Living up to your non-internet potential ( as PACK members )

[MattSullivan]

I'm posting here because this relates to all PACK members.

There's a lot of energy that gets wasted on this board. Threads get turned into pissy arguments that could be resolved by our ability to ignore them, yet we respond and the fights just get bigger. Or, people post here all the time about how they "spend too much time" on the boards, or the internet, make a big stink about "leaving"....and so on.

So it occoured to me. Are you living up to your best potential? Or has the internet ( Pack included ) distracted you from your goals? Do you spend too much time online because you feel like you're among friends? ( When in reality that may not be true )

Confused? Let me give you an example of what I mean.

A while back, I realized I was addicted to the internet. I was spending too much time talking to people who didn't appreciate me. I'd say "hi" to them on a chat program, but they'd never initiate the chat or say "hi" first. More often than not, it was someone who had seen my art and wanted me to draw something for them.

I could have told them to f*** off righ there. But no, I spent another few years chatting with these same jackasses. Never opnce realizing that I was doing something I hated, but couldn't stop doing it. When I FINALLY ceased chatting, I had more free time, was happier, and less depressed about the little things. What's frightening, is that I added up ( in general ) all the hours I'd spent online doing NOTHING, and it came out to almost a YEAR in terms of hours spent online. A f*** YEAR! Thinking I was "working", but in reality, becoming just another internet nobody.

So day by day, in order to fully live up to my real life expectations, I limit my net time.

But what about you guys? Is the internet keeping you from living up to your full REAL-LIFE potential? Are your long-term goals being put injeapordy because of it?

[Morkulv]

The internet is actually a great help to persue my goals actually. Mainly because I see and prefer to only use the internet as that what it is; a communication-device. I talk on MSN with friends, keep up with a lot of info, and also talk with people about things that I prefer not to talk about in real life (spiritual things).

You can call me a internet-addict, but I keep up with a lot more info then the usual junkies.

[ShadowFang]

Internet > Real life

[*nagowteena*]

I'm not on the internet a hole lot.

and it doesn't really mess up my acting and auditions, since there aren't a hole lot here.

but I do admit, there are some people out there who try to get things off you, people I don't even know are asking me to make them free art...god!

[MoonKit]

I'll admit, when I first came I here I got kind of stuck and was spending A LOT of time on the internet. But now I check in every few days or so. Monday is my only bad day I think because I say Im going to be productive and clean the house (etc.) and I end up on the internet all day because I havent been on all weekend!

But in my case, Im not really chatting. Im actually doing a lot of research. I love googling things to learn more about them.

[Kaebora]

Yeah, I used to use the internet too much. I've made some changes to make time for other things. I may only check one forum a day, and stopped using instant messengers alltogether. Although I do get the occational burst of internet use when I try a new game, but it tapers off again within' a week.

I don't think correspondance is pointless here, but indeed is getting more and more pointless as you get accustomed to it I suppose. In regards to friendship over the internet, it's a fact that it exists. Nevertheless, knowing who your true e-friends are... seems difficult to be sure of sometimes. I only socialize on the internet because my friends around here are always too busy to hang out or talk. (CG artists most of em, so they have little free-time.) I'm hopeing that after I move back to Texas to be with my friends and family, I wont have to rely on the internet as a social outlet anymore.

We all have different reasons to use the internet, even if it is excessive.

[MattSullivan]

The internet CAN be good for information...although sometimes you really have to hunt around for it. Kae, I know what you mean about CG. You can learn a lot about it from the web but the info is scattered and hard to find.

[Figarou]

When I was growing up, there was no i-net. (It was just getting started.) So I ended up getting it late in life. My 1st time was with WEBTV in 1999. It turned out to be a big mistake because someone hacked into the network and took my credit card information. (I was paying a month to month service with a credit card.)


It wasn't until 2002 that I got my 1st PC. And like any new toy, it was something I spent hours on. I'm glad I bought a PC cause I can pay my bills online. Also look for tons of information. See what movies are comming out...and so on. I wouldn't have found this place if my interest in werewolves wasn't that great.

With my new job at Exxon, my online time has been cut short. I used to be on everyday. Now its every other day for a few minutes. Being online hasn't ruined my life or messed up my daily routine.

[tyger]

I will admit I probably spend a lot of time on the ol' 'net but I don't really have a car nor a good paying job, anything worth doing for me is 10 miles away. so I spend my free time here untill I can have my social life back :p

[Midnight]

The Internet's just a form of communication, no better and no worse than any other. I doubt that, back in the 19th century after the postal services were reformed, people started worrying about all the time they were wasting writing letters!

