Forum Cartoonery and the Lunacy of Existential Spoon Feedery
 

Having not touched these forums for over a month, I've come to a realization...

Achievement and well being are inversely proportional to the amount of time you spend on online forums!

I've become more productive, my social relationships are fantastic and I'm more clear and focused than I have been in a long time.

Staying away from forums helps solidify your priorities and realign yourself with what's real. Mental-wankery just doesn't cut it in real life!

Out of the millions of words you read one these forums, you will likely only remember a few as a distant foggy memory. It all just fades away when immersed in the far more emotionally and physically engaging life of the world and your five senses!

I can't stress the above point enough!

To conclude: don't be addicted to online forums. I only posted 445 posts here, but that seems like a lot to me when I think of what else I could have been doing with that time. In the distant future on your deathbed, you will not be thinking about your time spent on forums!

My next post will be sometime in 2011! :D

So very, very true. You could just as easily replace "online" and "forum" with PD material and it would be just as true.

Forums are productive, useful and fun for me when I limit myself to around 15 minutes a day. If I let myself go all out, it can be easy to spend 2 hours on a forum and find myself wondering where the time went. I've made many real connections which originated from an online forum, so I don't consider it time wasted as long as it is spent well and not just fiddling around.

And even if you do just fiddle around, if the time spent is kept in check, then who cares - it's just good old entertainment. At least it's much more interactive than television.

I borrowed part of your post for my sig line. :D

My writing and thinking are sharpened when I post on forums. When you choose forums that match your interests, you can really enhance your ability to express yourself.

Writing is one of the best ways to focus and align your intentions. This sub-forum is personal effectiveness. You need excellent communication skills become more personally effective.

What if you become frivolous? Quit posting frivolous stuff!

What if you spend too much time on forums? Go do more productive things that give you more of what you really want.

It is awesome that each person gets to live their own life.

This is the first forum I've ever been part of, and even though I have wasted an inexcusable amount of time here, It has also provided much needed stimulation for me at work especially...but I basically agree with you.

It's real easy to spend too much time here, or on forums in general, and that isn't really what PD is about, it's meant to be helping you become more productive, moving towards what you want in your life...how can that happen if everyones is wasting hours of their life in front of a computer? Finding a healthy balance is preferable, and I think I've worked out when to log out if I feel I'm just waiting and flicking channels, like with the t.v control.

Real life interactions are a more tangible and real exchange of energy, even though people can type out their thoughts and attempt to get them across easier here, and hopefully someone understands it so that you don't have to waste even more time repeating yourself.

I realize this place is also somewhat of a place where people can snag potential clients for their businesses, so I'm sure that is a stealthy motive to spend so much time here;)

I agree with this. I think improving communication is one of the underlying things that many people are striving for, so in that sense it gives me hope that the will is there for learning and the forum seems to be a supportive place for that to happen for many...it's astonishing to watch learning in action and people improve from where they were.

Your right. I'm spending way too much time here. I guess its just to distract myself from all the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ things that are going on right now.
But I can't keep running anymore. Time to DO something!
So, like Mounds did I'm gonna take a 30 day vacation! :D
And let me know if you notice a difference in me.

Later, my virtual loved ones :)

I would say achievement definitely is, but well-being is more of an inner state that is not as easily affected by how you spend your time.

For instance, I think because of my very high level of well-being, I actually spend more time online and especially in these forums. In the past when I was more insecure, I would try to go out and meet people because I thought that "a normal person does that" and I wanted to be more accepted by others.

Nowadays I am realizing more and more that it is OKAY to just do whatever I want, and I don't need to please other people as much, so I just do what I like and chill online a lot.

Nice.

Well it's been over a year since I posted this. Just thought I'd bring it back for old time sake and say that the shutting down of the forum is a blessing in 'disguise'.

Good luck, and don't all rush off to spend the same amount of time on another forum. It just creates the illusion that you're doing something useful.