Hundreds of years ago, when people traveled in tribes and in smaller groups, the main thrust in life was to improve the tribe.

However, in our modern society the human creature has slowly turned toward a more self-serving attitude. What this means is that people are more and more intent on satisfying personal urges as opposed to working to improve our community, our society, and our species.

Stemming from this urge to gratify yourself comes the problem of addictions. “Hello my name is Marty…” has become the greeting card of self-help addiction therapy groups. However, there are many addictions that do not get the attention and assistance that other more common addictions receive.

While searching the net I came across many pages dedicated to the gratification of various body parts.

Don’t get the wrong idea — I am not talking about the many pornographic pages that you can find with the ease of a simple key stroke, but rather pages that profess individual addiction to non-sexual body parts. One specifically is the addiction to feet.

Without a doubt, for me, feet are the most disgusting part of the body. I have difficulty looking at my own feet, putting socks on and even clipping my nails. I get goose bumps thinking about it. Who could honestly find feet sexy or even attractive? Toe jam, athletes foot, ingrown nails, and the fact that they have their own pungent odor is enough to keep me away.

Yet, to my surprise, there are pages on the net dedicated to glorifying these growths at the end of our legs. And not just one or two pages but hundreds of pages. One page I apprehensively looked at claimed that over ten thousand people had visited the page in the past four months.

Another addiction that comes to mind is the addiction to e-mail.

During the past number of weeks away from campus, I have come to understand that my attachment to my e-mail account was bordering on obsessive. As an international student, my telephone bills reach high levels, but with e-mail, I can talk longer and more often for free. This is appealing to many students regardless of where they hail from. But the fact remains that I continuously think about all the mail that I could be receiving. I receive a rush of adrenaline when I see the “you have mail line” come up when I enter Vincent.

I would never claim that I have an addiction to e-mail, but I have seen people who do. One of my roommates during the school year checks his e-mail a minimum of ten times a day. He claims that because he is a computer science major he has to stay on top of it. I tell him the Nile is not just a river in Egypt.

Another addiction that I think the telephone companies promote is drunk dialing. When you drink, you have this urge to call all the people with whom you have unresolved issues. This means ex-girlfriends, the bully from high school or that old roommate who still owes you for the phone bill.

The fact of the matter is that the people who suffer from this addiction have most likely talked the ears off people at the bar and their roommates. The only people left are ones who are not in the immediate vicinity. Of course, with this problem comes the fact that you are going to say things you will undoubtedly regret. My favorite is “I still love you.”

Finally, the last off-the-wall addiction that I will talk about is one that everyone has experienced but most likely never addressed. This addiction is the real monkey on all our backs. The addiction I am referring to is the addiction to Chap Stick.

I have a friend who is presently in the process of trying to ditch the habit. Last week she kept rubbing her lips and guzzling glass after glass of water so that she could avoid licking her lips to keep them moist. Licking your lips is the worst thing you can do.

Unfortunately, because of the severity of other more popular addictions, such as alcoholism, nymphomania, drugs or food, the more unpopular addictions I have mentioned do not receive government assistance or their own television charities. This does not mean your addiction is not important or disruptive to your life. There is help, and you can kick the habit just like anyone else.

I mean, I took long distance calling off my phone-line and am only allowing myself to check my e-mail once a day. But that’s just it. I’m taking it one day at a time.

Marty Forth is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Ottawa, Canada.