Addiction

stories

for the information age

These bite-sized stories chronicle my efforts, both pitiful and successful,

to navigate the rapidly-changing world.

My hope is that they help you do the same.

Sep 14, 2022
1 min

EMPTY-HANDED

In the bookstore, the fusty scent of ink and pulp. I want to lie down on the floor and breathe in the smell of words. I want to hold the...

Jul 28, 2022
1 min

WHEN WE WERE APART

There were no cellphones back then. Back then, when we were apart, we wrote letters to each other. On legal pads, or binder paper. In...

Nov 11, 2021
1 min

SLOW LIFE

I have always been a slow reader. But lately, my pace seems to have slowed even more. One good book can take months to finish. Maybe my...

Jul 31, 2021
1 min

SLEEP WATCHING

VERB. When you think you’re watching a show, but you’re actually asleep.

Apr 15, 2021
2 min

THE LIFE WE WANT TO LIVE

In each of my childhood memories, smoke plumes across the scene. My parents smoked in the car, tipped ashes out of the triangular window,...

Mar 26, 2021
1 min

NOCTURNE

All day I wait for night -- the cricket whir, the moonlight, the hush. If daylight belongs to all creatures, night is possessive; it...

Mar 5, 2021
1 min

JUST SIT THERE

I read somewhere that 85% of cellphones have fecal matter on them. In other words, touching someone else’s phone is kind of like changing...

Feb 11, 2021
2 min

IMAGE OVERLOAD

It was a cold winter evening when my future husband and I went to the Met with our figure drawing class. The night was brisk, but inside...

Dec 18, 2020
1 min

ARE YOU A PHONE-CHECKER?

PEOPLE WHO DO NOT CHECK THEIR PHONES: Bert & Ernie Elton John, or so he says Virginia Woolf Newborn babies People who do not have phones,...

Dec 3, 2020
1 min

OUT THERE

We are talking, laughing, nodding, pitching in to a communal hum. All of us. Together. Endorphins are being released with each I know...

Nov 19, 2020
1 min

WHICH CAME FIRST?

For years, my friend and I argued over the question of her mother's drinking. Did her mother drink so much because she was in pain? Or...

Oct 22, 2020
1 min

DISTRACTED?

Often, something in the book I am reading reminds me of something I ought to do on my phone. I read the word meteorologist, which prompts...

Sep 24, 2020
1 min

COUNTING SLEEP

It has been one month since I kicked my cellphone out of the bedroom. And since that first evening, I've slept an average of...

Aug 6, 2020
1 min

SLEEP TRAINING

One evening before bed, I get up all my strength and kick my phone out of the bedroom. Night, night, I tell my phone, as I place her on a...

May 28, 2020
1 min

DREAM LIGHT

Daylight, back-of-eyelid light, bath light, kitchen light, fridge light, desk light, screen light, sunlight, daylight,...

May 15, 2020
1 min

SOMETIMES MY SON

Sometimes my son comes into my office and sits down. He sits on the spare chair at my desk and looks at me. I stop what I am doing and...

Apr 22, 2020
1 min

MAGIC 8 BALL

My smartphone is a Magic 8 Ball. It knows the answers to everything, especially now, with so much uncertainty. I just need to ask. I...

Apr 10, 2020
1 min

BOGGLE

I have begun to play Boggle online up to ten times a day. I am getting pretty good and now routinely beat the computer and earn over 300...

Dec 30, 2019
1 min

THE RABBIT HOLE

I intend to accomplish one small thing, check the weather, for example, but I am waylaid by a text notification from my sister. The text...

Dec 24, 2019
1 min

HATCH A PLAN

I hatch a plan to get my phone out of the bed. I have not slept more than 5 hours in months. I am grumpy and my brain no longer seems to...