A psychiatrist friend -- a very practical guy who grew up in the Piney Woods of Mississippi -- noted that every time a new communications device comes along that a segment of the mentally ill see it as something that's spying on them, whether it's the government, the Devil or some other entity.

He said that mental health literature is full of examples of people fixating on the telephone, the radio, then television sets and most recently computers and smartphones.

We all have this level of paranoia, part of our survival instincts. Some people have more of it than others, I guess.

I'm also a big Outer Limits fan, BTW. Not sure I saw that episode. Was it part of the old or newer series?