‘Digital Addiction’ may hit home for many
Having explored (and some might say, exploited) “Hoarders” and their freakish accumulations, A&E turns to a new variation on dysfunction with “Digital Addiction” (10 p.m., TV-14).
COVID arrived in 2020, some dozen years into the smartphone era. People were already accustomed to using their phones for shopping, following the news, keeping up with friends on social media and finding companionship, sex and even spouses on dating apps.
Forced quarantine shut many people in their homes and apartments just when they were already primed to retreat from person-to-person interactions. For some, a daytime spent at the office was the only thing keeping them away from their devices. Suddenly, they were forced to stay home and “work” using those very phones and screens. It has created and expanded an epidemic of social isolation that deserves attention.
This being an A&E show, the focus here will be on extreme behavior. We meet a woman with an unusual number of devices. She’s not at the level of a hoarder, but each of these electronic crutches seems to mean more to her than her daughter or her friends. And those friends and family think it’s time for an intervention — the name of another A&E show, whose 24th season begins tonight at 9.
Another woman featured on “Digital Addiction” is not just enjoying social media; she sees it as her job and an achievement at the core of her identity. She has become obsessed with the analytics that her apps provide, which spur her to pursue new engagement goals. Think of that the next time you check your exercise app or the number of “likes” received.
Pornography did not begin with smartphones, but online sites have made it exponentially easier to became hooked on smut. We meet twin brothers who have shut out the world at the expense of their addiction. Others have fallen prey to the aggressive marketing of sports betting, while one woman blames past abuse for the fact that she only feels “safe” in the virtual world. And yet another type of addict finds their work (or their unemployment) boring and can find stimulation only by making increasingly strident social media posts, lashing out in ways that lose them “friends” both real and virtual.
Smartphones were supposed to make everything easier. And in ways, they have. But like some digital Trojan Horse, they were invited into our lives before we knew how they would transform our behavior.
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