Singaporeans May Be Suffering From Tech Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (TOCD)

The IT Show in Singapore which ended yesterday broke records yet again with sales over S$65 million and over 800,000 visitors. Record sales and visitors have been achieved every year and this is the same for the other tech shows – The PC Show (June), COMEX (September), and SITEX (November). The four tech shows are also know as Singapore’s four seasons as they happen every three months.

Singaporeans just can’t get enough of tech gadgets and products. We lap up every new phone, camera, computer, netbook, printer, portable hard disk, and music player that is available. We keep buying and changing more electrical and electronic products unnecessarily. It’s like we are suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and can’t stop.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a type of anxiety disorder in which you have unreasonable thoughts and fears (obsessions) that lead you to engage in repetitive behaviors (compulsions). With obsessive-compulsive disorder, you may realize that your obsessions aren’t reasonable, and you may try to ignore them or stop them. But that only increases your distress and anxiety. Ultimately, you feel driven to perform compulsive acts in an effort to ease your distress. – MayoClinic.com

Perhaps Singaporeans may be suffering from tech obsessive-compulsive disorder (TOCD), which we define as a type of anxiety disorder in which a person feels empty and unsatisfied with existing tech products (which are working perfectly fine), and engages in repetitive behaviour to buy new tech products in an effort to ease that urge. But after buying the new tech products, the person feels empty again and has the urge to buy newer tech products, and the cycle continues again (every 3 months).

Are you suffering from TOCD? TOCD not only causes distress and anxiety to the sufferers but also impacts the environment. Resources are used to manufacture and ship electrical and electronic products all over the world and it’s a waste of resources if the lifespan of the products get shorter as consumers keep changing them.

Most importantly, as more such products are being discarded, it becomes a global e-waste problem. The export of e-waste from developed countries to developing countries on the pretext of recycling poses environmental and health problems as the e-waste contains toxic chemicals that will pollute the environment if they are not “recycled” properly in the developing countries.

We usually prescribe a simple treatment for TOCD by training thoughts on:

Use it as long as it works.

Buy only what you need.

Go to tech shows occasionally.