I used to rollerblade in State Competitions, and then IRC came along…
I used to work out in the gym about 6-8 hours a week, and then UBB came along…
I used to jog or go out and work in the yard every evening, and then ICQ, IRC, and UBB were calling me…
What exactly is it that brings us to our monitors and keyboards…day after day after day?
I honestly don’t get it…
Is it that next reply thats so important? Is the next ICQ message so interesting? What is it that has changed me from a person that had a strict schedule and a healthy lifestyle to a person that is glued for hours and hours every day to this glowing drug?
When I think about all the countless hours of my life I’ve spent on the net…I wonder why? And now that this is finally in my face…I regret it.
I got home from work yesterday and went out and swam, got on my blades for awhile, had a few beers with the neighbor…it was great, the sun felt awesome…and I seriously miss that kind of fun…
But still, I come back to this thing…
Over, and over, and over…and I can’t figure out what is so addictive that I just can’t walk away and forget it ever existed…
SS, I have been doing the same thing for two years. And everytime I try to go out, or spend time with my BF, I feel the old urge to get online ASAP.
I think my problem is I just like to talk to people and read things. And the internet is the only place I can talk to dozens of interesting people, read the comics, then read about the pros and cons of Capital Punishment etc etc.
I’m on here more during the day (at work… shhh) than I am at home. I’m so busy when I get home I just don’t have time. And the weekends… don’t get me started.
It is addictive though. When I don’t check out the board over the weekend… come Monday I’m just itching to see what I missed.
SkySlash - I agree with you - I don’t particularly like the page view option. It makes me feel bad, I guess, when I see that it’s been looked at and not answered. I don’t know how to explain it - but I think I know what you mean.
Anyway, sorry to hijack, but honestly I don’t have anything to add other than the above.
It’s a way to establish new patterns of communication in a world that has become increasingly anonymous and isolated.
I don’t know about you guys, but I know more about and care more for the people on this board than I do for my next door neighbor. I don’t interact with them, I interact with you.
Oh, it’s not on a face-to-face basis, and it’s not exactly a dialogue. For the most part, though, it reminds me of evenings when family visits from far away and we would gather around the kitchen table listening to aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins tell stories. It was awfully hard to leave that as well.
Definately the Straight Dope. Very addictive. It’s places like these that draw you back, not the big name sites full of the same BS - I stopped looking around there ages ago.
The occasional practical usage as well. Great source of info at your finger tips. So, it’s nnnot as personal at some sites, but this one sure seems personal - where else can you get custom names and flames to go?
Sili
Surgeon General’s Warning: Use of The Internet is addictive and has been linked with Social Failure and Just Plain Bum disorder. Use of the Internet may be hazadous to your career. Pregnant Women and Nursing Mothers should avoid allowing their Husbands to use the Internet.
We don’t have a lot of people in my city to talk to. Plus it saves me a bundle on interpreters. I don’t know what you mean by addiction, though, as I only spend a couple hours a day reading the web. Sure saves a lot of time searching at a library.
It sounds like the internet is cutting into your pub time.
This calls for prompt attention.
Set your alarm for 1 hour to closing time. Then you’ll have a concrete deadline to shoot for to break away from the keyboard.
Soon, hopefully, you will be rearranging your life around the pub.
Well, I spend at least 30 hours a week on the internet because I have nothing else to do at work, really.
I mean, I do what I am supposed to do, do it better than the other people I work with, even do more “extra” work than they do–but I still have time to surf the internet. (Surf? Who am I kidding? I only leave this site to check my e-mail and look stuff up that I read about here!)
I do not access the internet from home unless I have to (look something up, check movie times, etc.)
I figure, I have to be at work, I have to stay in this little room, I might as well enjoy it!
For me it is because I am comfortable here. This is the only board I go to, the only place I post.
While deployed there is very little to do aboard this 1,094-foot chunk of metal. Sleep, eat, work, work out – and that’s about it. I run the TV stations aboard, so I don’t like watching the tube – it seems like work.
To get my mind off things, I come here.
I exercise my brain, follow my fav posters as they go about their on-line lives, try to be funny and do research.
Online life is a life like no other Sky. It gives you the world at your fingertips. It shows you things you may never see or learn something you never knew with the click of a button and a wave of the mouse. As said before, the anonymous feeling you get from knowing that I can be whoever I want to be online comes out in everyone. I don’t have to be that person I hate to take to work with me, I can be me. And they won’t judge me cause I’m black/white/asian/feline and they won’t see me as fat/skinny/ugly/unmentionable. People see the real you. The INNER YOU. And that’s what makes it fun to be online with ICQ, IRC and here. You get to be you, and people respect and like you for it. Me on the other hand, I just made a horrible post in the BBQ Pit that I should’ve slept on first before posting. But hey, that’s how it goes sometimes. I’m not Jim when I’m online, I’m ME. And that’s who you are too. Go out and be the best darn Sky you can be online, but when you leave your computer and go back out into the world, remember…don’t take it out so bad on Jim, he’s only doing his job best he can. He’s only human =)
SS… Thank you for making me realize there is another world. I miss the old days. I’m so thankful there was no computer when I was a kid. It’s to bad that so many kids are missing the world that we once knew…
I don’t think there’s much wrong with enjoying time on a computer. As long as that’s not all that you do. I find that in the summer I spend less time on the computer and more time outside doing fun things. In the winter when it gets dark so early and it’s cold, I’d rather play on the computer.
To me internet time is a lot better than sitting and watching TV. At least on the internet you are connecting with people.
