I have become a computer-addicted workaholic – how do I stop losing my life to the screen?

A man who works in software admits that his life is being swallowed by the computer. He feels like a workaholic whose mind is constantly running on concepts, screens and deadlines, while his body and real life fade into the background. Barry Long responds by exposing the unreality of the computer world: it grips the brain, builds momentum in the mind, and gradually robs a man of the simple sense of being alive in his body. He warns that humanity is in danger of becoming “computerholic,” living more and more in virtuality and less in love, life and real sensation. Barry points out that this planet is for sensory perception, relationship and the use of the body, not for escaping into mental inventions. His guidance is to recognise the spell, return to the body, and give life and love priority over the machine-driven demands of work.In this short dialogue, recorded in Leicester in 1996, Barry Long speaks about computers and virtual reality with a clarity that now sounds prophetic. Long before social media, smartphones or AI-driven feeds, he warned that man would become “transfixed” by the screen, living more and more in conceptual, man-made worlds and less in the simple, sensory reality of his own body. He foresaw a time when the computer’s momentum in the brain would steal a person’s capacity to feel life, to love and to relate, and when humanity would start to invent virtual realities to replace the direct experience of being here and now. Nearly three decades later, in an age of constant connectivity, immersive virtual realities and AI-generated everything, his warnings about 'computerholics' and the loss of real life read like a presaging of our current condition.'Man is going to become so transfixed with his computers and things that he loses the sense of life in his body… This is a planet of sensory perception and life and love and use of the body, and those things he will have to leave that body and invent for himself a virtual reality of his own making.'~This Q&A comes from the third of nine recordings in the 1996 LEICESTER series, recorded in July of 1996. These and many other never-before-published recordings have been meticulously digitised only recently and are now available for listening in high quality. The complete 1996 LEICESTER series can be heard in two ways: through The Barry Long Podcast or The Barry Long Archive.The full recording is available here – https://open.spotify.com/episode/1JS2uAYn9KbaFEMoHWlP6H~From the archive:📃 What Is the Price of Knowledge? – https://www.barrylong.org/archive/articles/299/what-is-the-price-of-knowledge – 'What happens the more you know, man and woman? You don't get anything for nothing. It's got to come from somewhere. If you take an extra word into you, it has to come at the price of something. What is your knowledge costing you? The price is life... Every satellite the scientists send up takes a bit more out of your life...'~Barry Long Answers is a new, free podcast that invites listeners into the intimate dialogue of audience questions and the spiritual master’s answer. These exchanges provide universal guidance to a range of everyday issues concerning man and woman. Each episode begins with a direct question put to Barry and his uncompromising response.  The series draws from the Barry Long Archive, a repository of over 20 years of Barry Long’s teachings.For full-length talks and extended dialogues, besides 'Barry Long Answers', the usual 'Barry Long Podcast' continues as a separate stream, with both free and subscriber-only editions available. Or if you'd like access to the full Barry Long Archive, the Barry Long website offers a subscription to this.The Barry Long Podcast: https://www.barrylong.org/podcast/aboutThe Barry Long Archive: https://www.barrylong.org/archive