Cultural detox may be in order

"In recent months, the awareness about people unable to disconnect from technology for even a short period of time has gotten a lot of attention." The piece in an e-newsletter that came in last week went on to discuss the recognition of this "compulsive-impulsive" disorder.

I began to think about addictions in a broader sense than we generally think of them in social services. First I thought about technology and its multitude of uses in my life. By today's standards, I am a modest user of technology. I rarely sit at a computer outside of the work day; I use my cell phone (a tool that I finally relented to own less than two years ago) only to talk to people; I still carry a paper calendar/planner; I play cassettes and cd's on an old portable boombox at home. My husband and I have been considering a new television for the past year or so, but we get so confused by the options and wide-eyed at the cost, we continue to watch the decade-old set we own.

But, I can't imagine my life without the minimum level of technology to which I've become accustomed. I think it's part of a larger addiction we have in our culture to immediacy and consistently wanting more, faster. I think there is a case to be made that we all have compulsive-impulsive disorder in this area. However, we may well be seeing the beginnings of a collective detox as energy prices and increased awareness of our limited resources force us to address our addictions.

I have wondered what the world would be like if we all just unplugged. I'm not ready for that, yet, but I will concede that some prioritization is in order. It's time to begin weighing the cost of our lifestyle in terms of time, energy and quality of life. If we accept that it isn't possible to have it all, what is most important and why?

My fear as I see the current stress on the social service system is that people will choose more, faster technology and personal energy consumption over sharing scarce resources with those who are choosing food over shelter or medication, or are choosing the conveniences of today over the sustainability of our environment for tomorrow. Cutting back on charitable giving may be the least painful personal decision to make when a budget is stretched, but if we really looked at our cultural addictions, can we find another choice?

I've talked a lot about making thoughtful investment choices that include charitable giving. Now, those choices are needed more than ever at the same time they may require more of a personal sacrifice. It's safe to say that virtually no one's income is rising at a rate to cover the rapidly increasing costs of basic living expenses. My experience verifies that it's also safe to say that the demand on "safety net services" is multiplying at an even faster rate than other costs while the rate of charitable giving is declining.

There are a lot of reasons to look at our individual compulsive-impulsive disorders and they all have to do with scarce resources. None of us has an unlimited amount of dollars or time; neither does our planet have an unlimited amount of resources. However, I suspect that few reading these words have to choose between life sustaining medicine or food; between rent or transportation; or the multitude of choices that an increasing number of our population must make on a daily basis. By choosing to give up a small comfort, or even a larger comfort, we can make a real difference in our world, and we may discover that less can actually be more.