(December 10, 2009) — Senior William Reinoso used to procrastinate with Facebook’s guiding hand, only to fall asleep to his iPod’s lullaby. Partly influenced by his parents’ warning of choking on his earphones’ wire and losing his eyesight, but mostly by college applications, Reinoso recently attempted to cure his addiction to technology. Though he has cut back on the hours, Reinoso says he is not cured. “As soon as I’m done with applications, I’m pretty sure I’m going to come back to my cycle.” The addiction, Reinoso said, is due to technology’s goal to “make life easier—easier for people to communicate, to interact, to—I guess live their lives.” Senior Gabriela Chiriboga, who spends seven hours a day with technology, not counting the in-class texting, says society’s addiction to technology is like its dependence on air. “I doubt anything will happen about it, to be honest,” Chiriboga said. “I think that we’ll just keep going unless computers finally take over the world.” According to the Cranfield School of Management, 60% of research respondents between 11- and 18-years-old admitted their addiction to the Internet. Unlike air, Chiriboga thinks that this addiction may become unnatural. “Farmville, for instance, on Facebook—that’s unhealthy,” said Chiriboga, remembering a student who came to school late because he was harvesting his crops. “That is the computer ruling their lives.” Junior Ryan Roach, who used to check his Facebook every 15 minutes, ended his addiction altogether when school became overwhelming one month in. “I don’t think it’s the technology that they get addicted to. It’s the messaging.” Roach said. “You know you can be with everybody even though you’re nowhere near each other.” Roach says that he would have withdrawals with one day’s deprivation of technology, though Chiriboga says she can handle a day without her computer. Two days? She’d start getting really, really bored—boredom she is only willing to offset with a limited amount of reading. Even though she believes she’s in full control of her addiction, she too is subject to what Reinoso believes is technology’s charm: simplicity. “Whenever I want to get up and do exercise, I feel much more comfortable sitting in front of my computer and not doing exercise, so on the days when that wins, it’s definitely taking a part away from my life,” Chiriboga said. In that sense, technology has the potential to impair intelligence. “We were born into it, and it’s ingrained to our systems,” Chiriboga said. “Because we’re all like this already, whatever progresses we’ll progress with it, and we’ll use that as well.” For example, Chriboga predicts that if books are to continue, they will only continue in the online medium. Another impairment factor is texting in class, springing out of Cranfield’s research response of more than 50% of students being addicted to cell phones. “I’m perfectly fine with paying attention in class, unless there’s something to talk about,” said Chriboga, who also believes that technology has the potential to educate the public with information exposure. Although Reinoso has been looking for a cure to his addiction, Chiriboga is content with her new and irreplaceable friends. “It’s incredible—that tool, Dictionary.com, is the most amazing thing ever for me. And then Ctrl F—it’s like ‘wow,’” Chiriboga said. “And Google—Google is like the love of my life.”