My 40 Hour iFamine

I can’t believe that in 1993  the only forms of entertainment at my fingertips were a TV with 5 channels and a Super Nintendo with a handful of games. How on earth did I pass the time with so few electronic devices? Fast forward to this evening and in my room before me sits the following. A TV that has a computer, an Xbox and  a PS3 connected to it. Pumping out the audio is my 5.1 surround. Sitting in my closest, alongside my sexuality, is a Nintendo Wii, a remote control helicopter and my remote control car that drives on any surface, regardless of orientation. If I feel the need to leave my bed, to perhaps wander to the toilet to perform a bowel or bladder extraction, I can take either my laptop (in the case of bowel extraction) or my phone (in either case) with me so I don’t lose touch with my digital world. Add to the fold my recent wireless dongle purchase, and I can just about get internet access anywhere, anytime. Not that I need it.

And yet for some reason I want it. I want it so bad that I feel detached from the world when my internet is unavailable. And the irony there is my internet isn’t unavailable, it’s just a little slower since my ADSL is unavailable (but my 3g is) and yet I still feel the same pain as though it weren’t there at all. What do you mean I have to wait 13 seconds for Autosport to load! Even the homeless have access to faster internet than that thanks to McDonalds! Granted they might lack the hardware required to access said free internet, but at least they have the opportunity! I too could take advantage of that same opportunity but alas I don’t want to sit in McDonalds and have some homeless guy ask me if he can check if anyone was kind enough to transfer some funds to his PayPal account this week.

At this point, I discovered my addiction. The first step towards recovery is admitting that you have a problem. Well sir, I have a problem. I am addicted to electronic devices, the internet and social networking. The next steps go on to say how God can save us and so forth. I might be an addict, but I’m not a complete loony. God has nothing to do with my addiction, unless you subscribe to the theory that Mark Zuckerberg is God. Then God has everything to do with my addiction, and in case you haven’t worked it out yet Mark is the CEO of Facebook.

Of course to blame all my problems on Facebook would be a little short sighted. I mean some of the blame has to lie with Google and Twitter as well. And don’t forget Apple. Before I go any further, I guess a by product of addiction is deflection. Nah man, I’m not addicted, I can give up any time. It’s just that it’s always there in front of me. Man.

So it’s time to put my fingers where my mouth is and do a 40 hour iFamine. Sure, it’s not exactly going cold turkey, but it is a start towards controlling my addiction and getting back out in to the real world. So this weekend I am going to switch off my phone and my computer… actually, maybe I’ll do it next weekend.