Good news: I may be an Internet junkie, but I’m not the only one. In the New York Times today, writer Verlyn Klinkenborg acknowledges: “I consider myself a moderate user of personal electronics. . .  yet this constant foretaste of the future, (my) hunger for the next electronic blip, feels to me like a full-blown addiction.” Read his commentary, “I’ve Got Mail,” by clicking here.

Also today, The Press Democrat publishes a New York Times report on how technology is changing how people live. In “Coffee can wait, the day’s first stop is Twitter,” reporter Brad Stone explains: “This is morning in America in the Internet age. After six to eight hours of network deprivation – also known as sleep – people are increasingly waking up and lunging for cell phones and laptops, sometimes even before swinging their legs to the floor and tending to more biologically urgent activities.”

People can – and will – disagree about whether the popular obsession with technology is healthy. What is not in doubt is that it’s here to stay. Which means we will be left to make the best of it – devising our own filters for identifying what is useful and what distracts us from more important uses of our time.

Sorry, but I have to leave now. It’s been more than five minutes since I checked my Twitter feed.