On The Road Again #2014 interium Addictions

I am an addict. There, I have said it.

What little I know about addictions suggests that the first step in dealing with your addictions is to acknowledge that you have them. The problem is that like many other addicts, I like what I do. And like many other addicts I don't think my habits affect anyone but myself (and I don't really think that they are bad for me either).

The very first thing I do, before I get out of bed in the morning, is to get my first hit of the day. I do it again during breakfast. At regular intervals throughout the day I sneak a few minutes to do it again. It usually the last thing I do at night. Even now as I type these words, my fingers twitch in anticipation. However because of where I am  right now- I can't indulge and it is driving me crazy.

I am a political news junkie. I have no one to blame but myself. I knew when I was younger that I could be easily tempted. I should have stopped it then. I can remember watching Diefenbaker's acceptance speech on TV when he became prime minister in 1957 and not being being terrible disappointed in missing the chance to watch a children's program; or watching for long, sometimes tedious hours various political party conventions as they elected a new leader. I can remember long before the invention of TV remote controls and cable television of trying to watch the various election night commentators on the three stations that we got ( the arial was attached to a long pole just outside the back door so that I could run outside, climb the first two rungs, twist the pole in the right direction a few inches to bring in the third station). I would chose to stay in rather than go out to a party when there was a news special on TV and I would stop watching a movie and switch stations to watch the CBC 10:00 news. And all the while, somewhere in the back of my brain, I was aware that this focus on politics was at best weird and unusual; at worst it might be something that would consume me and allow me to only socialize with an ever decreasing circle of friends who were similarly affected.

For much of my life, I was control of my "tendencies". I was living proof that one could have an almost all consuming habit and still have a normal life. I kept a job. I raised a family. I had all of the things normal guys had. And then came the internet, or more specifically along came my tablet connected to the internet. I can now get news feeds 24 hours a day - and I do. I have an app that connects me directly with CBC and the Globe and Mail. I also have an app that connects me to almost every major English newspaper/news source in the western world. I can and do read a single story from five or six different perspectives. This increased access can be exciting, challenging, overwhelming and frustrating. If there is a negative political story (can there be a positive political story?), I can now delve into  the story in greater depth, chasing down minute details - all the while fueling both my habit and my rage at the incompetence of our politicians. When one only hears a bit of the news on TV, it just floats by in fifteen second sound bites; when one reads the news and can pursue in detail the background to that news, it is so easy to get lost in that story.  All of this access just fuels my desire for more news which feeds my need to have increased access to news which feeds my desire to........... Oh is there no end to this habit/addiction? Will I spend my final days in a darken room facing multiple screens - searching for that last piece of data, that final part of the puzzle that will explain all to me? I surely hope not.

P.S. this has all come up because I am living without internet access  (or any other news source) for a four or five days and I have lots of time to think and wonder about what is happening in the world. I love being on Salt Spring Island, but I must confess that when I leave in a few days, one of the reasons (albeit a very small reason) I will be glad to get back to Duncan is access to the internet.