h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ok, I admit it...I'm addicted to the net!

First thing in the morning, whilst drinking my I check email from various accounts, check 7 Yahoo groups, log in here, and check about 5 Yahoo clubs.

Then I do the school run!

Kids in bed by 7pm, and I'm back! Checking mail/clubs/groups, lurking and posting here. I shop online, and help moderate a chat room. I occasionally game online (Quake 3, UT)

Whenever my connection goes down, I get cold sweats and panic!! I even got 4 alternate dial up numbers from my ISP to make sure I can always get online!

I'd say I needed help....but I don't want any!

And I do all of this on a lousy 56k modem!

I too have a 56k modem. My net addiction seems to change as time goes by. I used to be in around 30 yahoo clubs and I was a persistant poster in most of them. Then I gave up on them when I discovered web-comics, I started to read up to thirty webcomics, then I discovered h2g2.

Right now when I get home from school I spend half an hour to an hour reading webcomics, then I log onto h2g2 and stay here until the end of the day.

I too panic if my modem doesn't work.

Me too. I'm totally addicted to the net, and h2g2 in particular. I listed my symptoms on the addictions talking point a while back, but here they are again...

I gave up one of my 2 days work a week as I was annoyed at being away from h2g2. And I often come home in the day or finish early on the remaining one to get here. I stopped watching TV, doing jigsaws, and crafts in the evenings nearly two years ago. I stopped visiting other mums for coffee and chatting in the day about a year ago.
I have to go out before I log on, straight from dropping my son at school. If I come home and log on I'm stuck. I get grumpy when I'm phoned up, if someone comes to the door I usually have a huge strop as I'm taken away from the site.
I bought my mobile phone so I could stop having to log off if I had to make a phone call.

It's not just h2g2 either, I'm playing an online game that kicks you off after about 3 mins of inactivity. So I'm worse if I log on to that. Can't even leave the pc for the call of nature as I have to fiddle about logging on again. (What's the big deal about that? Nothing, but I'm Logged Out. )

I used to use the instant messengers a lot, but now they get in the way now.
My kid is so used to me being on the pc all the time, if I go and sit on the sofa he asks me what I'm doing in there. Sometimes he wants to use the pc. Not unless I've had a chance to spend a few hours online within the last few hours. If I haven't, he's got no chance.

I'm with Mistdancer. I need help, but I don't want any!

Wouldn't say I was addicted as such...

Having a broadband flat rate connection does mean that I have to feel I get maximum use out of it!

I am constantly looking up maps, recipes, tv series, places, shops, museums in fact anything that sounds interesting, I see if it has a website.

As I work from home at the moment there is no one breathing over my shoulder checking how often I'm logged on, so some days an IE window is almost constantly open.

On second thoughts, perhaps I am very nearly addicted. I can go on holiday without worrying, as long as I have my mobile phone and palm top

Addicted? Me? Surely not. It's just a healthy thing isn't it?
Don't have computer at home. If I had, I would probably be close to the addiction. First thing when I get in to work: Get a can of Coke = Breakfast.
Boot the computer up, Start the work tool applications, log in to those, Check mail, start one NS browser for work stuff, one IE browser for work stuff, then another window of each browser for just plain surfing stuff.
I've a mental list of what sites goes better in IE than in NS and vice versa. Usually, check three online comics first thing (Kevin and Kell, Sluggy Freelance and User Friendly) on the IE browser while logging onto H2G2 on the NS browser. Then the NS browser stays on H2G2 for the rest of the day while I look for other stuff on the IE browser. Good thing that there is a T3-line straight into the computer (well, almost).

I used to be addicted to chat rooms, but I had to give that up since work got in the way all the time.

I've attended a bunch of IRL meet-ups in Sweden, Scotland, England and the US. Well, a couple in Sweden, a bunch in Scotland, one (so far) in England and one in the US.

Am I addicted to the Internet? Well, I don't really know. I can actually stay away from the net for quite some time without gettign too bothered. However, I do feel a bit lost if I can't get my daily dose of the online comics stated above.

