As I write this paper, electrons are shooting throughout my brain. That's right, thousands of tiny particles, slicing through my head at the speed of light. I sit down to my computer to write this paper knowing that I am staring right down the barrel of an electron gun, my monitor. The monitor fires a constant stream of electrons and diverts them using electromagnets. They then strike the phosphorus at the front of my screen, creating the light I see and the radiation that continues to surge through my body. The scariest thing of all is I like it. I sit at the computer for hours every day. I find it strangely comforting. I do not know what it is that keeps me coming back to my computer. Is it the warm glow of the monitor or could it possibly be the radiation? .
As infants, we are brought up with radiation as our guardian angel. From the hospital room, to the baby spoons made of recycled nickel from nearby nuclear power plants, we grow up, getting our ideas and our sociality under constant watch of our friend, radiation. We are bombarded with it when we drive our cars, eat our food, and walk through those annoying delayed doors of the local Wal-mart Supercenter. .
Radiation is associated in our deepest mind with technology and convenience. Granted some radiation is very harmful but most is quite natural. We can never escape it. No one really cares though; we usually enjoy it. Scientists have discovered that people like waterfalls because the friction in the crashing water releases free-floating electrons. Our bodies absorb these electrons and use them as catalysts, making simple functions such as digesting food easier. Because we have to spend less energy to survive, we experience a relaxing feeling and a longing for waterfalls and in my case, my computer monitor. .
I suppose the addiction itself spawned when I was young and my dad brought me home my first computer. Back then, monitors were made poorly and radiation emitted from them on a almost severe scale.