I remember reading in the Globe and Mail in the past week about soft addictions.
Soft addictions you ask? A misnomer perhaps?
Not quite… The author of this book refers to soft addictions as those that aren’t traditionally referred to as a serious problem but can nevertheless severely impact the life, wellbeing and the time available to a typical individual. Examples? Web surfing, television watching, excessive eating etc etc.
Hmm… Gives me pause at least. The truth is, I can understand why one would call it an addiction. It’s almost like candy for the brain. You get back from work, you’re tired out and you sit in front of the computer and you read the news. And you know what – a lot of the time, it doesn’t require massive thought. (It’s obviously better if you analyze each news item, but seriously, who’s got time?). You sit and you absorb. Do you feel bad about it? Yeah… But sometimes you just don’t care anymore.