I dunno.... It's helped me in many ways, though. It helped me improve my typing skills. At one point, I typed faster in English than I did in Swedish, and I'm not even sure if I've caught up with the speed of my Swedish typing yet.
It's given me tons of information that I never would have known had I not been online. It's helped me improve my English to the point where the last worry on my mind when I moved to Scotland was how to cope with the language.

Unfortunately, I ramble alot.... I'll stop now.

//Lost.

OK, Lost, but how do you explain the automatic response of rolling out of an Edinburgh pub at 2am to find an all-night cybercafe?

The online comics are my most serious problem, because if I miss a day I know I'll have to read through the comics that I've missed. I get withdrawal symptoms if I spend too long off-line.
I think that you can get very easily stuck into a routine on the internet, I feel guilty if I don't check my e-mails daily, I get enthralled by the plots on webcomics and I hate to miss a day of conversation on h2g2.

I climb out of my bed, switch off the alarm clock and turn on the computer (ADSL flat-rate access ). I check on e-mails and h2g2. Finding that no-one bothered to answer my last night's postings (rare) is always a sad thing . Then I have breakfast and read the newspaper, return to the computer, check on latest h2g2 developments, respond where appropriate and go off to uni/work. Though I might skip bits of internet use if in a hurry. At uni the net is mainly used for research, while the e-mail accounts are checked every three minutes. There I do h2g2 sparingly, like when I've finished a task and will be off to lunch/dinner in ten minutes... I'll go to h2g2 and check on the threads via the MP-page. Dinner. Off home, chat with the flatmates, turn on the computer, relax at h2g2/do some research for uni and generally fiddle about. Check on h2g2 before going to bed. I sleep, I wake up...
I climb out of my bed, switch off the alarm clock and turn on the computer (ADSL flat-rate access ). I check on e-mails and h2g2. finding that no-one bothered to answer my last night's postings is always a sad thing . Then I have breakfast and read the newspaper, return to the computer, check on latest h2g2 developments, respond ...

I've been through addiction and come out of the other end. I was an addicted online RPer (read role-player) for a while (just text typey stuff, none of this Everquest rubbish ). The addiction was undoubtedly the story. As most of the people I RPd with had a knack for dramatic flare, the storylines could get quite soap-like and involving. (un)fortunately, the game itself had an element of danger, and my addiction subsided when most of the characters died. I definitely agree that its not what you do but who you meet. And there isn't a shortage of people worth meeting.

Happy Christmas everyone

[HP}=~~

Peet, that comment is a cheap shot. I went to the all-night cyber cafe because I had missed my last train home (now, that's a surprise, isn't it?) and I didn't have anywhere to sleep. HOwever, I only lasted until about 4am before I almost fell asleep, and headed out onto town again.

I broke out of the web-chat addiction because of two things. First reason, I already explained in my first post. JOb got in the way of chatting. The second reason was the rapidly emerging numbers of SNERTs in the chat rooms.

SNERTS?

"Snert is a thirty something male who has been playing computer games since the days of the Sinclair ZX series, and he really should know better by now."

"snert
A derogatory term commonly used on the Internet ECHO BBS, echonyc, meaning to "make overtures of a sexual nature". It implies terminal cluelessness."

I assume no such word exists to describe 30 something women you have been playing computer games since the days of the Sinclair ZX and really should know better by now?


*loads Runescape for a good dose of thumping monsters*

Tube, the SNERT I referred to is a Snot-Nosed Egotistical Rude Teenager. Their sole purpose in chat rooms is to cause trouble by insulting everyone and everything because they think they can't be caught.

Ah, ok...

I think you've made a wise decision staying away from the chat rooms, Tube. They've been run over by these Snerts who are only looking for fights and treats anyone outside their little circle of friends with comptempt.

Better to be here, where the people are friendly and can share differing opinions without calling each other names and threatening one another's families...