14 DAY TRIAL // Are you simply obsessed with everything that's new, modern and hype? Do you feel that you simply have to buy the latest cell-phone model, the latest designer clothes or shoes, or the latest gadgets you're always reading about? You can't stop staring at everything that's new, unknown and addictively attractive, and you just don't feel good if you're not constantly updated on everything that's going on in the world? Well, if this symptoms suit you, then you might be suffering from an almost unknown type of illness, namely "neophilia".
We all know that one of the most important human traits is curiosity. Hadn't we been curious by nature, you would be reading this article from a clay plate or a papyrus right now (ok, perhaps I'm exaggerating a bit). Nevertheless, mankind's progress is based on curiosity, even if, unfortunately, there are some cases when this curiosity reaches extreme levels, as there are always people who are simply too curious regarding certain subjects, people who can be labeled as "neophiles".
According to Wikipedia, a ?neophile" is "a person who's very open and excited about everything that's new". Personally, I would add that it's also a person for whom old things kind of lose their value, become less important, and the interest for them drops exponentially.
It's quite true that a very large number of people could be included in this category. However, it seems that what up until now was regarded as a social phenomenon, related to the speed at which things happen in our world, might have a physical cause.
Thus, as an article published by Heidi Dawley on www.medialifemagazine.com informs us, the researchers from the Yamagata University School of Medicine in Japan have discovered the fact that the persons who have a very high level of interest for everything that's new also have a special form of a a mitochondrial enzyme called monoamine oxidase A.
Obviously, for most readers (as it was for me, before I began documenting for this article), the monoamine oxidase A is nothing more than a term from that "alien language" most doctors use. Well, the monoamine oxidase A is an enzyme that has a very important role in the catabolism of the monoamines from food, and some of the problems caused by certain deficiencies of this enzyme are depressions, substance abuse, criminality, attention deficit disorder, and social phobias.
Practically, one could say that the neophilia is a type of addiction, less dangerous, but as expensive as some other, more "established" ones. However, as in the case of any revolutionary theory, there are also some adverse opinions, and one of them is that of Colin Campbell, a professor of sociology from the University of York, in UK, who, when speaking with Heidi Dawley, has stated that this attraction for novelty is not likely to have a genetic cause and has rather a social one, considering the fact that is has manifested starting with the 18'th century, the century of the great industrial revolution, and on the other hand, it's a well-known fact that ancient societies were more neophobic than neophilic.
Whatever the truth might be, and whether we're talking about a genetic problem or a social phenomenon, one thing's for sure: neophilia is a blessing for many companies, because one of the most important symptoms of this condition forces a person into spending a lot of money on the latest products, whose prices are generally quite high. After all, this is not the first time an entire industry is based on inflicting a certain addiction on the consumers, especially those who are genetically predisposed to it, no?
Photo Credit: opm.phar.umich.edu