Cyber-crack…now with vitamin D!

Citizens beware *scowls sternly* it seems there is a new menace threatening our society. Haven’t you heard the news? Web addiction is well on its way to becoming a clinically recognized form of dangerous dependency.

That’s right citizens, just when you thought you were a clean living, smoothie drinking, yoga posing goody two-shoes, your dabble in to cyber-crack (social-networking, gaming, googling…) has gone and got you hooked.

I know that I am, and that the Miyowa office contains quite a few others who are too.

But luckily we functioning web addicts are not likely to find ourselves banged up next to Winehouse or Woods just yet. It’s the high school drop-outs who pass weeks locked in their dark, sock-ridden bedrooms, developing rickets and interacting solely with avatars, that really need to watch their backs. Apparently an ever-increasing number of adolescent addicts are being prized from their bedrooms and wheeled in to 12 step programs, military schools and detox camps in Utah by desperate parents trying to ween them off their 18-hours-a-day PC habit.

So, what does that say about the industry we all work in – providing mobile internet? Are we pushing a product that enables addicts, helping them feed their addiction anywhere, anytime?

Well, sort of. But at the same time, we are the lighter, healthier ‘safer’ option. We’re the booze-free beer or like playing poker for pretzels, if you will. In my mind, mobile internet is less of an enabler, and more of a cure.

For the shizzle we’re shiftin’ gets the web addicts out of their dark and dingy lairs – away from the decomposing pizza fumes and in to the fresh air of day. After all, could there be anything more embarrassing than only ever checking-in to various corners of your bedroom on Foursquare?

And, we all need to get out to take some photos for Facebook sometime, do we not?

Especially now that stepping *grimaces* away from the PC and out of the house no longer means logging off.

Mobile internet, and in particular (plug) Miyowa InTouch5™, allow you to take every one of your social communities with you….all the way in to the real world!

You can keep connected, notified and in-the-loop – you can tweet on the hoof, IM on the go and meet your friends in the flesh.

When it comes down to it, I don’t think that there’s any need to, sense in, or chance of ‘curing’ this very human addiction to discovering new things, interacting and maintaining our place as part of a social group (albeit via the web). But I do think that we might all end up a bit less fat around the behind, and rather more rich in vitamin D, now that mobile internet has given us the means to do this on the move.

Follow me on Twitter