With new technology must come new diseases

Editor's Note: This won't be a new disease, but rather a new expression of an old one. People with addictive personalities will find things to be addicted to, and if drugs, drink, porn and slot machines aren't enough, bring on the smartphones.

WSJ - July 7, 2009, by E. Kinney Zalesne

Smartphoniacs: Addicts of the Information Age

Among everybody from our leaders to our teenagers, no habit is spreading faster than being connected 24/7 via a smart phone.

Its penetration in the U.S. is estimated at 18%, and it seems that everywhere you turn, people are using their smart phones in new ways and in new places. Samsung recently estimated that it expects 500 million global smart-phone users by 2012. Actual phone calls are becoming extinct compared with handheld texts and email messages -- whoever thought people would prefer typing to talking? But the evidence appears to say they do.

Here are five tell-tale traits of Smartphoniacs:

Do they take their smart phones with them when they get up from the table to go to the restroom -- and do they take an awful lot of trips there?

This has also given rise to a group of people -- the top 10% of smart-phone users -- who just can't stop. They are the smartphoniacs, the true addicts of the information age.

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