View Full Version : My Great Big Internet Addiction
HappyHiker
4-22-12, 7:11pm
Here's my confession..I'm an internet addict. I love the internet. I love information. I love internet searches. Google is a cherished friend. He/she knows so much!
Lately, Face Book is getting more time than real time friends. But when I see my friends in real times, I very much enjoy their company--once I recall how face time conversations go...this worries me.
How about you? Is your smart phone your best friend these days? When's the last time (and for how long?) did you go electronic-free?
Anyhow, I wrote an article about this topic and posted it here http://vibrantvillage.com/2012/04/19/un-social-media-pulling-the-electronic-plug/
Please post your comments. Please let me know I'm not alone here in cyberspace, reaching out to connect...
I had to make some big decisions on what was important as I was getting too stressed and wanted my life back for reading, sewing, visiting with friends, gardening etc. I finally decided that my internet use had to go w-a-a-a-y down. I did a longterm search today on safe sprays for my fruit trees with DH to help in scaling the amounts suggested for home use vs orchard use but that is the longest that I have been online in some time.
I allow myself 1/2-3/4 hour in the morning to quickly catch emails, weather. quick look at SLF, a news overview and that is it.
It is evening before I return usually and spend an hour. I chose not to join Facebook or any other social site. I quickly scan SLF once or twice usually when I first come on and then before I leave. My mental health has vastly improved and I am getting other important things done that I enjoy. Most people that I talk to these days have done the same. One DD uses more internet time and one DD even less than I do.
A group of older women (60's) were discussing how stressed their children keep saying that they are and we were trying to figure out what had changed between generations. I worked, had a large garden, prepared meals from scratch and volunteered two nights a week as well as driving kids to activities.
The only major difference between my life and the younger generation seems to be the time spent online which is addictive, enjoyable and social. It is making a huge difference in organizations who are crying for volunteers but few younger members are available, I am told, as they are too busy and stressed to help. Definitely not true for everyone but true for many. Communities are changing as a result not necessarily bad or good but changing.
I have a laptop for daily use and a netbook that I had earlier that I keep and hope to use as an ebook once I figure out how to download ebooks from the library, a simple phone for emergency use only and that is it.
Your article was very good, BTW.
ApatheticNoMore
4-22-12, 9:27pm
To some extent it's reading and writing, it's ancient, every one who ever lived and understood an alphabet (and getting lost in a dead tree book is also very much not being here now. Maybe slightly better, I don't know). I don't tend to watch videos online. But I do love reading stuff online (so much, so free) and searching for stuff as well.
I am on it too much. I think if anything could work it's days off, like taking the sabbath :). I am not going to go Amish and give it up entirely, it wouldn't actuallly improve my life to go to that extreme.
ApatheticNoMore
4-22-12, 9:34pm
The only major difference between my life and the younger generation seems to be the time spent online which is addictive, enjoyable and social. It is making a huge difference in organizations who are crying for volunteers but few younger members are available, I am told, as they are too busy and stressed to help.
Actually noone raising a kid and working full time is going to have much time to volunteer. I'm gone 10 1/2 hours a day for work and commuting, then come home tired with housework etc.. I can't IMAGINE doing this schedule with kids, I just can't. But I'm involved with stuff? Sure because no kids :)
Definitely not true for everyone but true for many. Communities are changing as a result not necessarily bad or good but changing.
Better than when it was television.
Thanks for your post and your article, HappyHiker.
I have long wanted to eliminate Facebook from my life, as I find it an incredible waste of time. I really enjoy Google+. I use Twitter sparingly. I have an iPhone. I use it primarily for telephone calls and text messaging, but also use it for social media when I'm away from home.
I try to limit my use of social media and aspire to be more intentional about how I use it these days.
I don't have a smart phone, and won't, until/unless an employer gets one for me. I have a plain cell for emergencies, and meeting up with people. I have an itouch I use for travel to get email etc. I don't even have my cell on all that much. I kind of like being unavailable when I'm doing something else, it helps me truly be in the moment. And I like the anticipation of getting home and seeing if there is anything interesting waiting for me (like in the old days of seeing if the postal carrier left a letter for you).
