We be junkies… battling the net addiction

Yesterday a very bad thing happened around my house, the internet died. If you could have seen the looks on both me and the spousal unit’s face, you would have thought a family member had actually died. Yes, it was that bad. We tinkered with it, plugged and unplugged the modem, only to have to call the lovely folks at Time Warner who supply our internet connection. Since we both work at home, the internet is pretty important to our respective gigs since its the means by which we connect with our clients.

Well after what seemed like hours on the phone with the lovely tech folks, we got the very bad news that they would have to send someone out, however they were booked and couldn’t come out till the next day. Noooooooooooooooo. You mean 24 hours without going online? But, we have professional class service I thought that meant you come right away to fix my service? This is what we told the gal on the phone who explained that they were getting to us right away, that if we had a Joe Regular Residential account we could be waiting a week for repairs. Oh.. That cooled us down.

Truthfully my work day was just about wrapped up, but I still had blogs to read, boards to go to and information to seek. Instead I took my elder child out and had a great day. It was during our outing that I realized I am addicted to the net. See, upon waking in the morning, I drink my coffee while reading the paper online and surfing my favorite blogs. From there I check the various discussion boards I moderate as well as ones I surf. Even aside from my work, I spend a lot of time online. In the evening, I am often online between playing with mini-me, I am famous for saying just one more moment baby.

While out yesterday I was listening to Red Hot Chili Pepper’s Throw Away your Television, and was struck by the fact that I could say the same thing about my computer.. over the years I have grown more dependent on this piece of machinery. Even blogging has helped to fuel the addiction, I thought I would maybe at best write a post 2-3 times a week instead I try for almost every day. Know what? Its too much..

Yet its a strange love-hate relationship, truth is technology allows me to live in a rural state and earn a living and have clients anywhere, yet I find that the line between personal and professional life is harder to find.

That said, I am not giving up the net, but while the weather is good I think I need to engage more with the outside world instead of online.. so I think much like I confine work to certain days, I suspect for the good of the fam, I should blog only during the week, in fact I am trying to limit my online time period. This is gonna be a lot like my 2 year journey with Weight Watchers, took 2 years to lose almost 50 pounds because I had to re-change my relationship with food.

So am I the only one who spends way too much time online? Catch ya on Monday.