"Of course not. But try as I might, I just can't control myself. I cannot stop from clicking on those buttons and visiting those distracting websites."
Well technology is coming to the rescue yet again. There are a ton of apps hitting the market now as well as some that were released last year and the year before. These applications range from blocking shopping impulses to stopping you from making phone calls after a few drinks. Sure, the latter seems like it would be a no brainer. But surprisingly enough more and more people are downloading these apps. One such app reports having been downloaded more than 2000 times in 2010 for the Blackberry smart phone. Others that install on your desktop PC will block out either certain web sites or the Internet all together for certain periods of time. Some may say that this is not so different then when the IT department blocks the web from your office PC. Sure it is. Because what makes this so different is that these are apps being installed by the users themselves! People are stopping themselves from enacting this behavior and that is where the big change is.
We have come to a point in society where some of us are realizing that we cannot control certain urges and impulses and are taking steps to stop ourselves from acting upon them. A great example is the Breathalyzer locks that are installed in peoples cars after getting a DUI. I'm sure your familiar with them. You have a little plastic tube that sticks out of your steering wheel or gear shifter, there are many different models. But either way, there is a plastic tube that you have to blow into so that the machine can test your bodies alcohol content. If it is above the legal limit it will block the ignition to your vehicle and you cannot drive your car until someone who has not been drinking blows to activate the machine. Again there is a movement in the US of people voluntarily installing these machines into their cars and in some cases into their teenage child's car. Reports show that while it is moving slowly, there is a steady rise in sales and installations of these devices on a voluntary basis.
So as technology gets better and more and more intrusive, many people are taking it upon themselves to utilize this technology to help control the things in their lives that they feel they cannot control themselves. So here you have two sides of the coin. You have a group that claims these devices are signs that "big government" is taking control of our lives in ways that should be left in our own control. Then you have the other side, where people are taking this technology and using it on themselves to help control things in their lives that they feel they cannot do on their own. The technology is everywhere. Look at any smart phone on the market and they all have applications that fit the bill. Likewise, any public domain PC software download site has a myriad of similar applications for free download. The choice is yours. Can you take control of your own life and your impulses and stop yourself from shopping for that hot new fashion while on the clock? Or will you have to admit to yourself that you have no control and install one of these applications? In an era which we have more choices than ever before we are given the opportunity to take those choices away. So what will you do? The question now becomes do you trust yourself or not?
