As bloggers, we spend most of the time online. The internet is usually our workspace. It is where we get your daily bread, where we do our shopping, where we interact with older people and make friends with the new. Basically, the internet is a whole new world that has brought boundless possibilities by making our work easier. If you are not online, you don’t exist.
It reaches a point whereby we rely so much on the internet that we forget to do things manually. We forget how good perusing a real book is because you are used to e-books, you forget how fruits feel on your hand when choosing them from the market because you can just order and have them delivered to you. But how do you tell that it’s too much? How do you realize that that the internet has completely overtaken your life? How can you tell that you are addicted to the internet? Well, here is how:
You are bored when there is no wi-fi
Usually, when you enter a café or a library, the first thing you ask is the wi-fi password. If you find there is none, you get bored to death. Why? The internet is where your friends are, it’s is where you can interact with your cash, well unless you are not lazy enough to walk to the ATM. Anywhere with no wi-fi will prove very stressful for you. You experience withdrawal-type-symptoms when you cannot have your internet time, like anxiety, nervousness, and irritability.
You have more virtual friends than real life friends
Actually, when you look at your personal online profile, you have more friends that you have real-life friends. As a result, you withdraw from your real friends and family because you are anxious to find and meet your cyber friends. Guys like this are usually lonely, withdrawn and will explode at the slightest provocation.
You are smoking when it comes to internet lingo
When it comes to LMAO, SMH, and LOL, you are the best. Actually, some of the internet slang that guys use was invented by you. When it comes to actual words to express yourself, you can barely get a word from your mouth. Socializing with people becomes awkward. When it comes to being behind a computer or a smartphone, your confidence increases 10-fold.
You lose track of time when you are online
Most of the time, you lose track of the amount of time you spend, or you are dishonest to yourself about how much time you have been online. Sometimes, you even find it hard to cut back on the time you use online. Also, you have unsuccessfully tried to cut back on your online times. This especially happens to people who do online gaming.
You think about what you do online when you are not online
When you are not online, you usually sit and wonder what is going on in your favorite chatrooms, you look forward to being online when you are not, you obsessively check emails and messages on your mobile phone and you carry your computer everywhere. Also, you feel a longing to be online and when a conversation gets awkward, you take to your phone in refuge.
These are just some of the ways to tell but there are much more. Inasmuch as you work online, do not let your work define you. Take time to interact with friends, read an actual book or newspaper and live your life. The internet will still be there when you come back.