I like Facebook because I'm long term unemployed, and that helps me feel a little less isolated than I otherwise would. I don't do any of the games or anything just status updates.
I've been on the net since the early 90's- before the first browser was even out there. I have found it to be an incredible source of support. My original forays were on mailing lists, one for herbs and one for simple living. I've even meet folks in real life from mailing list contacts. I really love having all this information available at my fingertips I can see how the internet can suck someone in, but there have always been distractions. For what its worth, I also watch very little TV and am rarely on the phone.
I agree that technology has taken control of much of our lives as a society. Social media such as facebook and twitter are adictive. People today are plugged in constantly. With no land line my phone goes everywhere with me. I have no data plan, so I can't access the web, but I can recieve the rare phone call and the more likely text message at anytime, anywhere. I constantly see people texting. Teens in the market are texting as they somehow manage to navigate the aisle behind a parent. Parents are texting at the playground while the kids play. People are talking on their phones while shopping (or worse, checking out of the store). I saw a sign once in a store that said "No shirt, No shoes, Cell phone use no service". I can't tell you the number of times I would ring someone out at the cash register and have them grunt something to me, while talking on their cell phone (which IMO is very rude).
I find that if I spend too much time on the computer, that I get a sort of crazed-dazed sensation so I TRY to limit it. A cluttering of the brain so to speak. Since I have constant access at work, my home time on it is not so much. But I do love being able to gather information on things I am interested in. The instantaneous nature of it is obviously very addictive. It kind of makes me sad to see all the young people where I work unable to take their gaze off their phones for even a few minutes when they aren't otherwise engaged. People no longer chat on the elevator - they are looking at their phones. Do people daydream anymore? I have a FB account but rarely check it since I find much of it aggravating. Twitter drives me nuts - the whole concept. I don't have a smart phone. I know - I am weird for not wanting/liking these things but it just kind of goes along with living simpler - at least for me.
I guess I'm enjoying the addiction! I'm not a social person (in the real world), and it allows me to be social on my terms, at a distance. Also, I find that it is such an incredible resource........for raising chickens, putting up a fence, making butter, cooking, bird and insect I.D., equipment maintenance, roofing, drainage, etc., etc., etc.
But......having said that, I do feel that I could be doing more "productive" things during that time...........like housework. Sometimes, when I want to get really serious about not spending too much time on the computer, I will shut it down. That way, when I pass the computer room and see it turned off, I'm not as tempted to run in and use it for a minute...........which turns into an hour. I often wonder what the heck I used to do before computers! (Well actually, I was raising children, which took up 26 hours a day!)
Facebook for me is to mostly check on my kids, so I don't feel I have much of a problem with that.
Peeking out from the shadows here; the grimy back alley of the information super highway. Years ago AOL told me the first month was free and I was hooked. Weak and unable to resist...
Actually I'm a lot like CathyA. I love people, but tend to be introverted so a lot of my interaction with those I want to stay in touch with, but not too close, is electronic. I've been mulling over a fairly drastic reduction, like what razz described, just because the amount of time I waste in frivolity has increased. It's hard because I work on a computer and the information I need for my work is gathered from the net. It is simply too easy to spend a minute on FB to see what my kids friends are up to or to drop by the forums or...
HappyHiker
4-23-12, 9:58am
Twitter drives me nuts - the whole concept. I don't have a smart phone. I know - I am weird for not wanting/liking these things but it just kind of goes along with living simpler - at least for me.--Pinkytoes
Nope, you're not weird, in my opinion...you're just trying to not be trapped by the technology...just as many seem to be. I do worry about the younger generation, some of them, unable to hold a conversation without also keeping an eye on their electronic devices...are our brains--or theirs--designed to multi-task like that? Maybe, but somehow I think we're becoming less social in real face time...me, I'm making an effort to get together with friends more and not follow their doings so much on Facebook. It's starting to feel lonely, so much time on the computer and so little in person.
