High-tech gadgets an addiction?

Shana Mansell can't imagine life without her digital video recorder.

"I have to have my shows," said the 20-year-old sophomore at the University of North Alabama. "I could live without my laptop before I could live without my television."

Mansell readily admits she's got to have her tech gadgets - the cell phone with unlimited texting, the laptop with Internet access, the iPod for instant access to her favorite songs. And having all these things, she said, "makes my life easier. I mean, I sleep with my cell phone beside my bed. I get a text every five minutes or so. It's just how we keep in touch with each other."

Getting and staying connected seems to have become a way of life in American culture. Among younger generations, especially, there seems to be a need to keep up with the new technology that allows them to be in constant communication, according to experts in behavioral science.

Larry Bates, an associate professor of psychology at UNA, said so much of our dependence on technology is largely the result of the reward that is associated with its use.

"Reinforcement is always much stronger if it is immediate," he said. "If I click on an elevator button and the doors open immediately, that reinforces my behavior to take the elevator rather than if I push the button and have to wait five minutes, in which case I'm likely to give up."

Bates, who has an Apple iPhone in order to stay connected, said so much of the dependence on tech gadgets comes from a need for people to feel in control - of relationships or to-do lists or appointments.

"There's a great need to feel in control because we're so out of control," he said. "We're likely trading this sea of disorder in order to have these little islands of organization."

Kieaire Harris, a senior at UNA from Hazel Green, said having her laptop, with Internet, and cell phone give some organization to her hectic life.

Graduating in May with a degree in computer information systems, she's in search of her first job, so she said she needs to have her phone with her in case she gets a call for an interview as well as her appointment schedule readily available.

"I've got to have my computer because that's where I do everything - create scrapbooks and write lists of things to remember and create documents for school," she said. "But I've got to have the Internet. Without that, my laptop is pretty much irrelevant."

Harris said she'd be willing to put down her phone and laptop for a day or two, but she's not looking to avoid them all together in deference to letter-writing or poring over literary journals and books to do her research.

There is a shift among people in their 40s and beyond, however, who are trying to get away from the technology that infiltrates their lives, Bates said.

"We're beginning to hear a very loud call for wilderness," he said. "There are more and more people who want to get away from their technology. They might go to the ocean or mountain or desert. It's all part of this call for simplicity. And, ironically, there are a lot of Web sites that can teach us how to live more simply."

Richard Hudiburg, a psychology professor at UNA, said age is a factor when it comes to feeling a need to use technology to be connected with the larger world.

He said cell phones and other similar gadgets have become a part of modern life.

"People tend to want to use those devices instead of having a face-to-face conversation," Hudiburg said. "Texting is the first line, second is a call and, only if they have to, will they see (someone) that's face to face."

Like Bates, he said the instantaneousness of these devices makes them appealing, but it's something Hudiburg said becomes a "technological tether," one that's so strong that he's noticed his students not interacting with each other after class but flipping open their phones to check for missed calls and text messages.

"People convince themselves they need cell phones to have the possibility of immediate response, and that is what has begun to change people's behavior," he said.

It's not just a cell phone Karlos Rogers is connected to. He counts his navigational device as well as his laptop with Internet among the tech devices he doesn't care to live without. He's also among the students who will grab their phone first to connect with others instead of striking up a face-to-face conversation.

"There are times maybe I wish I didn't need to be connected and when it gets in my way," he said. "But I don't think I would want to live without it."

Michelle Rupe Eubanks can be reached at 740-5745 or michelle.eubanks@TimesDaily.com.