Are you addicted to your iPhone and is it screwing up your life?

14. @windymiller

perhaps you should stop using sarcasm to make your points, as you seem to be failing nicely in using it.

I also didn't say i was important, but again you infer so much. Indeed, if we're on that subject do you think i give a rat's *** about people such as your miserable self who come in, make sweeping generalisations based on zero evidence and in a sarcastic manner berating people they haven't got a clue about?

I believe you fall nicely into the "Troll" camp, so well done.

I may not be important to you, which i will lose no sleep over whatsoever, but next time you engage in a flamewar at least come armed with a modicum of credibility.

As for condemning out fo hand, too ruddy right, given that it takes people like you to try and defend the issue.

"In horror" over forgetting a phone? Please! Horror is seeing somebody with a burning tyre around their neck, a traffic accident, a tsunami wiping out whole populations and so forth.

Forgetting a phone is an aggravating inconvenience. I`ve seen my boss say "boll*cks" and then work round it, because stuff like that happens, but i`ve never seen anyone "exclaim in genuine horror". Perhaps i don't live in the tech problem-ridden world you've found yourself in, citing all these stories as you do.

I have seen many times, however and unfortunately, screaming kids in supermarkets, hoarse over not getting cheesestrings or some such, but when they're parents are shouting "BRITNEEEEEEE" at full volume, garbed in cheap Asda tracksuits stinking of fags then i can well imagine them doing the same over games. I would venture however that it is not symptomatic of tech addiction, but the quality, or lack thereof, of decent parenting.

So addiction to tech causing mental health crises the world over? Put it at the very very bottom of the list of what needs resolving for the human condition.......

13. @ rimscar

Once again, it was sarcasm, I'm not actually in awe of you, your not that important. And once again, I "agree" with you, there are bigger issues than tech addiction out there. I'm not all that sure how serious the addiction can be, but to the addict, it will be the only thing they will think about. Unfortunately, there are parents out there who have kids that scream themselves sick if their games are taken away from them. Its not always the fault of the parents, they just didn't realise what was happening until it happened. As for mobile phone addiction, why not? How many times have you heard someone exclaim in genuine horror " oh my god, I've forgotten my phone " maybe thats just the start of it. I may have made sweeping generalisations, but you condemned it out of hand in your very first post.

12. @windymiller--sarcasm eh? You're so clever, and obviously awed by the smallest of things, especially as you seem to think that the by using "no", and "off button" or "willpower" make me some kind of perfect parent, and in so doing you are damning me for it?????!!!!!

Perhaps these things i`ve mentioned are fundamental basics of parenting, not some higher aspiration that you seem to think requires a sarcastic response.

If i use the word "no" i`m not a perfect parent, i`m using common sense, and you are awed by this? I despair for the human race if you think employing the basics of child control is something worth vilifying.

As for your examples, please feel free to name credible sources that refute the CHEMICAL addiction to nicotine and alcohol as being a real and proper issue.

Making sweeping generalisations doesn't make your argument correct nor clever.

Chemical addiction is absolutely not the same as what is being discussed here. That is a crushing addiction; what is not a crushing addiction is iphone withdrawel.

Again look at the difference in case numbers.

Alcohol dependency vs Facebook obsession for example.

Are we soon to have AA meetings for HTC owners, methadone prescriptions for iPad owners, straightjackets for Tweeters? (that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing....)

I wonder if removing WoW permanently from somebody would cause them to go into a coma, suffer actual and serious biological imbalances/withdrawel symptoms, or would they simply be ********** for a few days?

11. @ rimscar

It was sarcasm due to this statement,

"My sons play online and DS, but i`ve also employed the word "no"."

and these didn't help,

"I also work in IT all day, but i also have willpower."

"I`ve learned how to use the frigging off button."

really, we're in awe.

Nobody is saying there aren't far, far worse problems in the world, but to the addict, wether you perceive it as an addiction or not, it can be a crushing thing in their life. There are people who still don't believe in nicotine, or alcohol addiction, but you know better, don't you?

10. @windymiller--how the hell would you know i`m a perfect parent? I`ve clearly stated i`m not--so instead of coming over all bleeding heart self-righteous, learn to read.