But you know something? It takes a concentrated effort to control my electronic "social media" time. That's why I found that Amish Project mentioned in my article so interesting. My gosh, the art of letter writing? Seems so quaint, doesn't it? But I remember a time of letters and postcards--and how thrilling it was to receive them. How things have changed. For the better? Hmm, it's mixed bag, isn't it?
ApatheticNoMore
4-23-12, 11:32am
Well I'm using bottom basement cost DSL here, no smart phone, I'm not on the net when not at home or work. That's part of why I don't watch a lot of vidoes (my darn internet is too slow! :)). I like the written (even in pixels) word anyway though so it doesn't really bother me.
I DO write letters. I write them in emails, like true letters, I do. Just because it's electronic doesn't mean you can't write a letter. And I am thrilled to see a reply. Of course I've also used email for more wham bam things as everyone does but.
I like Facebook because I'm long term unemployed, and that helps me feel a little less isolated than I otherwise would. I don't do any of the games or anything just status updates.
that I totally understand, one reason I did keep facebook while unemployed. It's a lonely road being unemployed.
Mostly I love the net, since I find out about many things to attend in person via the net, meet people via the net, arrange meetings with friends via the net (introvert here hate hate that scary phone thing) I don't think it necessarily makes me less social than otherwise. But I am an intro. And I do think I often spend TOO much time on it.
It's also like television may be for many I think (no t.v. here), a way to regulate time and boredom. Like I've always found my mind a bit hard to regulate, I get easily bored and thus discontent (and no I wasn't overstimulated as a child, didn't watch too much t.v. and the net wasn't around then, it's just how I am). But net ... infinite conversations, information, etc. etc. out there ... a click away .... Still I do go through periods of finding other things to do when I resolve again I'm using too much of it. That's why I say the sabath one day off a week or something might work.
You know, I have never understood Twitter. Only 140 characters and people post the strangest things. "I just had coffee and now I'm headed for work" So what, who cares? "I'm now at work" Again, so what, who cares? It's like random people standing in the street and shouting out random sentences or a segment of a thought and then you can't find anyway to respond or to find out what the rest of the thought might have been.
Then there's the 'celebrity' tweets that Leno or Letterman will read occasionaly. My god do they Want people to know they're ignorant?
Maybe this post should have gone on the rant thread. :)
For the record I do have a smart phone, but all I use it for is weather and GPS on the golf course so it is still possible to fall even deeper into this addiction.
ApatheticNoMore
4-23-12, 1:02pm
You know, I have never understood Twitter. Only 140 characters and people post the strangest things. "I just had coffee and now I'm headed for work" So what, who cares? "I'm now at work" Again, so what, who cares? It's like random people standing in the street and shouting out random sentences or a segment of a thought and then you can't find anyway to respond or to find out what the rest of the thought might have been.
no real interest in reading it for this :). But using it for news as it was ... you can get a lot of headlines this way, you can follow people who care about things you care about (following some people is similar to google alerts). Whole revolutions were twitterized, right? And real time (but of course censorable). Now I'm not following the thing real time, it's not worth that much of my time, not at all, but I'm just saying what it is.
But you can't explain some vast rationale for holding a certain political position via twitter? No, that's not what it is for (but you can link to that). News and politics, yes. Finding out you had coffee this morning, not so much so :)
Gardenarian
4-23-12, 5:18pm
I am on the computer all the time at work and so it feels like work to me. When I go home I am not interested in being on the computer. I do like being able to find quick info - a recipe for kohlrabi or how to treat my dog's torn dewclaw, so I rely on having internet access for that sort of thing.
This is the only forum/social type thing I do on the computer, and I do try to limit it (when I find myself having imaginary conversations with people on this forum while I'm out walking the dog, I know I've been online too much.)
I don't like telephones of any sort and use them as little as possible; I do appreciate email.
