The San Jose Mercury News is running a big series on how information technology is affecting modern life, and this weekend they had a long piece on gratification. It quotes a number of people I admire– Jesse Fox and Robert Burton, both of whom I discuss in the book, and Natasha Schull, whose work on machine gambling and flow I’ve mentioned here– then closes with this little vignette:

Pang, who wrote the newly published “The Distraction Addiction,” says pleasure can be corrupted by overuse.

“I have a couple bottles of excellent scotch,” he says. “[But] I don’t feel the need to chug it down.”

So in case you were concerned, no, I’m not a heavy drinker. Indeed, my metabolism seems even less able to handle alcohol these days than ever: after a drink or two I tend to go straight to tired and hung over, and skip “drunk” entirely. Not cost effective.