a few thoughts on addiction: alcohol, marijuana, tobacco, texting
09 Jul 2026since december, i’ve been thinking a lot about addiction. a few reasons:
- my uncle died this past dec due to complications related to his alcoholism
- the bff of one of my partner’s just recently came out as a substance addict
- i got a new cell phone which mean my brick works again and i’ve started dabbling with integrating it back into my life
as my thoughts have been tumbling around, i’m really starting to see the deep ways that addiction is just a way to cope with life being too much. this is age-old alcoholics anonymous wisdom but i hear it often from my friend and teacher, gibrán. you have to “live life on life’s terms.” addiction is a way to try to avoid doing that.
my most significant photography project when i was in my photo days was #popipop: people in phones in public or private (see my fav 4 photos here(https://imgur.com/a/35mm-Dp1CO)). even back in 2013 i was noticing the ways people were diving into their phones as way to avoid difficulty (myself included).
by my estimation, it’s gotten worse (myself included).
i have been tracking lately my desire to be on my phone while driving. which… on its face… is absolutely bonkers. while operating a 2000 pound piece of heavy machinery, sometimes at 70+ mph… i’m on my phone. like… what? what is happening in my body such that that feels like something that makes sense?
and as i’ve started to look at that practice in that light, the question is arising: is being addicted to my phone really so different than being addicted to alcohol? is driving 45 mph around town while texting any more dangerous to me (and others) than doing too much heroine? what really is the difference between dissociation via a substance (alcohol, marijuana, tobacco) and dissociation via smart device delivered dopamine? on one level, i can rationalize and say “these things are not the same.” but on another, when i try to make myself stop…
yikes.
words / writing / post-processing
~300w / 12min / 2min