ca, with a small sample of the tech items that make him happy.
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