In a recent YouTube video of William Powers speaking to a book critic about his novel "Hamlet's Blackberry," Powers says that he has sold more eBooks of his copy than hard copies in print. He then goes on to say that he believes the reason that the percentage of copies bought as eBooks is so much higher than hard copies, because most of his readers are so connected to the "screen copies" that it's the only way they feel comfortable reading it. The man he is speaking with goes as far as referring to these people as "addicts."
After watching the video, what really stuck in my mind was when the term addicts came into play. The first thing I thought of was drug addiction and its addicts. I thought back to a show I watched recently over drug addiction and how rehab helps them with overcoming the addiction to the drug. One way, is that in some cases the rehabilitation center will actually give a very small dose of the drug so that the addict's body doesn't go into complete shock after giving up the dependency for the drug.
Is this what it has come to with the addiction to the internet and mobile devices or just online devices in general? That we have to stop our addiction with our addiction by getting it in smaller doses just like how "Hamlet's Blackberry" is offered online as an eBook. It seems that as humans we may be in over our heads with this being one of the largest addiction outbreaks in human history.
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