Escape from the vortex

Now, there is nothing wrong with any of these activities. It is the excessiveness that can be worrisome. It doesn't take an optometrist to know that squinting at a small screen for too long is bad for your vision. And by far the most frequent use is not educational, to say the least. If a couch potato suddenly gained the supernatural power to move his couch wherever he wanted, mental obesity would be a frequent corollary.

Last week, Chinese newspapers carried a British story about the phenomenon of the selfie carried too far. It quoted an expert who said there are people who are so absorbed in taking a perfect picture of themselves that they have essentially become nut cases. Again, this shows the downside of a perfectly inspiring gadget. While a debate can analyze what's good and what's not with these all-purpose ever-shrinking computers, what concerns me is not even whether the activity is productive. As common sense suggests, too much of a good thing can be bad - at least for most people.

To take a broad view, this is a struggle between moderation and obsession. The technology itself is not at fault here. It is the use of that technology that can throw us into a priority warp. There is something wrong when we have a gathering of family or friends and everyone buries himself or herself in a blog or Twitter or similar communication program, preferring to put those not present, including people they know by online handles only, before those there in the flesh. Some youngsters have developed a disparity of personality so glaring that their online persona, usually friendly and chatty, is the opposite of their offline real self, which tends to be more reserved and unobservant of the surroundings.

In our society of accelerated consumerism, the ability to do everything excessively, such as shop till you drop, is touted as a virtue. It is perceived as living life to the fullest.

Constant use of the Internet, as facilitated by mobile devices, is a natural extension of binge drinking and binge eating. The fact that you can pass off some of the activities as educational is designed to appease tech-ignorant parents, but ends up deluding yourself. ("But, mom, I'm researching a school essay." Never mind that at the same time you're playing a video game, watching the latest soap opera and chatting with a dozen friends.)

This is more like going through the banquet of life grabbing a morsel of everything but never waiting to find out the taste of anything.