(From the WEB).

I’ve decided that I’ve been spending too much time on a few different Internet forums.
I probably spend too much time on the Internet period. It’s become an addiction and that
addiction doesn’t go well with the rest of my life. I read a few things on the Internet
about people being addicted to Internet forums. Apparently quite a few people have this
problem.

My problem is that I would spend hours at night surfing the forums and posting to them.
Most of the time it seemed that it was more of a “status thing” on the forums for me.
I was easy to want to be popular and have lots of posts, and post answers to questions
you know. Whatever thing you are into (for me it was knives) it seems to make you
want to buy or do more of that thing. For me just merely reading about another knife
would make me want to purchase it. Good high resolution pictures of the knife would make
me want it even more. It was getting insane.

It had to end. I decided that I am going to stop going to the forums altogether for at
least 30 days. I am starting this today. I am doing this because going to the forum has
become such a habit that it’s almost like “wrote memory”. It is just something that I do
when I’m bored. Instead, I should be doing something better with my life like going outside,
interacting with real people face to face instead of online, or exercising. I should go to
the park with my family, or get more things done around the house, or actually USE my knives.
It had gotten to the point that I had so many knives that they would be used so infrequently
that they would look new all the time. That has stopped. I sold all of my knives and we are
using the money for better things. I know have 2 knives that I use and carry, and they are
getting scratched up and looking used. This is a good thing. For those of you, who don’t
understand forum addiction or the love of edged tools;just substitute your own type of
addiction. Most addictions work in a similar way.

So, now my spare time will be spent in a more productive fashion. I do think to a certain
extent Internet forums are good. You can make friends there, even friends that you actually
end up meeting in person. You can get a lot of good knowledge and information there too.
The problem is that when that is all you do in your spare time it’s not a good thing.
You need to do everything in moderation. So for me, I’ll not be visiting for at least 30
days and then I will re-evaluate the situation and see how I feel. Will I be better off
or not? I’m not sure, but right now I’m leaning towards “better off”.
* * *

Sounds familiar to you?

Best regards,

Luciano