My husband got an iPad and I haven't used it and frankly don't really understand the point (well, for him it makes sense - it has all of his sheet music on it. So it's like a really compressed book.)
I think technology makes life a little easier; I think we are paying far too high a price for that bit of ease. And yes, I think a lot of people are becoming overly-reliant on it for entertainment, education, and particularly socializing. There's a lot to be said for going for a walk. Feel the wind. Hear the birds. Wave to a neighbor. Observe. Be.
rosarugosa
4-23-12, 6:26pm
Happy Hiker, that was a good article. I don't even have a cellphone, but I do feel like I'm spending more of my leisure time online than I should be. I'm definitely spending a lot less time reading books, and I'm not pleased with that. I think I get value from online time, but not proportional to the amount of time I'm spending. I'm probably going to start setting some parameters for myself soon.
Gardenarian, We've been hiking in a local park/woodland area lately, and we notice how so many people are listening to their iPods or yapping on their cellphones and just missing so much of the nature around them. We've been pinpointing birds by their calls, and we only saw the baby snake because we heard that rustle in the leaves. I guess everyone has the right to enjoy the park as they choose, but it really seems as though the perpetually plugged in people do miss out on a lot.
we notice how so many people are listening to their iPods or yapping on their cellphones and just missing so much of the nature around them.
This probably bothers me more than anything. How can one tune out birdsong, breeze, and all the other nuances of nature?
That's happened to me several times. People I know, come over, nod to me, sit down and then spend the next 20-30 minutes typing on their phone/pad/whatever. It feels really rude. The other one I don't get is sitting next to someone and talking on your phone (headset/bluetooth) with no regard to the volume of the conversation. Seriously?
The other one I see a lot is two or more people sitting in a booth at a restaurant and everyone is on a device. Not even looking at each other.
...It's like random people standing in the street and shouting out random sentences or a segment of a thought and then you can't find anyway to respond or to find out what the rest of the thought might have been..."
That's funny, that's how I think of it too. Twitter users remind me of the point character in Flatland who sings out all the time, he's the only person in his universe. There are multi million users who Tweet their constant doings but no one is listening because the listeners are Tweeting their own constant doings.
HappyHiker
4-23-12, 10:22pm
You're really hitting it dead on--it seems, all this constant texting, tweeting, attention to the personal electronic device to be the Ultimate Cult of Me...forget about you...just let me continue my very important electronic "Social Media" connectivity to anyone else but you---while I ignore the society of you. It IS rude, gosh darn it!
I find being online too much really toxic. It turns me into something sub-human, disconnected from the Earth, disconnected from compassion.
So although I have a cell phone on which I can check email (I'm self-employed) I refuse to buy an iPhone, iPad, GPS, Nook, Kindle, or any more gadgetry that allows me to be disconnected from real natural life and learning...we all have different views on just what that means, so ymmv. I think people who walk around with bluetooth devices clipped on their ears (when walking down the street, grocery shopping, etc.) to be the most ludicrous of all. It's "somebody important might call me and I can't be bothered to take my phone out of my pocket when they do." My goofy husband once walked around the grocery store with a baby carrot stuck in his ear, until I saw it and laughed so hard I thought I'd choke.
This is one of two forum-type sites I visit. I check in with Facebook about once a week, if that. I blog occasionally, and I do like receiving and sending emails, but like ANM, my emails are like real letters with complete words, capitalization in the right places, and even a salutation :)
To me, addiction to technology, gadgets, and the immediacy of online life is something I am careful to avoid. I often "unplug" just to remember what it's like to live in the moment, talk to real people, and lay in the grass making shapes out of passing clouds.
http://uploads.notempire.com/images/uploads/UNPLUG_by_Terral.jpg
I will admit I"m addicted, and it's been a problem for me. It's caused arguments among me and family members. It may have contributed to my losing my last job. The amount of time my co workers spend online at work is beginning to annoy me--because it's distracting them from doing their work. Heck, it distracts ME.
