addictions

The University of California at Los Angeles this week gave us the perfect antidote to Nick Carr's musings in The Atlantic about how the Internet is turning us into multitasking scatterbrains with diminishing attention spans.

A group of scientists found that searching the Internet doesn't make computer-savvy, middle-aged and older adults stupid. It actually triggers key centers in the brain that control decision making and complex reasoning. In other words, we might not have to resort to word puzzles and pinochle to fend off senility.

The study, reportedly the first of its kind to assess the impact of … Read more

Fridays at The 404 are awesome, especially before a holiday weekend and especially when Justin gets his panties in a bundle over the term "hipster." With news like Brett Ratner's dream to make a Guitar Hero movie, the world's greatest hacker releasing an autobiography, and even more heartwarming "Calls from the public," how could you not love Fridays?

So it's official: David Duchovny has officially admitted his powerlessness over his addiction to lovemaking and has checked into rehab. Sounds like his next project with Gillian Anderson could be the SeX-Files. Isn't every … Read more

We're tempted to give these to a couple we know but, frankly, their marriage probably won't last anyway and we don't want to expedite the process. But if you know of pending nuptials involving cell phone addicts with a good sense of humor (if that's possible), this might be impossible to resist.

These figurines seen on GeekSugar are made of hand-painted porcelain, which makes us worried that someone might actually use them atop their wedding cake. If that's indeed the case--and you're trying to send a message to one of them--you can even mix … Read more

Just like it's taken us a while to reckon with the fact that texting or yakking on the phone while driving can be seriously unsafe, it is taking a while to figure out what to make of our sometimes heedless obsession with all things online.

At least one psychiatrist says that, for some of us, online fixation can be serious a problem--a compulsive-impulsive disorder whose sufferers endure gadget cravings, broadband-deprivation withdrawal, increasing tolerance for spending extraordinary amounts of time online, and no apparent embarrassment when they wake up in the morning with a keyboard imprint on their face.

An … Read more

Henry Jenkins, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who is perhaps academia's leading fanboy, spent part of January in Shanghai and has been posting observations on his blog. I want to highlight one of his better contributions: on social responsibility in Chinese video game culture.

Video games, "freedom," and "addiction"

Jenkins was attending the International Games and Learning Forum, organized by MIT and Beijing University. There, the focus was on "serious games," those that might potentially be used to promote learning. His most frequently repeated observation was that, while U.S. experts on … Read more

For some unfathomable reason, there are apparently more than a few influential product designers who seem to think people just must have mirrored TVs. They've used reflective surfaces to hide LCDs, combined them with computers, and even made them waterproof.

But all of these have assumed that we want the TV concealed when it's not in use. Obviously, their focus groups have missed an important demographic--those of us who stay glued to the tube 24/7. The true addict would want something like the "Seura Television Mirror," which proudly displays the screen at all times while … Read more

The human brain uses a complex system of senses, thoughts, and feelings to help us survive our environment. Feelings, in particular, play a critical role in warning us that something may be wrong. The brain interprets all these signals and determines what, if any, action should be taken.

What do you think would happen if that delicate system ceased to function properly? I'm not a shrink, but I'm relatively sure it would be a real mess. Well, you know what? I think we're beginning to see the signs of that mess all around us. And that's because we're all becoming addicts. Gadget addicts.… Read more

It was bound to happen: Two gadgets that act as remotes for each other.

That's right, the cleverly named "Find It" remote will locate your lost keys as long as their attached sensor is within earshot. But the opposite is also true (which, in our case, is far more important)--just click a button on the keychain, OhGizmo says, and your perennially misplaced remote will be magically found.

And it makes perfect sense that this latest invention should come from GE, which is apparently trying to corner the remote market with such creations as its "Flip&… Read more

The Register has an excellent article today on the compact disc, which was first pressed for commercial release 25 years ago. If you've ever been curious about terms like Red Book or 44.1, or wondered why CDs can hold 74 minutes of music, it's worth a read.

I have little to add. Except: Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms was not only the first CD that was recorded all digitally, but it was also one of the first in which the CD had different, longer versions of some of the LP album tracks. I specifically bought the CD … Read more