by Are you constantly online? Do you get the desire to tweet about everything you do? Do you update your status on Facebook and check for comments every five minutes? Do you blog about everything you do? If your answer to one or more of the above questions is yes, then you should know its quite possible that you’re addicted to the internet. Although the word ‘addiction’ sounds a bit too extreme in this context, it holds true. If you are spending most of your time online, and paying less attention to the real world, you are probably suffering from internet addiction. ‘Internet addiction’, doesn’t essentially mean that you are spending way too much time on the internet. If your work involves a high degree of internet usage, you are certainly not addicted; you are just productively making use it. However, if you are spending (read: wasting) you’re your time doing useless things over the web and can’t get up to do something more important, you are addicted.
To overcome internet addiction, you have to take a systematic approach. Although the idea is simple, acting on it is as hard as giving up smoking. Which are neither fun nor amusing. Once overcome, however, you’ll feel a change in your daily lifestyle. During your ‘’rehabilitation’ you might feel like you are missing out on a major part of your life, but in reality, you were missing out on the great things in life. Now is the time when you can take control. Procrastination had taken over you. It’s time to give it up now.
The first step would be realize and acknowledge that your dependence on the internet is unhealthy. You are wasting a lot of time. Start by prioritizing and categorizing what you do, beginning with the most important things in your daily life. List down all the important things you are supposed to do. Then have a look at your other activities, ones that are causing an interference with the important things that you have just noted. Once you have sorted out the important things to do, see how much time you need to do them. After all this, answer this simple question: is the internet more important than the things that you just noted as ‘’most important’’?
The next step would be important the plan you created. When you are concentrating on a task other than the internet, try not to lose focus. You’ll get the time to use the internet, too. But even then, be sure to have clearly defined tasks to be done. For instance, if you have a plan to post something on your blog, then just do that, and leave everything else. Don’t be distracted. Once you have finished your work and have some time left, then you may surf the internet the way you want. Once that’s done, see if you are coming along. Did it work? See if you are giving proper time to the other activities, and also if you are gradually overcoming your dependence on the internet. If it’s working, rethink what internet activities you can do without. Continue the cycle until you are happy with the way your routine looks. Overcoming any type of addiction is time –consuming process, but with strong determination and focus, one can easily succeed in doing so.
