About My Internet Addiction

I think it is widely accepted that I have something of an addiction to the Internet. Email, blogs, twitter, IM, and so forth. I find it very hard to put them aside and ignore them. But I have come to a point where I would sort of like to break that cycle. There are two problems with that.

One is that I just can’t afford to ignore some of that. Most of my work information including things to do and meeting requests comes by email. Most of my training is online. If I ignore it than it rapidly becomes too much to deal with at once. So I keep up with it all the time. Could I do it less often? Yes, and to some extent I am doing that. But I can’t shut it off completely.

The other is that I am something of a knowledge junky. That is I am also addicted to knowing what is going on. I have found that I can be away from the news for longer periods of time so that gives me some hope that I could break free from the Internet if work didn’t keep requiring connections.

The real question is do I want to break the addiction. Actually the answer is yes. I just don’t see a way to do it short of retirement or at the very least finding some other job. That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

One Response to “About My Internet Addiction”

  1. My name is Wicked Teacher and I’m an internet addict. [Hi Wicked Teacher].

    I have found that while I can never shut it all down completely, my use ebbs and flows. When something else excites me, I am able to easily set aside the computer. When I’m bored or avoiding other things, the computer is there to comfort and distract me. When I’m traveling and overcome with meetings and trainings and workshops (oh my) I don’t check twitter and facebook. When I have a non-teaching day, I’m on all the time.

    In other words, I think it’s possible to overcome addiction when you’re ready, but not before. And just like with coffee, it’s easy to pick the addiction back up again.

Leave a Reply