ell me how it is even possible to prefer one’s blackberry over one’s beloved spouse.  Tell me how it is even possible to admit this—even to oneself.  Surely this is one of those moments when the expression “Have you no shame?” applies with full force.  A major crisis alarm should have gone off for anyone who even answered the survey by saying that she or he prefers the blackberry to her or his spouse.  Each person who gave that answer should have immediately had the thought: “This is not the kind of spouse that I want to be”.  That is, the answer ought to have been a rude awakening.  After all, a rude awakening beats no awakening at all. 

I am referring, of course, to the article “Technology Can be Berry, Berry Addictive”, which reports that 35 percent of blackberry owners would choose their blackberry over their spouse.  What is most important to notice is that no one deliberately chose to acquire this sort of incredibly warped preference.  Rather, this damnable preference structure has come about as a result of a desensitization that was forged. 

Let me put the point another way.  We can reasonably assume no person would choose to be the sort of individual whose psychological configuration is such that she or he generally prefers a machine over the warmth and affection of a person, be that person a good friend or a spouse.  It is one thing to want to be alone upon occasion or to prefer some moments alone surfing the internet.  It is quite another to have a psychological configuration where one generally and routinely prefers an electronic internet device to the company of a loved-one (spouse or good friend).   

Given that no one reasonable person would actually choose to be that way, the very fact that so many have come to have this warped preference—an extraordinary 35 percent—tells us something very disconcerting. 

The malleability of human beings is, at once, our greatest strength and our greatest liability.  And the article “Technology Can be Berry, Berry Addictive” poignantly points to one of the liabilities that is constitutive of our human nature: If we are not careful we who are human can become desensitized to the greatest of all human gifts, namely love and affection.  That is what the 35 percent tells us.  Notice: not 1 percent or even 5 percent, but a whopping 35 percent—a third of those surveyed: 35 percent of 6500 individuals.  That amounts to more than 1900 individuals. 

And notice that if we claim that what is normal is simply a function of how more than 50-percent of humans behave, then we have the rather startling and utterly disconcerting conclusion that preferring a blackberry to a loved-one is approaching something that is normal for human beings.  

What distinguishes a psychologically healthy human being from a human zombie, it being understood that a zombie is by definition a human being manqué?  Surely, human beings are approaching zombie status if they have a psychological configuration where they have a general preference for blackberries over the affection of a loved-one. 

This much is manifestly clear to me: The more zombie-like we become, the easier it becomes to manipulate us.  And one reason for this is that more zombie-like we become the more morally numb we become.  And to become morally numb is essentially to give evil a very form port-of-entry into the very being of our lives. 

This is the real significance of the survey.  It reveals something most frightening about what human beings might become.  Already, we can see what some have shamelessly become.  And the reality of the 35 percent does not portend a better world in that speaks to the zombie-reality in all of us.