Am I addicted?

LegacyUser

Today was just a normal day for me, and so far I have spent about 10 hours surfing the internet. (Its almost 11pm)

It has come to the stage where I am beginning to think that I am addicted to the internet; its not right to be 22 yrs of age and locked up in my room with eircom broadband as a close friend!

College work is beginning to get affected by the amount of time I waste just looking up random sites. I am becoming unsociable, not even using the phone as much as I used to.

This has all escalated over the past 3-4 months. As college work involves alot of internet time I find myself getting happily sidetracked into googling random useless stuff. One site just leads to another.

Christmas was spent on the net, and I only went out to meet friends twice.

I'd be interested to see what others think.

MIN2511

You, me and the rest of the world.....

Unfortunately no one can help you, i once considered being site banned! But guess what, my phone has the internet.


Quick one: my friend once suggested for every hour you spend on the net i must spend an hour studying. It worked for me, but then i stopped using the net so i won't study

PCPhoto

addict is such a strong word ....lol

*Stands up* .... erm... hi I'm paddy and I'm addicted to the internet !!!

Nah .... its like a mobile phone, if you go without it for a couple of days you will go through withdrawl symptoms and will be back in the real world again.....do you think you could turn your mobile phone off for a week ?

Cantoris

I tend to suffer from the same problem but more business related. Treat your internet times like you do your meal times. A few times a day for half and hour or an hour. I find the killer is when I am just sitting down to do nothing. I should just be relaxing but tend to gravitate to the wireless connection. For me, it is also a sign of boredom and I generally realise this after twenty mins on the net and go off and do something, even if it's just shopping or domestics.

brianthebard

The last few days I've been online almost all day, but I don't care cause I've no uni atm and am sick. If you keep a schedule of what you have to get done in the day its a lot easier to force yourself up and out the door, and you'll still find plenty of time to waste online.

banshee_bones

Hey ah i wouldnt say addicted, bit of a strong word

im kinda feeling that way myself past few days!!
Feel a bit like im a vegetated state! So think il give it a rest and go out and get some more fresh air tomorrow!

Its a small bit hard for me being unemployed at the moment, and my friends are all on msn all day coz theyre on holidays from college. So im back at the gym Monday and back to work on some other stuff!

Id say just read a bit more, and go out and get plenty of fresh air! Get in contact with your friends, meet up for coffee or a pint, anything atall! They must be wondering where youv got to!

K_user

Unregistered wrote: »

This has all escalated over the past 3-4 months. As college work involves alot of internet time I find myself getting happily sidetracked into googling random useless stuff. One site just leads to another.

Christmas was spent on the net, and I only went out to meet friends twice.

I'd be interested to see what others think.

I think the answer maybe in the above sentence.

Sometimes its easier to hide away than deal with college work, friends, family, work, life problems. The net is a fantastic way to doddle away hours and not think about anything. Its addictive in its mindlessness. It doesn't matter if you like online games, shopping, reading, music, movies, even adult entertainment, its all there. And you aren't the only one "suffering" this, I think there are alot of us out there.

Addiction is just patterned behaviour. Breaking the pattern breaks the habit, somewhat. What works for me is shutting down the computer and leaving it for a few days at a time.

Sir Humphrey

Unregistered wrote: »

Today was just a normal day for me, and so far I have spent about 10 hours surfing the internet. (Its almost 11pm)

It has come to the stage where I am beginning to think that I am addicted to the internet; its not right to be 22 yrs of age and locked up in my room with eircom broadband as a close friend!

College work is beginning to get affected by the amount of time I waste just looking up random sites. I am becoming unsociable, not even using the phone as much as I used to.

This has all escalated over the past 3-4 months. As college work involves alot of internet time I find myself getting happily sidetracked into googling random useless stuff. One site just leads to another.

Christmas was spent on the net, and I only went out to meet friends twice.

I'd be interested to see what others think.

It's hard to define an addiction without greater expertise and detailed knowledge of the behaviour but I think 10 hour stints on the net is not something anyone would be happy with, and when you think you are becoming unsociable and college work is affected as a result it's obviously a problem.

I think the net is a self-perpetuating 'problem' in that the more you use it the more indispensable and improtant it becomes. The converse is that if you stayed away from it for a week you'd probably find less and less reason to use it. Of course the 'checking the emails' might be a problem in temrs of trying to stay away from it but it can be done with just a little focus.

Firetrap

I don't know if you're addicted but you're right to identify it as a problem. For what it's worth, I know where you're coming from. As a new year's resolution (if one wants to call it such a thing) I want to spend less time online. I find that other things I plan to do of an evening/weekend can fall by the wayside because I'm online. And it's not necessarily anything meaningful I'm doing whilst online (heck, I post in After Hours )

What I've found helpful is not to turn the computer on as soon as I get up/get in. It helps too is to turn the thing off if you're not using it. My logic is that if you want to go online, it's not so easily accessible and you'll have to go to the trouble of booting the computer up again.

Seeing as you're a student, perhaps you might try drawing up a timesheet and keep to it.

I found a test on a site called NetAddiction.com. Perhaps it and the site might be worth a read. I'm not saying it's scientific (I suspect by the looks of things that they want to sell you stuff) but it might give you an insight.

wylo

OP the internets one of these things you start forgetting about when your not around it. But its even worse for you because youve to study. When your studying you will find ANYTHING to keep you busy. I wouldnt worry , college time is peak internet addiction time. Once your working it will fade away again.