Comment: Screenheads Anonymous

There is going to be a new disorder in the DSM-IV any day now.

Obsessive Screen Disorder.

Or something along those lines.

I’m not kidding.

We have a term in my family for watching too much TV or doing too much on the computer or any other screened device. It’s called “screenhead.”

Today my kids and I were screenheads.

But I’m worse than them. I do everything online: look for jobs, chat, shop, and compulsively check my Facebook chat function to see if there’s someone to talk to since I am bored and lonely at the moment and these four walls are closing in on me and let’s talk about something else, shall we?

Seriously, too much screen makes you no think good. It gives you that fuzzy yet hyper feeling.

I once read that TV can make you both passive and wired. Lovely. It's the same for computers, iPhones, Gameboys, etc.

And no, I haven’t tried the Wii, so no comment on that. I fear I’d absolutely love the fitness version and that would mean more screen time. I’m already over-loaded now that I live with a TV that has stations and have a laptop that loves me.

See? That's one of the symptoms. Anthropomorphizing your computer. A computer is not a pet, or a lover, or even a friend.

O.S.D.

Look out for it.