Why Not To Term The Term Addict Lightly (Even "I'm A Twitter Addict".

I AM NOT A “TWITTER ADDICT” (AND NEITHER ARE YOU)

c2009 By Rick London



I grew up what one might call fortunate. I had all “the opportunities” in that I came from a successful and well-known family. Two of my family members were two of the most well-known worldwide in their trade, one a poetess, and one a U.S. Supreme Court Judge. Being “successful” is such a misnomer in our culture. As Leo Tolstoy pointed out in his opening of Anna Karenina, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”. . Success is not “just more money”; in fact money often has very little to do with it. It is about happiness combined with a healthy lifestyle, loving family and friends.

The western world is still learning that depression, addiction, and other emotional disorders exist and pays no mind to social status. My own family had its share of alcoholism, addiction, suicides
and much trauma. I am not sure why, I survived, but I did, after many years of “acting out”. I returned to college at age forty-four. I learned new skills and a trade. I learned to love stability, nature, know how precious family, friends and other loved ones are, the necessity of communing with nature and animals, and taking care of my body/mind/and soul.

There is still way too much stigma attached to addiction, depression, and other real medical ailments, in which the one afflicted cannot help it any more than one suffering with cancer, diabetes, heart disease, or multiple (you name the disease).

These other diseases do not have stigmas. In fact the only two disease of which I am aware in which the person suffering from the disease is “identified with the disease”. For example, if a person walking down the street with congestive heart failure is seen, nobody says “There goes a heart diseased person”, if someone with cancer is observed, nobody says “There goes a cancerous person.

But if someone has an addiction, you can almost be sure, they will be described as “their disease”. “He/she is an addict” or “He she is an alcoholic”. Same is true with depression. “There goes Bill, he's
depressed you know” (as if that is the only asset Bill has...depression).

How do we stop this stigma. I believe the first step, has more to do with society (NOT afflicted with these diseases), than those with it. For instance, as innocent as it might seem (and cute/funny) to say “He/she is addicted to Twitter” or “He she is an Internet addict”; it lessens the severity of the scope of the disease. It may seem harmless, but it is not. Do I sit in judgment? Of course not. I used to say the same thing, until it came to my attention, I was furthering the stigma, therefore making it harder for struggling people to find real medical treatment.

I have worked in writing, media, and the entertainment business for almost three decades. The media has covered it so thoroughly, and how epidemic these disease are in it, that it would be redundant to
go into here with a sermon.

So who can facilitate change? I believe the media can. Major network media. They need to understand that “it's just not funny” to compare constructive, productive social networking such as Twitter or Facebook (or whatever) with a fatal disease such as an addiction. The “leader sets the tone” and in our country, the leaders, are often in the media.

I hope that one day, a brave, insightful “major media player” will read this article and help facilitate that it is “as uncool to correlate lethal diseases, and pin tags of modern day society at work, when, all it does is further the stigma, hence the depression, and finally death of the person suffering.

Please think about it. I am not for censorship, and anyone has the right to “make light of addiction, etc with the gratuitous “I'm a Twitter Addict”, but if you can see the harm it does, perhaps you'll think twice. There are millions of sufferers in our country, who need and want help, but won't get it, simply
because of “the jokes”, though done in fun. I know nobody means harm. But it is time to be conscious of this very serious stigma that we are prolonging, and deterring sufferers from receiving help.

Thank you for allowing me to share my views.

Londons Times Cartoons Offering $500 Gift Certificate To Lucky Twitter

TOP GOOGLE OFFBEAT CARTOONIST/& OFFBEAT GIFT SHOP OWNER GIVING $500 GIFT CERTIFICATES TO LUCKY TWITTER


Dateline: Hot Springs, Ar. March 11, 2009: Cartoonist E-entreneur Rick London

announced today his firm, Rick London Group, LLC., is offering a $500 gift

certificate to his award-wining top-ranked offbeat cartoon funny gift stores, if Twitters

will put him at the top of Twitter. Making it “to the top” simply

means having the most followers. (His user name is “ricklondon”) on Twitter.

London's six award-winning Internet stores feature over 165,000 gift items

such as coffee mugs, T-shirts, gourmet coffee gift baskets (his own line of

farm-fresh coffee beans with cartoon mugs and coasters, teddy bears, maternity

wear, magnets, buttons, jogging suits, caps, aprons, hoodies, shoes, wall and

desk clocks, and much more more.

London is also the designer of (Shoes That Amuse) women's casual sneakers with

famous love quotations and graphics of the famous person who penned them,

featured recently in USA Today and AP Wire which will also be included in the

contest.

London adds, “But not to worry, even if I don't make it to the top, (Obama is

there now), I am giving a $100 certificate for the most 'retweets'. So I really

don't have to be at the top for other Twitters to win. Simply following me and

retweeting, and one can still win a $100 gift certificate,

easily, without even a drawing. We simply count the retweets of each Twitter

member at the end of the contest.

A re-tweet is when another blogger at Twitter copies and pastes your tweet with an

“RT” in front of it which stands for “retweet”, giving the original blogger credit

for the post, and, sharing it with , often a whole separate network of followers.

London will allow 120 days for the contest to end, and a name to be drawn at

random on his birthday which is July 16th. . London plans to print his page of

followers, cut the names into squares, place them in a box, and draw one.

London adds, “In addition, we plan to issue a press release, if the winner wishes,

including his/her name and web address to the wire services for yet more value to

the prizes. Londons adds, “There also will be a second prize winner, of a $100 gift

certificate.

In addition, a $50 second prize for the second most “retweets”.

The gift certificates will be good at all of London's stores. He founded Londons

Times on March 22, 1997, and it has grown to be one of the most visible sites on the

Internet, and Google's #1 ranked offbeat cartoon and gifts since 2005.

He will also add an extra $25 bonus gift certificate if the winner has visited his

main cartoon site and signs up for his monthly newsletter.

His stores include

Rick London Special Editions Top-selling funny gifts

Rick LondonWear Rare line of funny rock star memorabilia and other novelty gifts

Rick London Collection Huge variety of best-selling funny gift ideas

Londons Times Superstore Londons largest funny gift store and exclusively sells world's only gourmet coffee cartoon gift basket (Londons Own Line).



Rick London Organics (organic cotton tees) bearing his top-selling cartoon images.

Shoes That Amuse (World's Only Famous Love Quotation Shoes) These are not cartoon products but women's casual shoes he designs.

For more information: contact: info@londonstimes.us

For Spreadsheet (Temp Blog)