how do you handle your e-life?

[freshstart]

I am recovering from eye surgery so I took about a 4 day respite from touching my laptop. OMG, the emails!

I only have 2 email accts, one for friends and family that gets no spam, and a yahoo one for everything else that gets bombarded with spam but I've used the address for 15 years so I hate to start over with say, gmail. I check FB once a week, I think I've done a good job of winnowing my friends down to real people I interact with IRL, work acquaintances and an online "mommy" group that I've been in for 15 years and it's narrowed down to about 15 of us, I have met maybe 5 IRL, we are all over the country. No twitter, no instagram, etc. A few forums about finances and saving money, this forum. I manage finances online, order groceries, etc.

This is all manageable in less than an hour a day but when I let it go, it really adds up. I have to check FB once a week or I get bombarded by people wondering if I'm ok, plus I actually care about their lives but FB can be a real time suck if I let it. The yahoo acct I've tried to unsubscribe from deal sites that I should not be spending money on, the spam filter does not seem to stop future spam from the same spammer the next day.

how much time do you spend on the internet a day? anymore than an hour a day makes me feel like it's too much and I am over involved in the e-world. Any advice on how to stop yahoo spam? Closing the acct would be a PITA because everybody, including MD offices get that address so my other email is "pure".

[Reyes]

I don't really have an e-world. I've visited this site for 20+ years on and off. I get maybe 5 or so personal emails per week. At work I am constantly on email/computer so it is literally the last thing I want to do in the evening/weekends. I've never had FB or any other social media thing. So pretty low e-world maintenance life:-)

[ToomuchStuff]

Emails, normally take less then 10 minutes and that typically is taking my time. A few sites and a hour of day if I am taking my time. If I am on the computer for work purposes, it can take a lot longer. (means I am looking for something specific)

[razz]

Same as the others, I control what I subscribe to but spend a fair amount of time online. I do get two newspapers online which I read daily, some weekly magazines online, weather, CBC news, etc.

I signed up for Pinterest but am going to unsubscribe as it just keeps blitzing emails. Never FB, twitter etc.

Freshstart, I have heard from friends and here as well that Yahoo has a significant spam problem. Gmail really does a good job of filtering spam so it might be worth the change to reduce your time cleaning up spam.

[jp1]

It might be worth the effort to move to a new email account. I did that several years ago with the account I used for banking, etc, and then kept the old one as my junk 'need an email address to get into a website but don't want to ever hear from them again' address. After 3 or so years my new banking email address is still clean and non-spammy.

[Gardnr]

Hubby is in "the biz". He says Yahoo has THE best security of any provider. Here's his spin:

1. Continue to mark senders as spam so they go to that folder for ignoring. (Or the occasional review to see if you can unsubscribe from repeaters).
2. Unsubscribe from any website/sender you do not want to hear from.
3. You're doing the right thing having separate functional accounts;) (I have 3).

Me? I spend 2+ hours/day on this lightbox at home. I get my professional Nursing stuff via email. I do all my research on the web. I keep all my data on here including all my handcraft/quilting stuff/patterns/pics etc. My quilting group is online and I run a challenge on that so when quilters are busy, I'm busy.

And honestly, some days I'm so tired I'm on it out of boredom/laziness.

[SteveinMN]

I spend a lot of time on my e-life. I'm not even sure I could come up with a more accurate number. I prefer to read newspapers, periodicals, and journals on-line. I do research for purchases on-line. I am learning new skills (DIY home repair, skills needed for my non-profit board work, etc.) on-line. I search for recipes on-line. And then there are my six email addresses (only three of which I look at on any regular basis), twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin. I participate semi-regularly on maybe half-a-dozen Web forums geared to special interests (like this one or Volkswagen TDIs) or what are now collections of old friends (the original reason for us gathering having passed). I guess I don't mind the time I spend on it because, most times, I'm getting enough out of it to justify the time I spend on it.

As for Yahoo spam, I have to say that has not been a huge problem for me. n. b., my Yahoo address is my junk address, so I expect it to draw a good share of stuff I don't need to see (no, plumbing supply house I bought something from three weeks ago, I do not need to buy plumbing-related items every single day). That said, I have been transitioning away from my Yahoo address; some features of their mail (primarily their propensity for changing it and not for the better) have become quite annoying. So, as I move what I care about to other addresses, I care about the spam in the Yahoo account less and less. Marking things as spam (when they are legitimately spam and not the stuff the plumbing supply house sends) makes a big difference in my experience.

One little trick I have learned from both work and home e-lives is how to commit electronic bankruptcy. If a week or two has passed and there are dozens of posts or messages to read, I simply mark all topics read or skim quickly for critical emails and delete the rest. What I learned from doing this at work was that, if it was important, the sender would follow up. What I learned from doing this at home is that I can always search for a topic of interest when I want to. I don't have to be my own meta-index for the parts of the Internet I like to use. That really helps keep time spent in check.

[freshstart]

good advice, thanks

[JaneV2.0]

I have a Yahoo subsidiary account and a Comcast account. I get absolutely no spam on either one. (I also have gmail and Amazon accounts that go unused.)

Like Steve, I do most of my business, research, and shopping on line. Sometimes I watch (cable) TV on my PC or read books on Kindle. play games and/or listen to Broadcastify or a radio channel, podcasts, etc.

I spend a half hour or so answering and generating e-mail.