addicted to technology?

Does this look familiar?

It’s funny, no doubt, but I bet some of us can relate a little too much to Fred’s panic while in the “loop”.  I know I can.

Yesterday I got my very first iPhone. I have not been able to turn it off. I mean, I know HOW to turn it off…I just don’t want to.  It will take me days to figure out everything this phone can do, possibly weeks.  I’m sure my 9-year-old could figure it all out in about 30 minutes, but hey…I’m slightly older than him and my brain doesn’t function the way it did before I had kids. Nevermind the fact that I went to college in the 80’s at a music school…

So now I have two computers at home, one at the office, an mp3 player, a Kindle, a work cell phone, a GPS, a digital camera, my old cell phone, and now my new iPhone. I use ALL of them on a regular basis, too.  It is rare that anyone sees me without some electronic gadget in my hot little hands. Much like dear Fred, I can’t put them down once I start using them.  And, like Fred, when I am at home on my laptop, I’m usually multitasking.  I email, while I have a chat box open, while I’m listening to music, and sometimes surfing the web, Tweeting, Facebooking–it’s a wonder my laptop doesn’t just shut itself down in a rebellious fit.  I wonder what all of this techno-multitasking is doing to my brain. Is it making it stronger, because I’m focusing on more than one thing at a time? Or is it weakening it, because let’s face it, am I really that focused on any one thing if I’m doing that many things at once? Is it shortening my attention span?

I even multitask on the bus, during my two-hour commute to work.  I usually have my ear buds in, listening to music, while reading my Kindle…with the occasional email response or Tweet. What I should really be doing on the bus is trying to nap, and make up for some of the sleep I’m missing out on because I have to get up at 4:30am.

Sadly, I know I’m not the only one like this. I happen to know for a fact that several of my friends are the same way. I know because they are the people I’m emailing, tweeting, FaceBooking and texting when I’m on the bus.  I just hope it’s not shortening our attention sp…