You are Sméagol.

One of the greatest characters to ever grace the pages of fiction was not a character at all- it was a ring, an inanimate object that tempts all who know of its existence to partake in its unrelenting and evil power. The creator of this ring was J.R.R. Tolkien and in his masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings, this ring holds a special power over those who have worn it, a power forged by evil in order to be reclaimed by evil unless someone is able to bear the weight of its dark burden and willfully destroy it in the very fires in which it was forged upon Mount Doom.

Sméagol, one of the characters who bore the ring over the course of hundreds of years, was one of the first to discover it. While in possession of the ring, Sméagol becomes a wretch of his true self. His mind became bent on maintaining his secret love affair with the evil ring that he nicknamed his “precious”. The ring’s power has a hold of him to the point that he prefers darkness instead of light, lies instead of truth, and hate instead of love.

As a result, he forgets who he was. After several years, he can barely remember his own name, or even his own identity. He becomes known as Gollum, an onomatopoetic name describing his grotesque coughing and wheezing he develops from living a wretched life amid the lifeless rocks of cavernous mountains, hidden away from the world in order to become one with his “precious.”

This character with two names is both a protagonist and an antagonist throughout the classic trilogy. At times, Sméagol is loyal, patient, even noble in his pursuit to help the main character, Frodo, achieve the goal of destroying a ring. In his heart, Sméagol knows that in order for true peace to reign in himself and in the world, his beloved “precious” must be sacrificed. He holds on to his former self in a glint of hope that stirs within him.

Sadly his dual personality overcomes him on many occasions. As Gollum, he is treacherous, unrelenting, and vile in his efforts to regain the ring so that it can once and for all take full possession of his soul.

The two identities trapped in one character battle one another for control over the half man, half beast, and in the end, Sméagol becomes something that he is not. He becomes the darkest version of himself. He becomes Gollum.

When we let technology take control, we endanger our total being and we become a lesser version of what we are and, worse yet, what we were meant to become.

Today, I released a book I wrote on how to overcome technology addiction.

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Image credit: Hunt, Tara, “Gollum” via flikr CC- https://flic.kr/p/GuXrs