A cat named Jacques Ellul would probably call your addiction a technique. And it's definitely fleshed out in his book.

https://archive.org/details/JacquesEllulTheTechnologicalSoci...

Pretty prescient stuff!

That book has a greater number of lengthy preambles than I've ever before seen for any single volume. It's very impressive to me in that way.

I will try to give it a read.

Thanks!