Ever been accused of being a 'crackberry addict', or found yourself checking your device at an inopportune time?  Maybe you've texted under the table at Thanksgiving dinner, or steered with your knees rather than stop texting while driving.  Why are the flashing lights and electronic   The Washington Post published an excellent article this week that sheds some light on the question of smartphone addiction.  Reporter Michael S. Rosenwald writes:

"You see these tethered souls everywhere: The father joining in an intense Twitter debate at his daughter's dance recital. The woman cracking wise on Facebook while strolling through the mall. The guy on a date reviewing his fish tacos on Yelp. Not to mention drivers staring down instead of through their windshields.

Physically, they are present. Mentally, they are elsewhere, existing as bits of data pinging between cellphone towers.

'My wife has physically pulled the thing out of my hands a couple times,' said [Jay] Ferrari, who has been nabbed checking his Twitter feed at, among other places, his in-laws' dining room table. 'She says it's like I'm picking my nose in public.'"

So why are smartphones so addictive? Mobile applications are partly to blame, according to Rosenwald. We now live in a ceaselessly growing "new universe of diversion" - Rosenwald cites figures stating we're on track to download 7 billion mobile apps by 2013. There's new information constantly - and we love it. Rosenwald continues:

"Why is the seemingly random -- and admittedly often meaningless -- information that [people like Jay Ferrari and Mike Granetz] crave more compelling to them than playing pony with their children? It is not because they are bad parents, psychologists say. It is not because they are men. (Sorry, ladies.) It is because they are human, and human beings tend to repeat actions that are pleasurable and rewarding, particularly if they get our endorphins flowing. The complication is that we devalue delayed rewards -- the feeling, for instance, of looking back on lovely moments with family -- in favor of the immediacy of the new. In this case, it's data. It makes us high."

Rosenwald offers a compelling explanation for the ubiquity of iPhones, BlackBerrys, Palm Pres, and the like - the digital 'reward' is immediate and portable. The 'data high' Rosenwald describes makes the idea of leaving one's smartphone - with its world of immediately accessible, pleasurable diversions - at home utterly unthinkable.

Read the entire article at The Washington Post - or check out A1 of Monday's edition if you receive The Washington Post at home.