I have an addiction online....

[Ray Johnson]

I have an addiction....and its not cowbell

This is my first post here so I'll keep it as positive as I can despite the title saying otherwise the internet is such a wonderful invention giving us loads of information and freedom, but its also the devil. While most of my peers constantly look at facebook, I view online forums on daily basis for hours reading trivial topics usually as a forum lurker. Is it an addiction? It is for me because its getting to the point where I neglect other more important things in my life. So I plan on making changes by shortening my time on the forums and try to start reading books again.

So what I would like to know is your view on current cyberculture and see if anyone else has this problem...i just don't want to be the only one

[Jes]

Originally Posted by Ray Johnson

I have an addiction....and its not cowbell

This is my first post here so I'll keep it as positive as I can despite the title saying otherwise the internet is such a wonderful invention giving us loads of information and freedom, but its also the devil. While most of my peers constantly look at facebook, I view online forums on daily basis for hours reading trivial topics usually as a forum lurker. Is it an addiction? It is for me because its getting to the point where I neglect other more important things in my life. So I plan on making changes by shortening my time on the forums and try to start reading books again.

So what I would like to know is your view on current cyberculture and see if anyone else has this problem...i just don't want to be the only one

I'm definitely addicted to the internet. I check my e-mail, MySpace, cnn.com, as well as about five other sites between 10 and 100 times a day. I'm hoping that by the end of the year I can get it to where I just check my e-mail in the morning, and that's it.

[ZenDude]

My addiction to the internet has been growing and shrinking again for a couple of years.
The first step is acknowledging you have a problem, so way to go!
Then comes the hard part, changing your behavior.

Something I do to keep myself from surfing too much is reminding myself of what I'm losing by surfing. Social contact, health, education, sex, enjoying nature and just the whole world besides the internet.

Also think about what little you are gaining by surfing, a lot of knowledge you learn isn't applicable at all. For instance I've stopped surfing techwebsites and stopped reading techblogs, so now I'm less up to date to what the latest mp3 player is or what Google is up to. That didn't change my life, except that it freed up time

Forums can be interesting but a lot of it is just people ventilating their opinions in one or two sentences, which doesn't help you anything except eating away your life. If I go to a forum it is to help people or look for solutions for challenges I have or to read good information.

Try distilling what part of your online time is truly worth the time. Cut down your blog feeds, throw away half your bookmarks, call people instead of emailing them.

Some small tips: don't check your email until well in the afternoon, that way you'll actually have some good emails and you also process them a lot faster. Don't check your email more than two or three times a day. If it's urgent, people will call you.

If you'd like you can contact me through this forum, I might need some help, support and tips too

Good luck!