# You know you spend too much time on the computer when... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 5, 2008, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-you-spend-too-much-time-on-the-computer-when/448157 "2008-05-05T17:55:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Weird\_One](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@The\_Weird\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Weird_One)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-you-spend-too-much-time-on-the-computer-when/448157/1 "2008-05-05T17:55:03Z")
Setup: I’m a graphic designer at a small printing and screenprinting company. Most of my days are spend rearranging text and design elements in Adobe Illustrator, and I’m a master of keyboard shortcuts. We’re a Mac-based shop, so for PC users, our “apple” key is your “control” key. A little while ago, I was upstairs in the screenprint shop, organizing a bunch of shirts by size. Finishing up, I thought it would be more practical to stack the shirts _here_ instead of _there_, but as soon as I moved them, I realized that they were better off where they had been. My first instinct was to hit apple+z to undo the move. :smack: Anybody else have a similar story? ---
**Author:** ![Surok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Surok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surok)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-you-spend-too-much-time-on-the-computer-when/448157/2 "2008-05-05T17:57:19Z")
When you dream about being a computer virus. And you know the name and the structure of the code. I was…shocked, I tell you. Shocked. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-you-spend-too-much-time-on-the-computer-when/448157/3 "2008-05-05T18:10:59Z")
I was having a lovely, lovely dream a few days ago. I won’t trouble you with the details, but in general it was about my new job sizing and fitting bikini tops. All of a sudden, my dream was interrupted… no, _shattered_ is a better word, by a searing explosion of pain. I’m instantly awake, but it takes me a few seconds to register what has happened. Apparently, I rolled over in my sleep and kicked the cat, and he responded by clawing the shit out of my foot before dashing away into the darkness of the house. Hurt a lot and bled quite a bit. But here’s the thing: The one thing I remember with crystal clarity about the dream is that the moment it was interrupted, the visuals were wiped out and replaced with a split-second image of a Firefox window with multiple tabs all festooned with the yellow “trouble loading” symbol. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-you-spend-too-much-time-on-the-computer-when/448157/4 "2008-05-05T18:32:20Z")
I not-infrequently find myself attempting to ctrl-f in a book to find a passage I’m looking for. As in, I’ll actually start to move my fingers into that proper keystroke before realizing that there are no keys. I can’t wait until I can afford an Amazon Kindle. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Tyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-you-spend-too-much-time-on-the-computer-when/448157/5 "2008-05-05T18:59:30Z")
I tried to do ctrl-z in real life. More humorously, several years ago I was trick-or-treating with a friend (I believe this was the year we were the Titanic and the iceburg) and for a moment she thought the house number was a hit counter. “Liz,” I said, “you spend _ **way** _ too much time on the internet.” ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-you-spend-too-much-time-on-the-computer-when/448157/6 "2008-05-05T19:02:58Z")
I have watched my own boot-up sequence in one of those dreams that you have when you’re waking up but somewhere in between asleep and awake. Evidently, my OS is some form of Unix, and the monitor is set up to have a color scheme like one I had on my Sun machine (which I was using at the time). ---
**Author:** ![Ro\_Carter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7feea3/32.png) [@Ro\_Carter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ro_Carter)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-you-spend-too-much-time-on-the-computer-when/448157/7 "2008-05-05T21:04:31Z")
When I was in my one of my first Java programming classes, about midway through the semester I had a nightmare where I was walking around outside, and everything turned into Java code. You don’t know true terror until you are being attacked by Java code squirrels. The worst part was when I woke up, I could still remember the code that had made up those squirrels. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-you-spend-too-much-time-on-the-computer-when/448157/8 "2008-05-05T21:59:27Z")
One time at a computer lab on a mutual project a friend and I were on adjacent computers. I was looking at his code and wanted to point to something on his screen, so I moved my mouse to his screen and was surprised when it didn’t work. When I was playing a decent amount of MechWarrior, when I wanted to look at something to my left or right I assumed I had to “torso twist” rather than just move my head. ---
**Author:** ![pprgrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f6c823/32.png) [@pprgrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pprgrl)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-you-spend-too-much-time-on-the-computer-when/448157/9 "2008-05-05T23:22:25Z")
[QUOTE=NinjaChick] I not-infrequently find myself attempting to ctrl-f in a book to find a passage I’m looking for. As in, I’ll actually start to move my fingers into that proper keystroke before realizing that there are no keys. I can’t wait until I can afford an Amazon Kindle. [/QUOTE] I do this all the time. It’s especially embarrassing in class. Fortunately, no one seems to have noticed. Yet. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-you-spend-too-much-time-on-the-computer-when/448157/10 "2008-05-05T23:25:25Z")
Back when I played Diablo II, the sight of yellow letters always gave me an involuntary thrill. (Rare items were always in yellow letters.) ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-you-spend-too-much-time-on-the-computer-when/448157/11 "2008-05-05T23:47:27Z")
When I make a mistake “dialing” a phone number, my first instinct is to type Apple-Z (Mac for “undo”). ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2008, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-you-spend-too-much-time-on-the-computer-when/448157/12 "2008-05-06T04:14:11Z")
I tried to use Eye of Kilrog to find something in the grocery store the other day. If you don’t understand what that means, count yourself as lucky. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2008, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-you-spend-too-much-time-on-the-computer-when/448157/13 "2008-05-06T04:27:15Z")
[QUOTE=Athena] I tried to use Eye of Kilrog to find something in the grocery store the other day. If you don’t understand what that means, count yourself as lucky. [/QUOTE] Where do we draw the line between delusions of mystic powers and computer thinking? 😛 Anyway last year I was taking a math test and couldn’t concentrate… I thought “no problem, I’ll just end a few processes.” And I don’t mean it in the snide joking way or metaphoric sense either, I literaly tried to end processes in my brain. :smack: Also… I tried a do… while loop on a repetitive task (sealing upwards of 150 envelopes) ---
**Author:** ![lexi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lexi/32/6806_2.png) [@lexi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lexi)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2008, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-you-spend-too-much-time-on-the-computer-when/448157/14 "2008-05-06T04:32:03Z")
[QUOTE=Ro Carter] When I was in my one of my first Java programming classes, about midway through the semester I had a nightmare where I was walking around outside, and everything turned into Java code. You don’t know true terror until you are being attacked by Java code squirrels. The worst part was when I woke up, I could still remember the code that had made up those squirrels. [/QUOTE] I get the code dreams too! Sometimes I can see the source of people - I can imagine now the class squirrel extending rodent. ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2008, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-you-spend-too-much-time-on-the-computer-when/448157/15 "2008-05-06T05:48:03Z")
I use a track ball both at home and at work. I got into my pickup to go to work the other day, put my hand on the round, smooth gear shift knob and tried to “track” the truck left out of the drive way. Fortunately, I was steering, too, but I was just glad nobody was with me to see my fingers furiously trying to spin the gear shift knob to the left. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2008, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-you-spend-too-much-time-on-the-computer-when/448157/16 "2008-05-06T06:12:55Z")
Nothing like a thread like this to make me feel better about my level of computer usage. 😃