I can appreciate this one. I truly enjoy watching t.v. movies, p.m. t.v. shows, reading but I also have to do it away from my pc. I keep eye drops on my desk, make myself think about blinking & get up from time to time even to walk up & down the stairs in my house. Partly due to anemia fatigue I don't go out very often & if I do it's in a.m. I never know when any chat buddies will b online so I drift in/out. Try to start my day with coffee & a book near my back door where I can look out from my hill & see ocean breaking on the beach a few miles away. Getting off on a tangent again....oh well.

I can certainly relate to the Internet addiction thing, though I think i have been able to moderate it for the most part. Take, for example, my website. I will spend several sleepless nights adding a new page or section to the website, then drift off to something else entirely.

Not having been full-time employed for a long time this year has also really tested my ability to pull away from the Internet. So how, you may ask, do I pull myself away from the Internet? I keep my TV on, radio or other distractions at the same time :)

TRULY from the bottom of my heart relate to the internet addiction Susy....:) Someone in another post suggested doing some other things first before logging on....who knows, huh? It's easy to get sucked in.....:(

Hi, I'm completely new to all this; it's a revelation! I could post ecstatic mumblings (if mumbling can be ecstatic!) on any of the threads, but why not quickly start here? I wouldn't say I'm exactly addicted to the internet, but suffice to say that it's pretty dangerous (as far as I'm concerned - or as concerns me) having unmonitored (I hope!) internet access at work... I don't arrive at work grinning inwardly at all the time I can waste surfing the net - but on some days I just cannot suppress impulses throughout the day to check up on this or that fact/idea etc (on the internet). I'm doing this now, though I think this is a good thing for a change as I'm trying directly to approach a problem which really gets in the way of my work (I now mean the wider "problem" of being unable to concentrate/motivate myself consistently). But before I ramble any more (in any case I do actually want to say my bit then sign off and try to get on with what I should be doing!) - just wanted to say what moved me to post here in particular: the fact that you talk about dealing with distractions with distractions. I mean using one (or more) distraction to pull you away from another one (itself a distraction from "getting on" with your life). Fantastic! The logic may in a sense be quite straightforward - nothing radical - but it's the kind of thing so may people just wouldn't understand except as a kind of joke (I've been amusing people for years with stories of my failure to get things done etc - not that I mind since it only tends to be nicer or more sympathetic people who can understand well enough why one might want to talk about oneself like that to find it funny). But as I say, although having the TV on as a measure to keep you from getting too "lost" in the internet would seem impossibly decadent to some (the decadence would lie in seeing it as a remedy rather than further self-indulgence), or most, I (and presumably many others here) know EXACTLY what you mean. (Not that I had thought of it!). Sorry, this is kind of an unfinished, half-response (in spite of the verbosity), but I'd better leave it there. Hey, maybe I will get some work done this afternoon, after all!.

Peace and love, Jonathan.

(I was about to waste another few minutes changing my alias to "Slacker", a nickname I might have liked to use if I'd ever got my act together as a writer/musician (ha ha ha), but actually, what's the point?! J)

Welcome to the Forums Jonathan and I enjoyed reading your post. Its honesty is refreshing to say the least. Please keep posting here and you will get lots of support...:)

Thanks a lot for the welcome! (You seem to be everywhere on this site spreading goodwill and encouragement!) Invites me in, but also (paradoxically?) somehow gives me the strength to log off (after this) and try to concentrate on the program I have been supposed to finish for the last 3 years! Perhaps I will get my computer at home up and running again soon (just moved house) so I can enjoy/benefit from this site more (without the tension caused by doing it in worktime) and hopefully make a positive contribution of my own. Thanks again, J.

when i had the pc in my bedroom, i swear i didnt have my pc running every night, honest ;)

We believe you Tooodd....:) :) Honest:)....LOL......

I'm addicted to the net. No question about it. I go through withdrawal without it.

Broadband did me in. We were one of the first cities to have DSL & Cable service. Went public in 98' I believe.

Fortunately it wasn't available in my neighborhood during the first 6 months after I got married.

56K access and 1 phone line meant I only went online when I really needed to.

As soon as I signed up with DSL it was downhill. I was to the point where I was literally in front of the PC every minute that I was home and not asleep.

I've gotten a little bit better, but not much. I don't game anymore (that REALLY had me hooked hard core) , so I spend a bit more time with my wife. It's still definitely keeps me from doing a lot of things I need to do though. Big time killer.

I think getting rid of broadband is the only thing that would guarantee that I'd spend less time online, but I can't bring myself to goto that extreme.

Originally posted by InattentiveType
Broadband did me in. Fortunately it wasn't available in my neighborhood during the first 6 months after I got married.56K access and 1 phone line meant I only went online when I really needed to.

As soon as I signed up with DSL it was downhill.

I was to the point where I was literally in front of the PC every minute that I was home and not asleep.

I've gotten a little bit better, but not much.

I don't game anymore (that REALLY had me hooked hard core) , so I spend a bit more time with my wife.

It's still definitely keeps me from doing a lot of things I need to do though. Big time killer.

I think getting rid of broadband is the only thing that would guarantee that I'd spend less time online, but I can't bring myself to goto that extreme.

I hate it when I see clearly the change that has screwed up a balance that i had previously worked out, and I see a new solution, but the new solution seems un-doable.