TV dependence
Interesting Scientific American article on how people react to prolonged television exposure, both physically and psychologically. It carefully avoids the standard kinds of comments that come up in the standard generic "Internet addiction" articles that show up in newspapers from time to time; it notes that it's unclear which direction causality runs; etc. There are parts of the article that I'd prefer were clearer, and a couple of the studies sound a bit methodologically suspect to me, but overall a bunch of interesting stuff. It ends with a brief and fairly inoffensive section on computer games. Doesn't mention email, though.
I'm reminded of the Ken Nordine piece "The Vidiot," in which someone interviews an addict of a strange phenomenon known as "television." The addict eventually starts panicking about not watching: "I gotta have a set!" Cute.