My name is Lauren, and I'm an addict.

I realized last night that I have an addiction. It is an overwhelming thing, my cross to bear that drags me down constantly. It has created in me a furtive creature who will sneak away to fulfill the desire that burns within me. I am breathless waiting for that next fix. I wish with all my heart that someone would have meetings for it, though I have yet to hear of any church basements or YMCA's that host group sessions for this kind of craving, this kind of need.

My name is Lauren Pottinger, and I'm addicted to technology.


Ah, it's such a relief to get that off my chest. Just typing the words on my online blog have alleviated some of the strain that I feel on a constant basis. I may post it as my facebook status as soon as I am done with this entry. Potentially post it on my online acting resume on my website. I'll probably e-mail it to someone from one of my 7 e-mail addresses, as I am going to need a sponsor and I am sure that any one of my friends or family members would be willing to admit it as well.

I admit this now because of an incident that occurred the other night. I was texting someone back and forth, a very important conversation that we could not possibly had over the phone, as actually speaking to each other would be really too intimate. I found myself checking, over and over, my e-mail and my facebook on my smart phone, as I couldn't wait to see who had said what, if anyone had posted to my wall, sent a message, or e-mailed me in response to that query I had sent out. A text conversation took 2 hours, when a phone conversation could have taken one.

Here are my 12 steps for my addiction to technology.

1. I admit I am powerless over Facebook—that my social networking has become unmanageable.
2. I have come to believe that a power greater than myself could restore me to sanity. That power is named Mark Zuckerberg.
   
3. I have made a decision to turn my will and my life over to the care of God as I understand him. I understand he is a multi-billionaire played by Jesse Eisenberg in a movie.
   
4. I have made a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself. And posted it in a note on Facebook.
   
5. Admitted to Mark, to myself, and to 456 other human beings the exact nature of my wrongs.
6. Am entirely ready to have Mark remove all these defects of character.
   
7. Humbly asked Mark to remove my shortcomings. And all gaming requests. I don't play!
   
8. Made a list of all persons I have harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. Though I probaby won't re-friend them.
   
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. I re-tagged the photos and changed the nasty captions, okay?
   
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when I was wrong promptly admitted it. On your wall.
    
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with Mark, as I understand him, praying only for knowledge of his will for me and the power to carry that out. Also, changed my religious affiliation on my profile.
    
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, I try to carry this message to Facebook-aholics, and to practice these principles in all my affairs.

Please, let's help each other. Let's reconnect without the power of technology. Let's connect with our minds, hands and hearts and disconnect the USB cables, accounts, and emoticons. I'd rather laugh out loud with you than LOL.