Are we addicted to technology?

GIDE continued..

We are currently researching into Domestechtopia, and through this, technology addiction. Technology is becoming a more and more prominent part of our everyday lives, and many people will admit that they cannot live without it. Our generation has grown up with technology as part of life, and with more new technologies being discovered all the time, it is hard not to become caught up in it. But has it gone too far? Technology addiction is now being known as a real medical condition, especially in teenagers and young people, and therapy for this addiction is becoming more common. The Capio Nightingale Hospital in London was the first hospital to create a clinic to deal with the addiction of technology in young people. It admits mainly 15-7 year olds, but even children as young as 12 have been accepted. The clinic provides therapy for young people struggling with a continued addiction to technology. Patients are made to go 'cold turkey' from all technology, often causing symptoms typical of addiction, such as restlessness and stress. Individual and group sessions are in place to encourage them to interact with others and to address social issues that people with this addiction often face, like difficulties in social situations with other people.

We carried out a couple of surveys to see how addicted people around the art school were to technology, and what items they could not live without. The questionnaire results were interesting, with some people appearing very addicted to technology, and others not so much. Some students admitted to spending more time on social networking sites than with real people, and checked their emails "far too much", on excess of five times a day. Some pointed out that with the technology of smartphones, their emails get sent directly to their phone so are as available as a text message. Others said they could live without technology, although they wouldn't necessarily want to, and that their idea of utopia would not centre around technology. Some said they spent nothing on technology each month, whereas some said they spent on average of £50 - a lot of money for a student!!

We asked people to write down a piece of technology they could not live without, and the most popular results were laptops, hair straighteners, internet, iPod (or other music devices), and mobile phones - with iPhones appearing to be the most commonly mentioned, but there were many items of technology mentioned:

Whether iPhones seemed to be mentioned most could be for more than one reason: are they the most common type of mobile phone used these days, or are they simply more addictive than others, and people feel they cannot live without them due to the fact that they are useful for more than one thing - they have an integrated iPod, camera, text, phone, email account, internet, and thousands of apps to choose from.

The most visited sites seem to be Facebook and design sites (although the people who filled out the questionnaire were mainly design students), which poses another question - is the internet addictive, or are social networking sites?