If you love gadgets and computers and absolutely must have the latest device, then you may be a neophiliac. Neophiliacs, it seems, are people who are addicted to the new. "Some folks have an almost unstoppable draw to every whizzy new electronic gizmo. Or maybe they just have to have the latest combination of strappy sandals and hip-hugging jeans," reports Media Life magazine.
The report explains new research from the Yamagata University School of Medicine in Japan. This research suggests that some people may actually be more genetically predisposed to wanting the newest things. It all comes down to a mitochondrial enzyme called monoamine oxidase A, the report explains. Those who produce the enzyme in high quantities are likely to be gadget-addicts, the researchers claim.
But University of York professor of sociology Colin Campbell disagrees with the analysis, pointing out that people were far more suspicious of change in the past. He suggests that it's a sociological reaction, not a genetic one. "If people were to lose interest in the novel, our economy would crash immediately," he says. "We have developed a civilization that is dependent on it. That's the situation we are in, for good or ill."
News source: Macworld UK
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