Wednesday, September 9, 2009

When the internet takes over your life



I have to admit, I couldn't live without the Internet. I honestly don't know how people survive without it. I use it for everything from research, to directions, to looking up a movie. But, the thing is, I'm a little addicted to it. LOL. I'm really bogged down with work right now. I had edits, agent requests, and have a deadline in November. I have so much to do and so little time yet I keep finding myself browsing the Internet! I've suddenly become addicted to Facebook. I hated it for the longest time. I fought tooth and nail against my Facebook account and now I can't stay away. I'm browsing more blogs than usual, minimizing my book every few paragraphs and "looking something up real quick and then I'll get right back to my writing". The thing is, it's hard to stop. I'm on the computer to work so it's really hard not to click on that big blue e.

I'm Twittering, myspacing, yahoo grouping and yes, a lot of it is for my writing but where do we draw the line? How do we do what we need to do online and cut it short to get the writing done we need to as well?

What do you do to limit your Internet time? What are some of your time-sucking hot spots?

9 comments:

Anne Rainey said...

I feel so horribly cut off from the world without the internet. I get depressed and start to feel so alone in the world. I don't know what I'd do without it, really.

I don't spend tons of time playing games or anything, usually it's just interacting with friends. Mostly email or IM. But my daughter really loves that gaming site pogo.com. She could spend hours on there, I swear! LOL

Natasha Bennett said...

I do spend a scary amount of time checking my e-mail, but I'm happy to say that I haven't been too addicted to facebook, and not to Twitter at all. A lot of people have cell phones because they can't live without texting or the internet or whatever, and thankfully I don't have one of those either. Work, writing, and my boyfriend take up too much of my time.

Cheers,
Natasha Bennett
http://www.warofthesoulites.com

Nicole Morgan said...

Wow! You have no idea what a relief it is to hear that I'm not the only one. I seem to find myself clicking on Twitter and Facebook WAY more often than I should.

I know I should probably seek help, but the little devil on my shoulder keeps telling me not to.

If you find a cure, do NOT tell me, I do not want to stop. I'm enjoying myself.

Nicole *winks*

Regina Carlysle said...

OMG!!!! Me, too! I'm absolutely addicted and it interferes with my writing a whole BUNCH!

Your trick of minimizing your WIP is a good one. I started doing that too. When I first started doing that, I'd pull it up, write a bit and then go back to the internet. Did it in intervals and found before long I had five pages written and they weren't half bad. LOL.

Bekki Lynn said...

Oh, gosh, me, too. Facebook is so much fun. I never realized. I couldn't keep up with all the vaious accounts, so I dropped my author account at facebook figuring I'd be good just keeping up with the family one. Wow! My family and friends have me so hooked, I just set up my author account again.

I play a lot of the games, farm and the kids have me in mafia wars and mobsters now.

Yesterday,I had friend ask me if I worked for Facebook, I sent her so much stuff - smiles, game challenges, farmville stuff, chug it. lol

Oh and the quizes are so silly, you have to do them.

I, too, minimize my work and go back and forth. I have to get so many words done before I can go play.

I have no net or text on my phone, I'd never get any writing done. When I did have text - my kids and their friends would sit in history class and text me. lol

Unknown said...

I do programming at work, including lots of internet research. I come home and play on the computer off and on 'till bedtime. I pay all of my bills online. It's also my social life, keep in mind I had NO social life before I starting playing online so it's a big improvement for me. LOL

I don't see it as a bad thing. People learned to depend on cars, planes and trains after buggies and horses. It's not bad, just normal social readjustment.

Unknown said...

BTW, add to my other post, I have MySpace, Facebook and Twitter accounts. LOL

Kelley_vampirechick said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kelley Nyrae said...

Wow. I feel much better now. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one. LOL. I'm happy to admit I did get some writing done today though! The funny thing about Facebook is I fought it for so long. I didn't like the site and didn't think it was user friendly and now I'm completely addicted. Go figure....