To paraphrase another post on SLOG: Just because someone can't handle owning an iPhone doesn't make it addictive.

"I hate technology!" says the blogger.....

i'm with you. 100 percent. even the cribbage thing.

My SO has an iPhone and uses it a lot, but you know what? Saying, hey, shut off the iPhone and come to bed actually works.

If you're an iPhone widow, man (or woman) up and communicate.

The Bon Marche? What are you, 90?

It's Business Time, baby.

Put down your iPhone, cause we've got two whole minutes ...

Jesus fuck, are we so really weak and bored that every thing we enjoy must be an addiction? Like the internet? Addicted! Like sex? Addicted!

Oh no I use my phone as an alarm clock and keep its charger by my bed! Time for rehab! Preferably the rich white people kind where people with pretend problems pay tens of thousands to take a vacation at a "clinic".

Aw, fuck iPhones. I've got a brand-new BlackBerry Bold 9700 here that blows the socks off that piece of shit.

It's called an "addictive personality," and it's the reason that some people can knock back two beers every night without changing at all and some people fall down the well at the first sip. With booze you can actually blame it, to some degree, on the physically addictive qualities of ethanol; with an iPhone you just have a problem and you want to divert the blame from yourself.

I'd comment but I'm on my iPhone right now....

wait, who doesn't sleep with their phone? i've been using it as my alarm for years, much before the iphone, even. but i guess i'm partially deaf so the vibration really helps me wake up

An iPhone, or any other smart phone, is effectively no different from the computer connected to the net or TV: an access point to an absurd amount of information and entertainment one can passively receive. One difference is that you can carry it with you anywhere, but I doubt that really effects the level of "addiction" (ha ha) people develop.

All this study shows is that people are susceptible to letting floating glow boxes suck up their time (radio falls under that too), precisely because they are so easy and rewarding, in a primal sense. Yawn, nothing we haven't known for 60 years.

I sleep with my iPhone on the bedside table, and have been woken up by phone calls, texts and IMs. Oh noes!

Just don't tell these people who sleep with their phones about all the iPhone specific porn sites out there. Although that would give a boost to the laundry industry.

No, living in a root cellar sounds stupid and boring. Cribbage is totally awesome, though.

Currently, the best bet for endless games of cribbage is probably one of the iPhone apps.

@7, @11, I'm assuming they mean like next to them _in_ bed? Because people have been sleeping with phones next to the bed for as long as phones were portable enough to do so, like the 60s. How many times in movies and television have people been woken up in the middle of the night, and then reach over and answer the phone? The phones are next to the bed in most hotels I've been to too.

Also, your neurosis is still kinda weird.

Oh puh-leeeze. I turn my phone off when I go to bed. (And I don't sleep with a gun either, though both are at arm's reach.)

My parents, grandparents, and in fact a lot of my older relatives have kept land line touch-tone phones on nightstands next to their beds for literally decades.

Should I consider scheduling a mass intervention?

I have noticed people in public blatantly ignoring their partners/friends by texting or talking on their phone. I always just assumed they were assholes.

Really tired of people using the word "addiction" for everything under the sun. Just because a bunch of morons said they are "addicted" does not mean they are blowing people just to use an iphone.

@19 I'm waiting for the Fleshlight attachment for the iPhone: iHole.

Unless Ms. Madrid meant "root" in the Australian sense. Root cellar! Ho, yes, baby! I could -- wait, officer, what are you doing in my cubicle?

@ 20. I'm addicted to yoga.

The iPhone is the new cigarette. First thing in the morning, last thing at night. Excuse yourself after a meal to grab a quick puff when no one is watching. Check your facebook status in the bathroom. Meet others who have one and talk endlessly about how cool this app or that app is to the exclusion of "non-smokers".

I'm up to a full pack a day iPhone addiction.

Fat asses don't generally get to work behind make up counters.

Just sayin'.

Why would you want to communicate by telepathy?

Carrier pigeons, I can understand -- you can close the window to the root cellar and keep the flying rats out. How would you stop people from thinking their mundane, pointless and boring thoughts at you?

@5: what are you, 12?

i dont even have a cell phone.

I agree with Cienna - and I think this comes down to defining what sort of addiction we're talking about.

I refer to "Addiction" article on Wikipedia (a collection of indisputable facts submitted by members of Mensa):

A *positive addiction* is a beneficial habit - where the benefits outweigh the costs. (Examples: regular exercise, eating healthy foods)

A *negative addiction* is a detrimental habit - where the benefits are not worth the negative financial, physical and mental costs. (Examples: drinking bleach, arguing with people on Slog)

A *neutral addiction* is a habit in which it is not clear if the organism (or species) benefits from the activity. (Examples: driving a Prius, arguing with my wife)

So addiction isn't *necessarily* a bad thing - the qualification of "addiction" is dependent on whether you're just interested in a thing (i might do it, i might not) or feel compelled to do a thing (i will do this every day/hour/minute, no matter what) - at its root, addiction is not defined by whether the benefit vs. cost ratio is positive or negative.

Cienna's not referring to people's usage of telephones or alarm clocks per se (in whatever form they take) as an addiction. Rather, it's in response to the compulsion/habit of iPhone users (and other types of smartphones) to use their device for as many things as possible as often as possible - perhaps more often than might be reasonable, if, once again, the benefits are weighed against cost.

Confidential to Cienna: your potato cellar or mine? so many babies will we make, oh yes

I really like my iPhone. When my purse was stolen, I felt quite bereft until the Apple store opened the next day and I could replace it. But ya know what? I've been an addict. I've been through rehab (twice. Slow learner.) And I have never seen anyone puking, shaking, or having seizures because you took their iPhone away. And even when I'm broke and can barely pay my phone bill, I don't contemplate selling my ass on the street or knocking over a liquor store to get more minutes. Just sayin'.

What a stupid and hypocritical topic/thread.

If you are less interesting to your partner or friend then what they may find elsewhere, including on the net, then who or what is the problem?

@13 - actually, living in a root cellar isn't that bad. As I recall, in addition to living in a barn, one year I did that, and it was kind of neat.

Don't knock root cellars, even if they get bad reception.

@31 FTW!

I hear in the 1920's people were vaudeville and radio

(correction) I hear in the 1920's people were addicted vaudeville and radio

I don' have a cell-phone either. Never have. I wonder how many people on Slog don't have cell-phones...

My phone sleeps with me in my bed on the pillow against the wall. So the fuck what?

I haven't logged into Facebook in almost 2 months and I miss it not one bit.