Very few people sympathize with or offer to help someone experiencing an alcohol hangover.  For the most part that situation is viewed (erroneously) as harmless and victimless.  While the person with the hangover generally suffers alone, it does affect those around him, and especially those close to him (unless he is indeed alone).

I have observed first-hand and listened to reports of the effects of the internet and computer gaming, and I have concluded that this all-encompassing technology is not harmless, and it is not victimless.  I see the loss of sleep, the inability to get up and go to work, the impaired judgment, the handicapped communication about anything non-tech, the challenge to show affection, difficulty in dealing with the most important things, the cost to close family members in money and relationships, the postponement and sacrifice of dreams and projects, the reduced physical activity, the reduced health and fitness, the reduced quality of life, and the reduced length of life.

If that sounds too serious and alarmist, it is really only scratching the surface of a very serious problem that more and more people are experiencing and not dealing with.  Anyone with a clear head on their shoulders in the midst of this stormy sea of silicon brain implants, must observe and think and reach out to help others who are drowning.  It is not easy.  It is essential.

“Whatever we expose ourselves to, affects us; and it affects us to the degree of exposure.  There is no such thing as ‘I can handle it—it won’t affect me.'”

I emphasized that, to my children as much as I could while they were growing up.  And I told two of my sons to get rid of their computer games before they ask a woman to marry them.  When you are young, you may think you can handle anything, and so you try stuff—with your body, with your mind, with your soul and spirit.  Some survive all and move on to productivity and family, some don’t.  Some crash, some die, some get addicted—to porn, to drugs, to sex, to gaming, to the “harmless” internet.

Time spent on anything unwholesome or unproductive leads to more time spent and more time stolen and more energy borrowed from a fulfilled life that could be lived (just like credit card debt, and worse).

Everyone knows what an alcohol hangover looks like, along with its cost in productivity and relationships.  The high-tech hangover robs just the same.  Again (comparing the two addictions), the loss of sleep, the loss of clear thinking, the loss of work, the loss of meaningful communication with other people, all become glaringly evident to anyone who cares to observe.

The problem with technology addiction is that we are all involved using the gadgets, and we all appreciate a little entertainment, so it is somewhat self-incriminating if we say anything when we notice someone with this problem.  It should be the other way around—when we see a potential problem in our own life, we should be more ready and willing to help someone else with a serious problem.

I wish I could write this with fewer words.  Alcohol addiction can be addressed by abstaining from all alcohol, and many find new life in doing so.  Food addiction is harder to deal with because we all have to continue eating something.  Internet addiction is very hard to face because it is in our face 24/7, and “who can live without it?”

Don’t let life happen to you—LIVE.

Don’t let technology run your life—MASTER IT.

Don’t lose someone you care about—INITIATE DOING ACTIVE STUFF TOGETHER OUTSIDE TECHNOLOGY.