For years some friends have feared getting a computer, afraid they will get addicted. That says little about their ability to stick to their own goals and strength of character. The siren call of addiction has never been my fear though I use my computer more than many of my friends. I have not bought a newspaper in ten years but I am far more informed, globally, than most of them. I no longer buy reference books and always look up any word I don't understand.
People ask me how much time I spend on the computer. For me that is not answerable as I use it as often as reasons for me to do so arise. I play few games, only when I can multi-task doing something else like watching news or talking on the telephone.
One might say I have come to rely on my computers for information, news, entertainment, contact with friends, and spend less time doing all the things I do on it than I would have before I had a computer. To me it is an extraordinary time saver, not time waster. One might also say that a computer cannot make a leopard change its spots! If you weren't interested in the news, before computers, you probably won't be now; educating yourself will not hold you either. If you wish to make you life far more fulfilled in solitude, or with friends, it is all available. If you lack social skills, good coping skills and judgment, you probably won't develop those with a computer, either.
Thus, I rely on my computers as I do any of the rest of the useful tools in my existence...the operative word being 'rely' not 'addicted'.
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