Is the abuse of drugs and alcohol becoming a viable alternative to a drug free life style? With the proliferation of energy drinks, all of the talk about legalization of marijuana, and the deluge of all sorts of synthetic chemicals and legal psychoactive drugs showing up almost daily on the internet, this seems to be the question many individuals must be asking themselves today. And, if chemicals are not a viable alternative, Technology Addiction offers cyber relationships in which to get lost, texting to avoid personal interactions, and internet games to isolate in for hours while either blowing things up or tending crops.

Increasingly I find individuals seeking alternative realities as a diversion from everyday life.  In some cases individuals spend more time in their cyber lives than they invest in living their earthbound lives. 

Daily stories emerge of someone going broke or neglecting their children because they have invested their precious time and hard earned money, not on paying their bills or planning for the future, but in purchasing cyber "property."  Recently a woman from NJ quit her job to undertake a cyber real estate business.  She has three people working for her full time, and they are no longer taking on new customers because they are so busy with their current clients.  She reportedly is making more money selling cyber property than she had ever made working in the real world.

In another instance a man was spending more hours with his cyber wife than with his own family!  He and his wife reportedly were not suffering in their marriage because they both were doing it!  Really?????  Over the past two weeks I have spoken with a man who lost his marriage when his wife "hooked up" with an old boyfriend on Facebook, a women who is struggling with an online shopping addiction, and a priest that was involved in two annulments due to online pornography.  I'd like to ask; what is this an alternative to?  Has life become so mundane and unbearable that we no longer want to live the life we are in, finding life in our heads a better option than living life in the real world?

It's my belief that you have choices.  You can become better at living, or more adept at escaping life and all it offers.  Everyone has options.  You can become better at one or the other.  But, when the two meet, disaster usually ensues.  Doesn't it makes sense to improve the life you are in?  Haven't  you been put here to live and perfect the life you have in order to contribute what you can to making this world a better place?  Only when you realize  you can't serve two masters, can you begin to accept life on life's terms.  It is then that you can look for opportunities to plug yourself into life and begin to fully experience all life has to offer.  To check out is to deny yourself the very essence of life, and all it can offer in return.

Be well,

John