Falling into the Black Hole of the Internet

I think we all can agree that when you open a browser and start clicking, 5 hours can easily disappear. My biggest time-wasting issues stem from chatrooms. Since the day Yahoo and AOL closed, there have been others that have opened up – ChatIB and ChatAvenue are my recent go-tos for a good chat – and honestly, hours and hours can just fly by. I just love the complete anonymity of the whole thing, and all the ideas and thoughts that flow by on the screen. Then the private messages start coming in and you can just get so lost.

But the internet in general is just a hot bed for killing time. I know for most people all the streaming apps with all the thousands of shows and movies to choose from is another big-time killer. But to me, when you go online, you are just open to so many screens and things to look at, that you can literally spend your whole entire life behind a screen. I know from experience because I lived 15 years of my life like that.

How did I break free? Going to jail and being homeless so I didn’t have a choice but have no internet, lol. I don’t recommend that obviously, but the fact that I was without it for so long and was able to read so many books and do so many things with actual three-dimensional people was a huge thing for me. Nowadays, I still find myself behind a computer sometimes, well there are days that I pull all-nighters in chatrooms still, BUT for the most part, I am out there in the real world living my life.

I think it’s important that we find things to do outside of the internet. I had done a No-Internet Challenge once that I blogged about years ago, and it was really helpful in letting me see how important it was to enjoy life again. I read comics, drew pictures, watched cable tv, and wrote poems and letters. I enjoy doing things outside of being online, I do, and I hope that more people would. I didn’t realize how dependent I was on that rush of an instant message or that need to see something flashing on a screen. I wonder what people did for fun in the 50s and 60s sometimes too. Do you remember what life was like before the internet?

Stay Tuned.

Daily writing prompt

Which activities make you lose track of time?

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