Time for a confession. Do any of the following statements apply to you?

I check my email several times throughout the day.
I have multiple email accounts and check all of them every time I check my email.
I check my Facebook, Myspace, Twitter or other social networking sites several times throughout the day.
I check it multiple times an hour if I’ve posted something, to see how others responded.
I’m actually logged into Facebook, Myspace, or Twitter constantly throughout the day.
When I feel my phone buzz with a text message, I can’t NOT look at it, even if I’m doing something else important.
I have very defined rules in my head about text message and voicemail etiquette and get really ticked off if someone violates those rules.
In my spare time (i.e., not time counting work, eating, or sleeping), I often spend more hours in front of a computer than away from it.
I often find cause to check out something online or on my iPhone when I’m out spending time with friends or family.
Even if I want to put the computer away for a while, I keep on coming up with things to check online.
I find it difficult not to talk on the cell phone when I’m driving.

If you said yes to any of the above, you might just be…

…exactly like me. Addicted to technology. And even more specifically, addicted to social media technology. I actually hate talking on the phone, so the phone is less of a problem, but sometimes I do find it difficult to put the computer away. But I honestly don’t even consider myself that bad about it. I still spend a lot of time with friends and family where I don’t so much as even give a thought towards any of the stuff, I read books often, I rarely watch TV (though I do watch movies regularly), and most importantly, I have the ability to turn it all off. I practice yoga, and one of the mantras you learn in yoga is to be present.

BE present.

It seems simple, but it’s often a difficult thing to do these days. Nevertheless, I believe very strongly in it and have tried to cultivate a habit out of it. Too often I thought so much about tomorrow, I forgot to enjoy today. But we never know how many todays we have, so each day, I try to be as mindful about what I’m doing in the present, instead of letting myself become preoccupied with something outside the moment.

But I’m of a generation where these technologies are new-fangled amusements. I might be diverted by them, but I’m not dependent upon them. I was largely resistant to getting a cell phone, and only did so when it became much cheaper to keep in contact with people far away than it was with the regular phone. The question is, what about the next generations? The ones who grow up living and breathing these technologies. It’s becoming a problem in the classroom. It used to be we had to yell at students for letting their phones ring in class. It used to be that if we saw them text messaging, we could give them a stern look, they’d feel guilty and put the god-forsaken things away and refocus their attention in class. Not anymore. They know to keep everything on silent, but that doesn’t stop them from still clinging to their machines. They have no concept that we can even see them fiddling with their phones. When we give them a stern look, they have no shame and don’t seem to realize they need to stop with the texting and put their mind back on the work at hand. They simply can’t NOT text. More and more now, they don’t know how to be present in the moment, nor do they grasp the idea that texting someone while somebody else is talking to you might be considered rude. So not only is their attention diverted away from learning, social etiquette is going out the window too.

The problem of addiction to technological diversions really came home to me when I heard an NPR podcast on the subject of new teenage drivers. These kids have grown up in an age where they always had their gameboys and whatever else to occupy them in the backseat of the car while their parents drove them around town or on longer road trips. They were playing video games and watching movies, not watching lane lines or license plates, or counting how many cars you’ve passed. They grew up being distracted and kept quiet by digital media. They did not grow up with the driving experience. They have no experience of what it is to drive and be focused solely on the task of driving.

California recently passed a law banning cell phone use while driving. At first, pretty much everyone obeyed the law. But less than a year later, it’s becoming common place to see someone pull off a stupid move – and lo, and behold – they’re on the phone. And of all the people I’ve seen do this, almost all of them have been under the age of 25. Nonrandom sample, I know. But there is probably some truth to it. Because while everyone else has grown up with at least some portion of their lives unattached to these doohickeys, these kids haven’t been. And as the speaker in the NPR podcast pointed out, these kids already have high accident rates. The last thing they need is another distraction while they’re hurtling a 2,500-pound hunk of metal at 80 mph down the highway.

Am I making sweeping generalizations here? Yes. Are there a lot of positive benefits to these technologies? Definitely. Can these kids put their phones away if they really wanted to? Probably. But does that mean we should just ignore all this? I think not. I just think it’s important to not only learn how to use them, but also learn how to put them down when it matters.

It’s important to remember to take a moment and just BE. Here. Now.