On technology addiction…

George and Nietzsche are not stressed by the thought of holidaying without web access...

I’m on holiday this week. I have been stressed ever since May approached, knowing that I may have to have to spend some time away from my trusty WiFi and laptop. I stressed when I packed. I stressed when I arranged for people to take care of the dogs, fish and tortoise. I stressed when we booked the car parking, the flights, and the hotel.

Don’t get me wrong, I love travelling. I like going to new countries and seeing new cultures. The problem is, working for myself, I’m aware that if I miss one phone call or important e-mail, I risk my business.

This is a perennial problem for anyone who is self-employed; recently, my faithful old Hotmail account has been letting me down. I’ve had phone calls from people asking why I have been ignoring them, or letting me know that my mails have been returned as undeliverable.

All this lends itself to a phenomenon I think of as Technology addiction. How am I to survive in a foreign country, with limited access to e-mail? I may have harvested all my crops on Farmville, but I still have a huge amount of copy to write for a new project, and…my  blog! What if someone tunes in to my blog this week, and then leaves because it hasn’t been regularly updated?

I’m not sure what the solution to this problem is. I’m lucky, this week. I get to take my laptop away with me in my case, and I’m reliably informed that my destination has wireless internet available. Thank God.

A lot of me thinks I should be plunged in to the third world without access to the things I rely on every day. I should give up the laptop, the social computing and the e-mail. And yet…if I log in to Farmville this week I get free fuel. And I am hooked on seeing how many hits this blog gets.

There are clinics out there, in Thailand for example, that provide treatment for addiction to Meth, cigarettes, sugar and booze. Is it time that we considered setting up a technology addiction clinic? How many people would sign up, knowing that to do so would mean giving up their laptop? I fully expect this to be an issue that crops up in the near future, and perhaps I’ll sign up for the rehab! In the meantime, I’m off to check Farmville and then log in to my e-mails to make sure I’m staying ahead of everything and won’t panic when I’m on holiday.