If there one thing that defines and sets Silicon Valley apart from the rest of the world I would guess it is our addiction to the Internet and various devices like laptop, blackberries and iPhones. You could say it is an occupation hazard of living in the valley. There are nay sayers who don’t believe in Internet addiction. I am basing this post on personal anecdotes and what I see when I am out and about in Silicon Valley.

I was walking down Union Street in San Francisco the other day and saw two senior citizens standing on the roadside peering into their Apple laptop! It is the same scene when I visit various coffee shops on Union Street. Sometime the coffee shops are so jammed that I cannot find a spot to sit. This is true of the local Starbucks. What is the draw to this particular Starbucks? You get free wi-fi from Anchor, which is supposedly located in the same building as the coffee shop! By the way I hear that Om Malik frequents a certain Starbucks in downtown San Francisco and is a regular fixture there.

If you thought the scene is just confined to coffee shops, think again. It is the same scene at homes too here in the bay area. It is amazing when I visit people’s home I find that everybody is peering into their laptop either watching a video, emailing or surfing. Even non-technical people, who are allergic to the very word “Internet” appear to have become converts. One of them is a die-hard technology Luddite, but her husband rigged up her gigantic flatscreen panel to the wi-fi router and showed her how at the click of a button she can be surfing on the net and now I find that she regularly watches YouTube video clips! I was recently visiting an extended family member and discovered the mother standing at the kitchen counter peering into her laptop and in the family room her son was busy chatting with his friends on MySpace! What did I do? I sat down at the dining table, pulled out my laptop and started working away.

I remember about 15 years ago when I still had dial-up connection how first thing in the morning I would check my email and if it was a weekend I would be glued to my desktop. Since this was a dial-up connection people had no way of reaching me on the landlline. My friends and family would frown and complain about my anti-social behavior. Now, it is interesting to see the same set of folks hooked to their laptops for an extended period of time! Now, while they are all hooked to their various devices, I am slowly weaning myself away from them. I rarely use my mobile phone here, and there are times when I try to get away from my laptop and meet people, which is always far more enriching.

Apparently our addiction to the Internet, laptops and blackberries is becoming a source of failed marriages. One Silicon Valley executive tells me that she knows of people whose marriage is on the rocks because of the demands that this always-on lifestyle puts on couples. I can believe that since my husband was addicted to his blackberry and is a power user of his mobile.

Where is this all going to lead? My suspicion is that the digital landscape and lifestyle area is ripe for change, but how and where that change will come from is a little hard to tell. What I do see in the valley is an increase in the number of people who have taken up yoga and meditation. Perhaps, Pico Iyer was right when he commented that it might be a good idea to disconnect and do something different. He should know since he has been a harbinger of global trends for 20 years now, and regularly takes time off to disconnect and reset his priorities. Maybe we should take a leaf out of his book?

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