I have a blog, but I find I don't really want to keep up with it. But I feel like I *should*, somehow. "Everybody's doin' it, doin' it." I do like taking art classes online...but I find the more I stay away from FB, the happier I am. I am experiencing this hollow, empty feeling after a long internet session.
I do like this forum, though, I admit!
The other one I see a lot is two or more people sitting in a booth at a restaurant and everyone is on a device. Not even looking at each other.
A couple of my kids started doing this. Drove me nuts. I finally told them they could do whatever they wanted if they were buying dinner, but if I'm buying the devises stay in the car. Problem solved.
HappyHiker
4-24-12, 10:14am
I find being online too much really toxic. It turns me into something sub-human, disconnected from the Earth, disconnected from compassion.
So although I have a cell phone on which I can check email (I'm self-employed) I refuse to buy an iPhone, iPad, GPS, Nook, Kindle, or any more gadgetry that allows me to be disconnected from real natural life and learning...we all have different views on just what that means, so ymmv. I think people who walk around with bluetooth devices clipped on their ears (when walking down the street, grocery shopping, etc.) to be the most ludicrous of all. It's "somebody important might call me and I can't be bothered to take my phone out of my pocket when they do." My goofy husband once walked around the grocery store with a baby carrot stuck in his ear, until I saw it and laughed so hard I thought I'd choke.
This is one of two forum-type sites I visit. I check in with Facebook about once a week, if that. I blog occasionally, and I do like receiving and sending emails, but like ANM, my emails are like real letters with complete words, capitalization in the right places, and even a salutation :)
To me, addiction to technology, gadgets, and the immediacy of online life is something I am careful to avoid. I often "unplug" just to remember what it's like to live in the moment, talk to real people, and lay in the grass making shapes out of passing clouds.
http://uploads.notempire.com/images/uploads/UNPLUG_by_Terral.jpg
I love what you said. I suspect you'll appreciate this quote:
“In the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine...we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry and playthings that divert our attention from the sheer idiocy of the charade. The years thunder by. The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked on the shelves of patience. Before we know it the tomb is sealed...When you consider the beauty there is in the world, the rapture that can be known, the honest relationships, the excitement and exaltation there is for the taking...the real things to look at and feel and read...Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. --Sterling Hayden
I find being online too much really toxic. It turns me into something sub-human, disconnected from the Earth, disconnected from compassion.
http://uploads.notempire.com/images/uploads/UNPLUG_by_Terral.jpg
This is me! Unplugged 90% of the time - or more - and loving it I don't have internet access at home (am using my laptop in the public library now), don't do social media, don't have a smart phone, etc... I've found my life is more active - physically and emotionally - when I'm not spending much time online.
HappyHiker
4-24-12, 8:22pm
Spartana, you're my personal hero! I'm attempting to unplug more, too..just got back from a beautiful sunset bike ride...
Spartana, you're my personal hero! I'm attempting to unplug more, too..just got back from a beautiful sunset bike ride...
It's hard to do for sure. Even now for instance, I was just going to stop in the library for an hour to look up some stuff and check in with this site and it's hours later!! How the heck did that happen? I'm good about not logging on even when I had internet access at home, but when I did log on for just a quickie, the next thing I knew it was hours later, my butt was sore from sitting and i had forgotten to feed the critters. So, since I couldn't seem to break that habit, I just decided to set aside a few days a week to go online but only AFTER I've done my run or whatever I had scheduled for that day - and never on weekends unless it's raining. So now I generally go to the park for a run in the morning and stop at my local library (which is in the park) for an hour or two a few days a week. The less I go online, the less I seem to want to. But it is fun!
frugalone
4-24-12, 10:09pm
Unplugging is starting to sound very very good...
I get this strange sense of relief and relaxation whenever we have a power outage and I can't check email or go online. It's like an "ahhhhhh."
loosechickens
4-25-12, 12:31am
I've been pretty successful in reducing my internet time....one big thing that has helped is resigning from the moderator responsiblities here, because when I was a moderator, I felt I HAD to go online several times a day to check my forums, and once online, I tended to spend too much time here, too much time Googling stuff, doing emails, going on news sites, etc. And once I didn't have to come on as moderator, that pressure to feel like I HAD to get online began to disappear.
