The Human Integration at 13:41

I have been reading a few articles recently about people's increasing reliability in their mobile phones.

In a recent survey over 50% of those questioned admitted that they would find it very hard to give up their mobile devices. The same survey found that mobiles are now the most coveted technology, ahead of Internet access and television.
There have also been repeated stories in the past couple of weeks reporting phone addiction, from users feeling phantom phone vibrations to 2 Spanish pre-teens being treated for mobile addiction, unable to do anything without their phones.

But this is not addiction, this is outsourcing.

I have outsourced my memory, my map reading skills and created a soundtrack to my life.
When asked a question I consult the oracles, Google and Wikipedia.
When I travel to somewhere new, I don't refer to the map and workout the best route, I rely on TomTom and CoPolit.
All of this, set an eclectic mix of music tracks on Windows Media Mobile Player.
I have even outsourced my personality though my online avatar Biomehanika.

Is my phone a new limb? No, my phone is now my 2nd brain, my outboard brain.
I can read minds through blogs and forums, I can travel the world in seconds with Virtual Earth and I can communicate with my friends in all corners of the earth on XBOX Live and Live Messenger.
I am reachable where ever I travel, by phone, email, sms and im.
The answers to my questions are equally reachable, drawn from the digital aether that is the internet.
Mutual availability wherever a connection can be made.

Far from addiction I see integration, I see the ever expanding capabilities through the cyborg connection that I call my Windows Mobile.