You are however right about no sympathy, given that i`ve pointed out the problems of people addicted to tweeting, texting or WoW are so laughable compared to the millions of people who are actually really suffering and whose very existence is doomed from the get go. They don't have clinics to treat their latest trendy illness.

Go and explain to a starving Ethiopian, a raped Kenyan, a family-less Kosovan or a homeless Haitian that you have a problem with turning your iphone off or disconnecting from the internet and that you deserve help and resources to fight your chronic affliction.

Indeed if that's too much trouble, the next time you see someone selling the Big Issue go tell him to sort himself out, as there are real people out there suffering from blackberryitis or MMO overdose.....

People who try to defend this muppetry really need to take a cold hard look at their pampered lives and try to develop a real perspective, and not one that is formed behind the safety of their LCD tvs.....

9. You clearly are a perfect parent. Some, due to social and/or personal problems aren't. And from the tone of your posts ( a good slap/clinics self interest) you clearly have no sympathy.

8. @lovlid--at which point exactly did i say my life was perfect? Go on, specify!

I just think that some people don't know they're born and making issues of being addicted to iphones et al when you have people suffering mental problems because they've just seen loved ones blown to bits from land mines, or dying from malaria because they can't afford treatments is a little more of an issue don't you think??

So stop trying to be so damned clever and critice my perceived lack of compassion as i`m evidently a little bit more switched on than you. Pillock.

7. iPhones are EVIL!

http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

6. I got bored of apps before I could get addicted. I still use them on my ipod touch but don't think they're anything special enough to warrant mass amounts of my time. Apps keep you entertained for 5-10 mins and hardly more.

People with addictions got them at their own fault. I nor anybody else can force an addict to do something else.

5. @ rimscar.

Such compassion. We are all REALLY glad, that YOUR perfect life is,,,,well, perfect.

@ veeroods.

Do us all a favour Lou, take your scumbag spamming of your scumbag, trojan ridden site, somewhere else.

4. Fair point - you are clearly a responsible parent. But there are problems with games and tech that are going unaddressed - hence the need for costly private clinics.

Whether or not this is down to failed parenting or something a bit more complex, I think, is the real question. Some people are just more predisposed to self-harming behaviour with stuff that gives them pleasure - be it drugs, booze, games, porn or whatever... If those people let that behaviour take over their lives then they suffer.

Also - the South Park Warcraft episode is worth re-watching related to all this.

3. or Zoyd, people could get a bloody grip, and not need such jumped up over blown analysis.

Addicted to tech? Purlease.

My sons play online and DS, but i`ve also employed the word "no".

I also work in IT all day, but i also have willpower.

I`ve learned how to use the frigging off button.

Perhaps people should realise how ridiculous this is all getting. I point you to a South Park episode that dealt with the "alcohol is a disease" thinking that divorces the responsibility.

And where is your evidence of "millions of workers suffering panic attacks..."

The mother taking up food to her kids in the bedroom. Why isn't she using some parenting skills and turning the damned stuff off, as opposed to blaming addiction to tech? surely not paying the leccy bill for a month would offset the need for a mental health visitor who could perhaps be spending their time with someone who has actually got a mental problem, as opposed to someone blaming their inadequacies on the lastest fad problem.

Do you not think private clinics specialising in "addiction" have a vested interested in promoting all this, much in the same way as Doctors prescribe sedatives to 5 year olds?

"iphone screwing up your life"?--quick lets blame Apple or somebody....

2. Woww! rimscar, you have clearly read the whole piece. And with this thoughtful analysis you are spoiling us.

Of course most iPhone apps are get-rich-quick sacks of cack. Apple created that 'ecosystem' to enable people to make money. But that was not the point of this article, I think.

I'm sure the millions of workers who suffer from regular panic attacks and increasingly debilitating amounts of anxiety due to an encroaching 24/7 work culture made possible by iPhones, BlackBerries etc. and those families that are quite seriously being torn apart by lost sons with un-manageable World Of Warcraft addictions will be really blown away by your searing insight.

1. Prescription for all this? One damn good slap.

99% of my iphone apps are 5 minute attention grabbers, then rairly touched again.