Honestly, it's such a time suck. There's online papers, Youtube, constant email checking, not to mention This Place (like crack).
I shudder to think of the number of hours I have wasted online which could have been spent doing other things.
I used to read a lot. Now I have the attention span of a gnat. I am typing this while watching telly 
I really think I need to give up the internet (except for emails and checking the weather).
Does anyone feel the same?
Please or to access all these features
Please
or
to access all these features
AIBU?
to attempt to give up the internet?
20 replies
singingcat · 05/01/2011 23:57
OP posts:
Prolesworth ·
05/01/2011 23:58
This reply has been deleted
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Niecie ·
06/01/2011 00:30
Do I feel the same about the drain on my time that is the internet? Hell yes!!
Will I do anything about it? No, probably not.
It doesn't even make that much difference when my laptop is out of action. I have a desktop which is up 2 flights of stairs (in a loft conversion) and I just go up there when I am without a laptop and totally ignore my family.
BeenBeta ·
06/01/2011 07:53
Nah. Just give in to it. 
I work on the internet all day. I havent read a book in 10 years. I read loads and loads every day so I know far more about what is going on in the world than by watchng nes and reading newspapers.
I just dont watch TV as my TV watching time is now internet time.
Fizzylemonade ·
06/01/2011 08:04
Interesting thread, Book of the Week on Radio 4 this week is "The winter of our disconnect" where a mother bans anything electronic for 6 months mainly because of her 3 teen children.
Sadly you now need the internet for bbc iplayer to listen to it It was on at 9.45 this week. I tuned in Tuesday when she reads the part about unplugging everything computer related etc and the inevitable "I'm bored" statements from the children.
We have a "no electronic" Wednesday for the children, no tv, no computer or nintendo DS. It is going really well, but then they are only 7 and 4. We have been doing it since October.
I am cutting my time down on youtube, could spend hours on it reliving the 80's through music, tv shows and adverts
hystericalmum ·
06/01/2011 08:12
I am switching off. Well I have to get the baby dressed & do the school run!
BeenBeta ·
06/01/2011 08:40
I've delivered mine to school and had my breakfast.
We live next to the school.
clutha ·
06/01/2011 09:06
Yep, I used to get terribly involved with a forum and was literally on it 24/7.
The day I was accused of being a drunk/alcoholic/racist/mysogynist/bigot & anything else you can name really, was the day I left internet forums.
Sorry MrsCrafty, couldnt help but note the irony of the above being posted on an internet forum
Im going thru this very issue now.
In the wider re-assessing my priorities, confronting the media information overload psychological disorder many of us are succumbing to these days, etc, etc.
The problem is it really is a psychological addiction, a crutch.
When you get home your soul and higer brain tells you you need to read that book, pass that exam, grow those veg, write that letter to a long lost freind, play that game with your child, do that meditation or yoga, make that herbal remedy, etc, etc, all the stuff thart indicates personal development and improvement and adventure.
But when you walk thru that door, your small quick fix brain tell you to switch on that telly, have that fag, just catch up wotyh my FB 'friends', check out the lastest disagreement to your forum POV, eat that mcdonalds, etc, etc.
You tell yourself its not interfering with your personal development plans for that day, as its only gonna be 10 mins to help you wind down first.
But your higher source knows your small brain is pulling a con, but you still beleive it evertime.
then, unsurprisingly, the quick wind down has become your eveing and the menaing of your life, has become you identity.
another day, another disapoinment.
But you cant kick this shit straight off.
you need a plan.
First you need to have long conversations with yourself:
Is a forum about mothers really about "real mothers", or is it a forum about "mothers on a forum", (in my revelation, it was dogs).
On FB, am i catching up w/my friends, or am i catching up w/my digital representation of my friends?
Is it that important in life to have OPINION. Is opinion and the need to be seen to make it loud and proud really tha that important in the grand scheme of things.
Does that arrangment of 5 words replied to me really matter?
Have i noticed how all the people on the TV that i admire spend all their time not wathcing telly and achieving stuff?
Have i noticed how all those great movie characters dont have TV's?
Have you heard that Tv presenters barely have time to wathc telly, as they are high achievers?
Do i like the feeling of constant self guilt and disappointment?
Do i remember how i felt more fulfilled in my childhood of climbing trees, etc?
Do i remember the feeling of quietitude and slowness?
Do have depression, anxiety disorder (latter in my case)?
How is my soul?
how are the souls of my loved ones?
What would i truly like from life?
After all that, you think, fuck.
My next stage was to embark on cognitive behaviour therpay exercise via a book from the library and a site called moodgym.
All free.
CBt tells essentially helps you to coach your brain into new habits, processes, and behaviors, as a oach would do for your body.
Then make small steps:
In my case.
Dump FB, replaced it with some better directed IM options such as skype (free).
Got my fiance, whom, btw, has a self discipline on the net, to passowrd the laptop at agreed times.
Got rid of the telly and rely on various web sites for shows i find a specific choice of pleasure to wach, instead of the usual telly is on all night, just watch it all approach.
I could not have dumped the telly without the option of radio.
As you do need that background sound to fill the void.
But the radio seems to add somehting to your environment...relaxation, comfort, support, unlike the whirs, flicker, amnd noise of the obtrusive TV.
One can read study etc to the radio, unlike the TV.
A DAB radio is a God send
Some yoga and meditation
A list of things you wish to do instead.
But DONT focus on the list...let it drip into the new schedule in an evolving way.
You will notice a new sense of homely pottering in the evenings, you wont have a big housework schedule, you have a spontaneous flow about it.
Allow for unexpected events, such as the flu.
in fact, expect such events, so you wont be annoyed when they get in the way.
And the rest im still working on, but im getting their.
I can actually feel my inner being has changed and is changing the last 6 weeks, Almost as if i am becoming a new person.
I have slips up, you are meant to. Its feedback for learning and tinkering.
Mumsnet has been a bit of a slip up of sorts, not that i am just on it, but the way i have got hooked into some unnecesariness.
So i customised the site and dont look at some stuff.
Im still deciding if i need to be on here, this thread has offered me one of those self assessment learning moments, my higher self is telling me the effect MN has had on my new self may not have been beneficial to the plan, should i stay?
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