Do you think that the internet and forums become addictive?

My name’s Badcandlejack and I’m a recovering chatroom and instant messenger addict.

You can do it, I have completely unfounded faith in you. It’s like a band-aid, it’ll hurt when you pull it off but only for a moment, and then you have the rest of your life to look forward to.

I managed it, it’s now been seventeen days, twelve hours and eight minutes since I last used an emote or typed a stupid acronym.

For me forums are like methadone, the slightly less addictive drug they use to get you off heroin.

A moogle? There’s thousands of moogles around. And you have never met one before!
They come from the rpg game world of “Final Fantasy”. They look just like me a podgy tummy and little wings. Some people think they are too cute but I love them.

I think the problem is there’s so many places to go on this site. I’ve got so much to catch up on, and I’m learning what I’m doing as I go.
The thing is once I know or think I know what I am doing. Will I settle down and become more selective or get worse?

Hello.
Yes, I found forums addictive. Also, is Carpel tunnel syndrome painful. I’m a computer adict and I’ve heard about this condition. Should I start using my voice package more?

Technodreamer

thank you for your completely unfounded faith in me Badcandlejack. before i completely stop using instant messenger i’m going to attempt to get off of it by 12 am. i think that’s a pretty attainable goal…hopefully

careful, lest ye get burned.
for real though, it can be bad. I think mmorpgs such as evercrack or daoc are the worst, but forums or downloading can be pretty bad too.

Why does everyone treat forums and chatrooms like they were a cancer that needs to be removed from their lives? Everywhere I go (online), I usually encounter someone who’s pretending they need to ‘defeat’ the internet’s evil grasp of their lives in order to be happy. Why?

I say keep doing what you like. If you find yourself sacrificing school grades and family relations because of it, then you must be absolutely terrible at managing time. Keep going to school, get your work done, then check out the latest posts on your favorite forum. As soon as you tell yourself there’s a problem, there suddenly becomes one.

I’m very much an internet addict and I know it. I keep a livejournal which I update daily and use to communicate with many other people. I go to two online forums and I’ve always been a forum junkie, and have had some brief IRC periods too. Eventually I still prefer forums though, because I like to talk a lot in one go.

I’ve thought a lot about what the internet means and does. People seem to think it is less real by referring to ‘in real life’ when they’re talking about what they do outside the internet. People seem to think that the internet is full of people who pretend to be who they’re not. I don’t know. I see the internet as a huge platform of human communication. Just because you don’t see someone doesn’t mean it’s less real. One of my closest friends I only know online. Is that a shame? Not to me, but it saddens me that a lot of other people seem to think so.

There are a lot of people, just like me, who have a lot of social anxiety. They’ve been outsiders most of their lives, have been bullied, have had other problems like depression and a dysfunctional family. And like me, these people find comfort and others like them online. Does that make me pathetic, or an addict? Well, then it does. But I know that without my online journal I would not have made it through a lot of my own problems. Without learning that there were so much more people just like me, I probably would’ve felt a lot more alone.

I’m a geek. Yep. Does my schoolwork suffer from it? Well, maybe it did, but I graduated anyway. ^^ And now I’m going to do an education that involves computers for 100%. That’s just the kind of person I am. That the ‘popular’ half of society thinks it’s somehow wrong or evil or bad, is their problem.

Well… I’ve been using computers for 10 years and so far I have no wrist or eye problems. :\

Moogles are cool

Anyway. The internet, IMO, is not a bad thing. If there’s anything wrong, it’s society that constantly blames new and complex things for flaws that are really just human nature. School shootings? Let’s blame videogames instead of gun laws! Children are getting bad grades in school? Let’s blame games and the internet instead of our outdated educational methods! It goes on and on. You can blame the internet for everything, but in the end, it’s people that have control over their own lives. If you’re addicted, it’s your own fault, and not the internet’s.

(Sorry, it’s a pet peeve of mine. ^^)

Well said.

