Anna Lembke

And

So the question of when a passion gives way to an addiction is really the question of whether or not it's harmful to self and or others.

And that could include harm that the individual, him or herself, doesn't recognize, but that others recognize.

Having said that, the question of when we cross that Rubicon is very complex because of the cultural aspects in terms of who defines what is dysfunctional or harmful.

You know, the caller referred to work, which implies the question, well, when are you a workaholic and when are you just really invested in your career?

And our modern-day heroes are people who work a lot of hours and sacrifice almost everything to career, in some instances to money, in some instances to fame.

And those are our heroes, so we don't recognize those individuals as engaging in pathological behaviors.

So now we have the issue of the societal overlay.

What society says is, okay, this is an illegal drug, this is a legal drug, this is a healthy behavior, this is an unhealthy behavior.

I think when taken to the extremes, I think many people would be able to say, oh, yeah, that person is addicted to X, Y, or Z because they keep surfing or skiing or working beyond the point where it's good for their bodies, beyond the point where they're able to foster healthy relationships, take care of themselves and the others themselves.

that they love, live according to their values.

Implicit in all of these are ideas we have about values and what makes for the good life.

I'd say in terms of the Luddite question and not wanting to fall behind and the extent to which digital media is interwoven into every aspect of our lives,

When we're thinking about overconsumption of digital media and digital drugs, you know, how on earth do we define that?

How do we get away from it?

And these are really important questions that I think we should all be asking now, and I wouldn't presume to have the answers to.

I think we're, you know, at the forefront of a grand social human experiment.

And I've made certain assumptions about digital media in our lives, namely that for all the good that it's done, there are harms.

So I'm suggesting that disconnecting from digital media and from our devices for a period of time every day or maybe a day a week or what have you, there's no data on this amount of time is too much.

And if you limit it to that amount of time, you're okay.