Serious Question: How bad is your Internet addiction?

[JackRiddler]

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Mine is very, very, very bad, as the timestamps on my many, many posts here (and on several other boards) may well indicate.

So here's an opening for a sincere & serious discussion on this subject. Which may be the hidden main subject for many of us on this board. What are we doing here?

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[American Dream]

My short answer would be: I am looking for food for intellectual growth, and to share the same...


ON EDIT: It's bad. But I can walk away any time I feel like it.

Really...

[sunny]

It's baaaaaaaad.

[nathan28]

my internet addiction? i don't know, I can go days or a week or more without it, no withdrawal... but only if i'm not at work.

as you might notice from my time-stamps and the host might from my IP, i am at my desk at work. a lot. have you ever had a hurry-up-and-wait job?

[ninakat]

Mine is "bad" too but I haved mixed feelings about whether it's doing me harm or not. I do learn a heck of a lot, but I also waste a lot of time. I've actually wanted to curb back, but find myself unable to pull my eyes away from the ongoing train wreck. And the insanity is escalating, which means there's even more to watch. It's a real dilemma. My inner Thoreau wants to lash out and smash the laptop.... but since my business is also on-line, I need to watch my temper.

What are we doing here? Not a whole lot. Grab a pitchfork and storm the Capitol? Ain't gonna happen, at least not at my age (55) with all my inherent responsibilities, including taking care of my elderly mother. If anything, I'm recoiling and doing just the opposite.... battening down the hatches and preparing for hard times.

So what's the solution to the addiction, Jack?

[MacCruiskeen]

Serious Question: How bad is your Internet addiction?

Bad. But in in binges. I'm a binge-Netter. Sometimes, as recently, I really sicken of it, in the same way one can sicken of TV.

What are we doing here?

Charitable answer: Evading the clutches of the corporate media and the Spectacle, and working on the creation of a new international truth-and-reality-based counterculture.

Uncharitable answer: Escaping reality by reading about it, writing about it, and ranting about it.

(I know which answer felt more truthful while I was writing it.)

PS I need a computer for most of my work, which doesn't help, especially as a fair bit of that work is more-or-less alienated. It's like labouring beside a swimming-pool on a very hot day: you're constantly tempted to dive in.

[Fixx]

Quite bad here, but we have no teevee. We also tend to use the internet a lot for chatting too friends (made over the internet usually), plus we keep a menagerie of animals, so use it to collect and disseminate information on various specialist internet forums.

Before the internet...yes I can remember it, I was a big reader and to me the internet is just a big suppository...sorry repository of words for me to read, just on a screen instead of on paper (plus it has music, the odd video and LOLcats).

[Wombaticus Rex]

On my old laptop, I had an application that timed my browsing and I left that about 2 months ago with 33,000 + hours. That is no fucking joke, although it does make me laugh to think about it.

If I was at least into World of Warcraft or Bangbus it might make more sense, but it's almost all just information. Lately I'm finding more luck with limiting my time and doing most of my ideation and brainstorming work on paper, away from the demon box. I can look anything up later.

I cut RI out of my media diet for awhile, because you are some negative motherfuckers, bluntly, but this is also hands-down one of the smartest single forums I've found, and I search forums a lot. I'm also inordinately fond of about a dozen of you, most of whom I disagree with, too.

Lose sleep, get pissed, have reckonings, be honest with yourself -- but keep your real priorities in mind.

You're not doing this because you're broken...at least, not entirely. The original urge is to figure things out. Keep that flame alive. Make lists of questions, and write yourself an overview of what you'd like to learn.

It's way easier to negotiate rabbit holes when you can evaluate them prior to entry. The worst problem those of us with time and Internets savvy face isn't censorship, disinformation, surveillance, or even eye fatigue -- it's the Merely Interesting.

The Merely Interesting is now a body of work larger than the largest amount of data you and I could read in one lifetime. It's computationally impossible to find the end now. Focus on what matters most to you, discuss it with others. No shame in that.

[crikkett]

I think my problem is that I'm bored and lazy. My job is easy, and I make my living on the Internet so the temptation to 'check in' is ever-present.

I think my internet addiction is waning. I'm not afraid and hypervigilant anymore. I'm loving how corruption is being exposed on a daily basis - that means it's being stopped. Things really are changing.

Newspapers are keeping their archives online and open, so I'm not obsessively saving almost every article I read anymore. I joined a charity, which I find very satisfying, and I'm meeting people offline. Since I have confidence in the competence of the Obama Administration, and since I think that some patience is called for in its first few weeks, I can get back to the business of living.

In fact I'm lining my parrot's perch with my 9/11-Gulf War 2 newspaper collection (to my husband's delight) and I get a little giddy when Bird shits on a particular evil-doer's face. The effect of purging all these bad vibes is making me optimistic again. I sleep better, and my sense of humor is returning. I didn't know it would be so much fun to clean the house, and I'm finding more reasons to get out of it (the house). When I do, I find that the world is still beautiful and that people, basically, are still good.

If I turn off Firefox's "bookmarks toolbar" and turn on the stereo I find that I get so much more done. Which in my case, is really good for business.

Cheers everyone, I hope you all have a great day.

[Col. Quisp]

Bad and getting worse now that I'm unemployed. I start off in the morning thinking I'll just check the email and a few headlines, but before I know it, I've wasted the whole damn day. I also use the internet in my job search. Even after I try to go to sleep I think of something I need to check on the internet. So far, I haven't gotten out of the bed to do that, but who knows?

Why do I do it? It's like watching a soap opera -- I want to know what happens next. Also it helps with procrastination. It's better than taking drugs or alcohol, right? At least I am learning stuff. Granted most of it is useless, trivial, entertaininig -- but some things are valuable. Why just last night I made some maple fudge from a recipe I found on the internet! That means I can sell all my cookbooks to get grocery money.

I do worry about the exposure to EMF waves all day long, and what's happening to my vision (getting dim) but that may be a function of age.

[norton ash]

Pretty bad, but most of my pursuits are educational-discussion-alternative instead of gaming (I don't) or other rubbish.

A good friend has succumbed to Second Life and her real life is totally deteriorating. Second Life... I just don't get it.

[OP ED]

doesn't worry my contemporaries nearly as much as any of my other addictions. what am i supposed to do when i'm off work?

watch tv?

go out? (in detroit???)

that said, i am due for a break.

[Wombaticus Rex]

^^Grow food!

[OP ED]

^^Grow food!

who? me?

there's snow on the ground. why would i want to grow food anyway?
i'm not a fucking farmer.


there's four grocery stores with three miles of here.

i need to get a television.


i've started packing my own shotgun shells as a hobby.
(about 200 so far)

they'll be good for trading once western society collapses.


my girlfriend will be home in six days. everything will be good after that.

[Penguin]

Hmm.
I do use the net a lot. But mostly for reading, and I aint on many forums besides this. I read lots of pdfs and articles on the comp as well, and use it as my main communication channel - I use the phone very little. Most or all my friends are online, on irc or chat networks.

Then again, its been my only media in addition to books and papers, since 2000. No tv in bout ten years, except some I watch from comp, and some net radio.

Sometimes I dont use it for a while, may go a week or so without.
Not too worried, I use the same amount tops as normal people watch tv.