Well, lets just agree to disagree.
I would say that I'm a fairly big media junkie but I think the form and function of the media junkie has changed.
My biggest fix comes from mobile media. I have a Blackberry and I know full well the reason for which it earned its nickname of "CrackBerry." If I haven't checked the device (note that I didn't call it a phone
) for more than an hour, I start to get the shakes. My device has immediate inroads to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, sports scores and anywhere else the internet can take me. The "Crackberry" has single-handedly not only made me an "media junkie" but more of a "media nazi". With the ability to fire back messages, tweets, statuses, pictures and videos, its not only that you consume media, you interact with it.I will admit that my work does have me at a significant disadvantage. I work in Information Technology, where you are encouraged to gather information. If I'm not on the trade sites or blogs at least once a day, I fall behind the market. Granted, this is nearly all work related but its still a level of information gathering that has become more of a habit than a task.
So how about home life? While significantly better, its no clean break. Most of my time at home is consumed by listening to TV or music... while checking "news" on my laptop or Blackberry. Even now as I'm typing this I'm listening to Last.fm and am chatting with a friend on GoogleTalk. Surely, the madness will come to an end when I sleep? Eh, mostly. I do have sleeping setting on my phone but it has some strategically placed alerts for certain people. These are all for very close friends and family and only applies to phone calls or text messages. All other notifications (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) are silenced but rest assured, they are still there waiting for me when I get up.
So, how much time are we talking here? I would guess that the only time in a day when I'm truly away from technology is when I'm sleeping. I usually get about 8 hours. I'm also against using technology while driving and it takes me about 15 minutes to get to work. Assuming I come home for lunch and get 8 hours of sleep, that would put me at 9 hours a day that I do not spend with technology. That equates to 15 hours a day. Now, I don't do this everyday. On weekends I'm not found lounging on my couch. Lets say an average of 10 hours a day. Assuming that average, I spend about 152 days out of a year with technology. Astounding, if I do say so myself.
So what is my driving force with this digital crusade? By and large, its maintaining my level of education in my field of IT. I'm not going to lie though, I can sometimes be found hitting the "Random Article" button on Wikipedia and letting it take me into a world I wouldn't have otherwise known. A fair amount of my sponge-like info acquisition is simply for expanding knowledge.
Is it the best use of my time? No. No its not.
Is it better than other things I could be doing? Yes.
But here is the kicker for me: When I have something better or more important do to, can I put the technology away? Yes. Yes I do.
That's what this entire phenomenon comes down to in my eyes. When the time comes, can you leave the tech behind. I can honestly say that I can. I love camping and I have T-Mobile. Those two things do not mix as T-Mobile doesn't cover much outside of major cities or highways.
In closing, yes, I am a media junkie but I don't let it rule my life. Life comes first, tech comes in some other place. I would say second but that's putting its importance too close to life.
I now check my computer (in the office and at home), cell phone and iPad on a regular bases. Your description of how important the "crackberry" is to you really makes me want to steer clear of it, fearing that I will more than likely have the exact same addiction! Where does it end?
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