I don’t think the internet, or chatrooms, or forums are the problem so much as excessive use of them. Many people (myself included) aren’t particularly good at managing time, and with the wealth of diversions available on the net it’s a procrastinator’s dream.

I should be writing, and ordinarily my willpower would be enough to keep me slaving away at the laptop and not getting up to switch the TV on or make a drink or whatever, but accessing forums requires almost no effort, I can have them open in another window, so it’s extremely easy to check if there’re any new messages, and while I’m doing that I may as well check some other forums, and then click on a link while I’m here, and refresh that first forum… etc. It’s my own weakness, the ease of use of the net just allows it to be played out to the full.

I think there’s also an expectancy about surfing the net, a kind of delayed satisfaction. You may not be enjoying yourself at this moment, but if you click this next link it may be something worthwhile, if you refresh the forum page once more someone may have posted something interesting, if you don’t leave the chatroom just yet someone may make a comment worth reading. The time ends up being spent not in actual entertainment but in waiting for it.

Plus: The internet causes impotence and hair-loss.

Oh, that’s that’s why I’m impotent lol: I’ve been on this forum a lot lately. I spent hours yesterday reading through posts. I’m awful at managing my time as well. I need someone to kick me and tell me to get off lol.

Forums are for people who can type.

what do you mean by that sage?

Exactly what I said. Nothing more, nothing less.

Ok. I was reading something more into it. Perhaps that I can’t type well, since it came after my post

Forums are for people who can type, regardless of their degree of proficiency in said skill.

How’s that?

lol: I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make it a big issue sage. I just tend to see things(in this case read things) the wrong way. I’m paranoid i guess.

I had just typed in a post for this section and it was brilliant and then I hit the wrong key and lost it (the post) . Right give me a second while I count upto 10…
Right I’m ready again.
I’m going to try and remember what I typed now bearing in mind it’s now nearly midnight-just half an hour to go.
I was near the public library this morning and I just had to go in and peek at what was going on in this forum, I just couldn’t resist it. So it must be terribly tempting to keep peeking when you are only a click away!
Last night I must have set a record, I logged off ready to leave and just noticed one of the top 3 items and just had to take a peek. Then I had to log on again just to make a comment. Is that a record do you think?
Then I made about 4 funny, ironic comments about the evils of our addiction. Just imagine your own (that will save me some time)… I bet they were funnier than my originals! Now I’ll imagine your comments… … …
That was less effort and a lot funnier than my last post(fate must have made me hit the key)
Then I said … But seriously this particular forum is the best one to get addicted to. We are all disembodied minds freed from some things

(I had to redial and logon)
that might stop us from being our true selves in normal life. We are all different and have diverse opinions, but underneath we all seem to be on a similar wavelength. Maybe due to the fact that we all have an interest
in lucid dreaming.
If we occasionally spend a bit too much time in the forum at least we are learning from each other while sharing views, laughs and the odd spark when opposite opinions meet occasionally. Also if we are lucky like someone who likes animae (prob wrong spelling) and has wilds we can make up for any lost time in our dreams.
Tell me if I sound like I’m writing essays for O level English. Dont worry if you don’t know what that is . Even the english members will probably be wondering what’s that?

Well, I don’t know. I like anime and have occasional random, involuntary WILDs. But what does that have to do with making up for lost time? @_@;

As for the internet and forums… like I said, your time is your own. Don’t blame something else if you can’t manage your own time. ^^ I, for one, know that I’m completely to blame for my utter lack of time management skills, not the internet. If the internet weren’t here I’d probably still be doing something different than what I’m supposed to do (like playing games, reading, drawing, writing… anything that doesn’t involve homework!)

And yes, this seems to be a great forum even though I’ve only been here a short while. Everyone’s so friendly, even to newbies! I think it’s because the topics are very spiritual, and most people that are interested in them are openminded by nature. :3 I keep coming back here, heh. So far it’s already helped me a great deal ^^