The first time I saw my older brother flaunting his pager around like some high rolling Hollywood hotshot I came to several quick conclusions: first, that he was likely dealing drugs, and second that the mobile technological revolution was going to completely take over my life. Despite the fact that I wasn’t even into my teens and could count on one hand the number of people who would ever want to contact me, I knew that I had to have a pager. In terms of having an addiction to advanced mobile technology that I had no real use for, I was way ahead of the curve. However in our current market of nearly pointless but still desirable mobile creations, I’m far from alone in my nearly insatiable technological addictions.

What started as a few aspiring drug dealers using a pager to facilitate their shady deals quickly expanded from a novelty to a necessity and then into a mobile explosion. Cell phones soon became available for the average person and not just slick haired Wall Street executives. Gone are the days when we would sit around reading a book or doing something even mildly productive while waiting for the kitchen phone to ring. Instead we are inundated by mobile messages that completely absorb not only our attention but our time as well. If cocaine was the drug of choice in the Eighties then the smartphone is the drug of our generation—one that is legally and cleverly marketed as useful necessity.

It would be one thing if the mobile explosion had been limited just to the basic flip phone that was used to just make phone calls; at least with that teenagers were forced to actually use their voice as a method of communication. But then came texting, which at first seemed like a natural extension of mobile communication that would help, not hinder. Instead, the art of verbal communication was further diluted as LOL quickly replaced actual laughter and conversations were extended from 15 minute phone calls to all-out text message marathons that would last well into the wee hours of the morning.

Were it just the death of the phone call, I doubt very much that there would be cause for complaint. But the danger is in the unyielding addiction to the next big thing in mobile technology that has advanced us as a species to new forms of communication that we didn’t even know existed—much less actually needed. Facebook would be a reasonable social addiction were it limited to being used on a computer, but who uses computers for social media nowadays anyway? With the influx of giant phablet smart phones that even Lebron James has trouble gripping, we are frittering our time away posting sob stories on Facebook and Twittering useless 140 character sentences that are mostly exclamation points and pound something or the other.

But wait—there’s more. Somehow just when we thought that voice had been replaced by text it turns out video calling has brought not only voice back into the picture but our faces as well, as though we need to see the words form in someone’s mouth before we actually hear them. That absolutely useless and redundant feature made the technology on my last smart phone antiquated and thus spurred on the justification to buy yet another smart phone that is basically the same thing but has a slightly faster processor to handle the suddenly necessary need for seeing someone’s face when they talk.

Then, just when I thought my mobile technology addiction could not get any worse, or for that matter, more expensive, came a deluge of smart watches that nobody asked for but which now are suddenly a must have. Not only do I have to have a phone that is as big as my face, but now I have the urgent need to have a smart watch on my wrist that allows me to check text messages and receive email notifications, all of which save me precious seconds that I would otherwise waste reaching into my pocket for my phone. And by the way, who wouldn’t want to be seen walking around the street talking into their wrist? It’s a total status symbol for sure. But now that I have maxed out my credit card to buy my wrist candy I’m sure my addiction will be satisfied for a few months—though I did visit my older brother in Colorado last month and saw he was wearing the very expensive and exclusive Google Glasses. Apparently the drug dealing business there is booming.