You too may be Covered by the ADA
Always have a yen for the latest gadget (and if you read this blog regularly, you probably do)? If so, you might be genetically predisposed to doing so, according to a study published in the scientific journal Psychiatric Genetics by researchers from Japan's Yamagata University School of Medicine. The study points proposes that people with a specific form of a cellular enzyme, known as monoamine oxidase A, are more likely to need the stimulation of getting new things – hence the desire to own the latest and greatest toys. Unfortunately, while this discovery sounds like a great excuse to indulge your buying desires when they strike, the research suggests strong parralels between gadget desire and addiction disorders. Maybe some day there will be a gadgets Anonymous?
There's controversy over the announcement, of course – some critics believe that the craving for gadgets is like any other craving: a social urge, not a genetic one. Others think that the desire for the newest gadgets is just an expression of natural human curiousity fed by advertising. It might be a mix of all three, but maybe we can get the government to give us tax write offs for all of the new stuff we buy – or at least get protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
