Are You Addicted to Cell Phones? Social Media?

I used to have both a Blackberry and a pager, I thought I was a big shot!

EDITORS NOTES: Remember the good old days? This will spark your memories.

Have you ever become so attached to something you think you couldn’t live without it? For me it was – and still is – my vinyl copy of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. I thought I could never be separated from my 71 baby blue Super Beetle. Of course over time I did lose my attachment for these items.

But this is how a drug addict thinks. They get hooked on cocaine or heroine or on opioids such as those poor souls who are part of America’s opioid epidemic. Well, this is the same feeling people get when it comes to technology.

People are so attached to technology they really cant believe they can live without it. This was true for the radio and television and the automobile. This is also true with social media, people just can’t wait to get a like or a follow. When they do get a like or a follow or a comment on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram or any of the social media platforms they get a rush of dopamine. They feel so good; this is true with mobile devices, especially cell phones.

When it came to cell phones, I did the unthinkable. I lived the last six months in a way that’s become, well, unimaginable. What I did was unheard of to at least 90% of the western world. What did I do? I did the impossible.

UNTHINKABLE!!!

UNIMAGINABLE!!!

UNHEARD OF!!!

IMPOSSIBLE!!!

What could I have done? These are strong words. What I did was akin to what those who are tired of addiction does: they go cold turkey.

I went the last six months with no cell phone! That’s right, I had no cell phone. No smart phone. No dumb phone. No iPhone. No Android. Not even my beloved Blackberry.

Believe me this wasn’t something I wanted to do. It wasn’t planned. It just happened. It was unplanned.

What happened was I dropped my cell phone. I was handing my wife my spotless Samsung Galaxy S-10 cell phone and either I let go too early or she closed her hand too early. It doesn’t matter…