And now, amazingly, the iPhone, instead of increasing my internet time, has actually had the effect of reducing it. Because we live on a solar electricity system, to use my laptop, I have to turn it on, and once it's up and running and I've gotten on the internet, which takes a few minutes, I sit down, and end up going from one site to another and spending several hours. It's like a "previous investment trap" where I've taken the time to start up the computer, so might as well do everything.
Where with the iPhone, in an instant I'm online, can check emails, give a quick check to Google News, maybe even look in here at a few favorite forums, and if I don't have a lot of time to spend, can be back offline in just a few minutes.....really reduces that feeling of needing to STAY on once I AM on, with the laptop.
It's gotten to the point where sometimes several days goes by without me turning on the laptop at all. For example, this is the first time I've logged in here in several days.
I don't do Twitter or Facebook, although my husband has a Facebook account, so I look in at his newsfeed every couple of days to see what friends are doing, but don't feel any need to post stuff myself, so never opened my own account.
With the iPhone, I think I've cut my total online time in half, although the convenience is even greater....I'll be reading a book, see a reference to something I don't know about, and in just a sec can be Googling on it.....I really like that.
I don't feel it's addictive, because I don't miss it if I'm not on, and now that I've cut way down on total hours online, AM finding myself with lots more time for books, etc.
Yeah LC, I figured you'd be posting more now that you aren't a mod. What gives? I mean, you really shouldn't be out having fun when you are suppose to be here posting and engaged in battle on the politic board :-)!
I have a sense of confidence that I am not addicted.
However, I have worked with enough addicts to know that a "sense of confidence" is not exactly reliable.
I too have found that my smartphone has cut down significantly on my computer use (and mindless browsing).
I would, however, like to actually TALK to people on my phone. That doesn't seem to happen much. I still have a landline, though, so maybe that's why.
I like having information available (not "knowledge".....what's on the internet is most assuredly not knowledge...) and I like FB even though I recognize that it is superficial. But for some contacts, superficial beats none. I look at it like some of those Christmas letters...you only get the good parts. But that's okay, as long as you know what you are getting.
Good thread, and I liked your article, too, HappyHiker. Keep on enjoying those sunsets!
loosechickens
4-28-12, 2:36pm
"Yeah LC, I figured you'd be posting more now that you aren't a mod. What gives? I mean, you really shouldn't be out having fun when you are suppose to be here posting and engaged in battle on the politic board :-)!" (Spartana)
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Yeah, well.......sometimes ya just know when you're spinning your wheels, hahahahaha......it's an election year, so I suspect it is going to be getting piled pretty high in Public Policy, and it's easier on my nerves to stay out of there as much as possible.
Will be putting my efforts into the real world this summer......lots of swimming to do, lots of books to read, trips to take..
My sweetie will be volunteering for the Obama campaign, putting his efforts out in AZ, NV and CO with the Latino communities, doing voter outreach and registration.....I will confine my efforts to writing checks and voting........
I'm sure I'll get drawn in once in awhile, but for the most part, checking in on forums on my iPhone means it's harder to do any major posting with that tiny keyboard, so it's another way the iPhone keeps me out of trouble, hahahaha....
You guys will just have to wade in there without me....I'm sure you're up to the task. ;-)
Maxamillion
4-28-12, 11:13pm
I like Facebook because I'm long term unemployed, and that helps me feel a little less isolated than I otherwise would.
Same here. It helps alleviate the crushing boredom of being unemployed. I do play some of the games, mainly Farmville and Bingo Blitz. I've also discovered Pinterest, which is at least as addicting.
......it's an election year, so I suspect it is going to be getting piled pretty high in Public Policy, and it's easier on my nerves to stay out of there as much as possible. [/QUOTE]
I know the feeling. ;)
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