My Great Big Internet Addiction

[HappyHiker]

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...ectronic-plug/

Please post your comments. Please let me know I'm not alone here in cyberspace, reaching out to connect...

[razz]

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]

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]

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.

[RCWRTR]

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.

[herbgeek]

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.

[artist]

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).

[pinkytoe]

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.

[CathyA]

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.

[Gregg]

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...