<Puts a hand on snfaulkner’s shoulder>
We understand, friend-- it’s the oldest, saddest story in the book.
Well, maybe not the oldest. And maybe not the absolute saddest… but we do understand.
BTW, I love your books. Congrats on that Pulitzer.
Then how could we look down on and feel superior to the dilettante users, hmmm??
Speaking about me …
At one point I got so bad I put a block in my router against SDMB. This was back in the pre-smartphone era. So that was pretty complete and effective.
I came back a couple years later and was pretty well-controlled. For awhile. About a year ago it started getting out of hand again. I’m not far from quitting cold turkey again since efforts to trim it back don’t seem to be working.
Speaking to **ThelmaLou **herself …
If you’ve just retired you’re now developing your habits for how you’ll spend your future. Now’s the time to volunteer, or take up biking, or start at college again, or whatever interests you. Turning the Dope into an 8- or 15-hour a day habit is hugely counterproductive.
I have at times referred to the 'Dope as “social methadone”. It is a pale shadow of real interaction with real live people face to face. But it’s better than nothing. The problem is it takes huge doses of methadone to equal a small dose of the real thing. So instead of spending an hour at an art class or wine tasting event you spend 8 hours listlessly refreshing pages here. Thereby crowding out time for real interactions. And crowding out most of the rest of life too.
Over time it takes a bigger hit to feel the same high. Put all this together and the 'Dope can become a sinkhole of depression even as each of us are nice fairly well-adjusted folks.
I’m sure you realize that a whole lot of this is tongue in cheek. I still have one graphic design client who has me working on a commemorative book and a regular newsletter. Also, I’ve been attending the local community college with a class or two each semester for the last 15 years.
You do have a point, however. I live alone and don’t have children, siblings, or a SO. I belong to a book club and a lunch group, but I wind up with lots of time alone. I’m an introvert, but even introverts can be alone too much. OTOH, I’m not one to “get out of the house” just to “get out of the house,” and I’d rather be at home entertaining myself that out somewhere that I’m not enjoying.
I do belong to another private message board and that qualifies as social contact much more than this board. The SDMB is more like when I was a kid and just sat and read the encyclopedia (or even the dictionary), 'cause it was just so interesting.
About 30 years ago, before my marriage (and the later death of my husband), I was just as alone as I am now, and there was no internet. I drank. A. Lot. True. I don’t drink at all anymore. Glad the Dope is, so far, calorie free.
I appreciate your comments.
Wait, it is?, dang, there goes my favorite explanation for my expanding waistline.
I see that you’re labeled “guest.” I paid my dues and am now a member, so for me, it’s calorie-free. Sorry. 
I’ll pay for membership but that would reduce my pizza budget.
A fork in the road, for sure.
I dinner know what to do!
“I met a girl’s eye in the bar. Does she like me? Need answer fast!”
Tine for the fjords?
Hehe, no, it was more to prove my idiot friend wrong about something dumb that wasn’t easily wikiable.
We could very easily look down on the dilettante users, from our Superior Heights as SDMB Addicts of course. They are mere floaters, stuck at the surface, unable, through fear, or family or friends or other social commitments, to descend to the depths we have explored (or are exploring). We are the Sensitive, We are the Enlightened, We are the Suffering Poetic Types, mired in our shuddering mental anguish of eager anticipation as we open the browser yet once again with trembling fingers to see what’s new on the Dope. Each “new post” icon on the left leaves us with bated breath of curiosity as to what has been added. Spotting a new thread raises our heart beat with a giddy thrill at the thought of the insightful witticism contained there-in. OH the rapturous joy, nay the pure happiness at a response to a post we made, or even better the utter cosmic satisfaction bordering on mind-destroying nirvana that diffuses through our entire being at watching the post count rise in a thread we started.
No, the dilettante users will never experience these highs, for the mere skimmers of the surface cannot rise, having no level to rise from.
er, um, yeah, we can be all goth and whiney and stuff.
Just had to say that that is some fine prose. I’ll be looking up more of your commentary. Hats off to you! 
I know I’m slipping further into dependency because my “posts per day” value has been creeping up week by week. I need to get it back down to under 1.50.
My post per day average finally dropped below 10.0, so I’m getting better.
I like you.
thank you.