Web Addiction: Where's the Line for You?

We may have a problem. "We" as in bloggers, web-geeks, computer users of all sizes and age. We're diving head first into Tron-world and we don't even know it. I came across this article in the Washington Post the other day, and it really hit home for me:

Concern about excessive Internet use -- variously termed problematic Internet use, Internet addiction, pathological Internet use, compulsive Internet use and computer addiction in some quarters, and vigorously dismissed as a fad illness in others -- isn't new. As far back as 1995, articles in medical journals and the establishment of a Pennsylvania treatment center for overusers generated interest in the subject. There's still no consensus on how much time online constitutes too much or whether addiction is possible.

But as reliance on the Web grows -- Internet users average about 3 1/2 hours online each day, according to a 2005 survey by Stanford University researchers -- there are signs that the question is getting more serious attention: Last month, a study published in CNS Spectrums, an international neuropsychiatric medicine journal, claimed to be the first large-scale look at excessive Internet use. The American Psychiatric Association may consider listing Internet addiction in the next edition of its diagnostic manual. And scores of online discussion boards have popped up on which people discuss negative experiences tied to too much time on the Web.

It's really hard for me to determine if I have a Web addiction or not. Prolonged, heavy Web use is my livelihood, after all. I am financially and professionally dependent on my interactions and contributions to cyberspace -- but I'll definitely come home after a ten-hour day and eat a sandwich with one hand while clicking through YouTube with the other. What about you guys?

You wouldn't be here in J-Land, reading my blog and writing one of your own if youdidn't a derive a sense of pleasureand well-being from being behind a computer. For many of you, your primary creative outlets and social interactions have occurred online -- or your online lives have positively influenced your real lives.

I'm not asking you all to out yourselves as Internet addicts, but I'm positive that there's more than one of you reading this. Instead, tell me this: how do you establish limits? What do you do to insure that you participate in real life, and where do you draw your lines?

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This entry has 15 comments: (Add your own)

#15 Comment from knightzina
11/20/06 6:16 PM | Permalink

You know,my room-mate and I were talking about this same subjuct the other day with her daughter,her daughter is the one who bought me this computer for a xmas gift 2 yrs.ago. I started playing with aim.com I have begun writing my own journals.,I can spend the same amount of time she spends watching the boobtube and have the same amount of fun,infact I think I have the most fun.It's gotten to the point to now I have to watch my time or shes going to turn this off and I would really be upset.I've really shared some nice chats with some others and never would have experienced speaking with someone I never ment before without this toy box of mine.I think the main point Im trying to make on this topic of "How much time is too much time",as long as it doesn't interfere with your private life you should be ok,now to be honest,I know I can get on the internet at 1o'clock and stay on for another 6 hrs.and not even know that much time has gone by,so I have to really watch my time or I know the fight is on.I can't understand something though?If Im sitting on the couch watching the tube for those 6 hrs.not more then maybe 5 sentences between us has been shared,so what is the big problem when Im only 5 feet away within sight,the same 5 sentences could be shared,right???Winkatya(tonee)
#14 Comment from bgilmore725
11/18/06 5:38 PM | Permalink

Well, I am a teacher, so every morning I'm walking out the door at 6:30 a.m. to get to school, and I don't get home until 5:30 or later p.m... I participate very intensely in each day of my life. What I do when I come home is my choice. Of all the addictions available to me (of which I don't pursue), I find this one (internet use) the least harmless and most productive. There is much worse I could be doing in my life... my limits are established by my work time, family time, and church activities. bea

http://beta.journals.aol.com/bgilmore725/Wanderer/
#13 Comment from pagadan
11/17/06 10:00 PM | Permalink

I'm on and off constantly during the day, but I'm also busy working outside, working at my other desk, frivoling elsewhere and doing errands, and reading after I close down the computer at night. (I prefer reading print books and magazines to reading online, btw.) And I don't add a new entry to my blog every day. (Oh, my God, I missed a day!!)

http://journals.aol.com/pagadan/JoysJournal/
#12 Comment from mavarin
11/17/06 1:31 PM | Permalink

When my brain obsolutely refuses to let me concentrate for one more minute while I tweak that sentence in the third paragraph of tonight's entry, I go offline. Usually. I have no discipline about this stuff at all.

Karen
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com
#11 Comment from monponsett
11/16/06 8:22 PM | Permalink

When I finally give up on this one, I'll be on my third cheapo keyboard this year.

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Web Addiction: Where's the Line for You?