Article by Judith de la Fuente. 2avm A

ARE YOU A TECHNOLOGY ADDICT?

Have you ever found yourself checking your email after coming back home at 3 in the morning? Do you usually carry your cellphone while putting out the rubbish? When you wake up do you first switch on any electronic device, from a T.V. to a mobile phone, before doing anything else? If you can identify yourself with any of those situations, I strongly recommend you to continue reading.

Nowadays thousands of people are affected by this addiction and they are not even aware of it. We are getting so dependent on technology that living without it is getting really hard. From a simple mobile phone to a huge plasma T.V. screen all the way up to music players or game consoles. Furthermore, it is unthinkable to go on a holiday without a GPS and the laptop. A technology addiction is very difficult to diagnose. The underlying causes of feeling the urge to make use of a computer, a mobile phone or an mp3 player is the current society. What I mean is that most of the present ways of communication are mainly technological. And here it comes one of the reasons that makes it more difficult to identify an addict at first sight, and therefore help them to get over their addiction. Not only is technology addictive but also it is needed and it is sometimes essential. For example, if a computer engineer is caught by the attraction of technology, it is going to be really hard for him to keep working as a computer engineer and get over the addiction at the same time.

So what can I suggest to a potential technology addict? All they have to achieve is to get as far as they can from the root of their specific addiction. Take a potential mobile phone addict as an example. Thay should leave their mobile phone at home whenever it is not really necessary. Or if their problem is the Internet, they should just keep one email account and cancel the rest of subscriptions they had in order that they spend less time in front of the computer.