Personally I spend a bit of time most evenings on the Internet. But I'm generally doing other stuff as well while I'm at it (which is why I am so often silent in the chat room - I'm simply not there, or doing other stuff while waiting for something to load). The time I'm actually wasting sitting down at the keyboard is miniscule compared with (for example) the nine and a half hours a day from the time I leave for work to the time I return home.

As for flame wars... Most of the time I just can't be arsed getting into that sort of fight. Life's too short. If I have something to say I'll say it once. (That's the reason I'm not bothering with the latest anti-furry flame-war).

As for why I visit the Pack in particular... It's one of the few places on the internet which are primarily populated by people who are actually interested in werewolves. (Most of my friends simply Couldn't. Care. Less.) If you've got an obscure interest... the Internet is the place to find people who share it. I've got a hell of a lot more interests than just that - but here is somewhere I can talk about something that interests me without serving as a cure for insomnia to (for example) the people who read my live journal.

[RedEye]

Internet's a tool. Period. I'm on it a lot because of several Mail accounts and because I'm looking things up. I usually am online about three hours a day-when I'm online. Some days, I'm not.

Now, about Computer Time... Given that I'm writing; I spend about nine or more hours on the Compy a day doing art or story. Then I may not even turn it on for two or three days if I'm doing something else.

One of the big addicting bits of the big Online is that you can be who you really are; not who you were born as. If you want to, your Persona can be who you would have been, IF....
And nobody will say otherwise, because that's what they are, too!

[DarkShadow]

Oh definately! I love the Pack, but I am also taking care of my life here. I work hard at school so I can get into a decent art college (possible emily carr) and to maintain friendships here.

[punxnotdead]

Yah, I'm guilty...I spend 2 to 3 hours (between television) on the internet because my social life is non existant. Also, I have like 8 different sites to check out every night, so it only adds onto what I do, but I've stopped wasting my time talking to people on msn that didn't care about me. After my homework every night I go on because I enjoy talking on here.
I know, I have an excuse: A) I live in the middle of nowhere with only old geezers around for company
B) Almost everyone in my school are only interested in drinking and drugs, and most of them are immature.
As for living up to my full potential, I do hope I can escape this little hamlet for some fun and to actually do something.

I'm posting here because this relates to all PACK members.

There's a lot of energy that gets wasted on this board. Threads get turned into pissy arguments that could be resolved by our ability to ignore them, yet we respond and the fights just get bigger. Or, people post here all the time about how they "spend too much time" on the boards, or the internet, make a big stink about "leaving"....and so on.

So it occoured to me. Are you living up to your best potential? Or has the internet ( Pack included ) distracted you from your goals? Do you spend too much time online because you feel like you're among friends? ( When in reality that may not be true )

Confused? Let me give you an example of what I mean.

A while back, I realized I was addicted to the internet. I was spending too much time talking to people who didn't appreciate me. I'd say "hi" to them on a chat program, but they'd never initiate the chat or say "hi" first. More often than not, it was someone who had seen my art and wanted me to draw something for them.

I could have told them to f*** off righ there. But no, I spent another few years chatting with these same jackasses. Never opnce realizing that I was doing something I hated, but couldn't stop doing it. When I FINALLY ceased chatting, I had more free time, was happier, and less depressed about the little things. What's frightening, is that I added up ( in general ) all the hours I'd spent online doing NOTHING, and it came out to almost a YEAR in terms of hours spent online. A f*** YEAR! Thinking I was "working", but in reality, becoming just another internet nobody.

So day by day, in order to fully live up to my real life expectations, I limit my net time.

But what about you guys? Is the internet keeping you from living up to your full REAL-LIFE potential? Are your long-term goals being put injeapordy because of it?

[Xiroteus]

I think of the internet mostly as a tool, I am able to spend a bit of free time online to look up information, I only use it as time allows.

[RedEye]

A lot of people equate spending time on the internet as not having a social life.
I beg to disagree.
Yes, it can become an addiction; but so can anything, including playing Poker.
For people who either can't get out, have no transportation other then public transport, or have a less-than-perfect face and body; the Internet puts all that aside. You are who you are as a mind and personality; not what you look like or where you can get to.
In that way the Internet is a great leveller; looks don't count, nor does money...or your car, clothing, nationality...
You are who you are.
And if this forum, and similar forums are not socializing; what is, pray tell?
Parties? Group meetings? Social affairs you absolutely must attend if you want to be considered "cool?" Puh-leeze!
If you want to actually meet someone in the flesh, you can. If there are thousands of miles between you and your friends...there is the 'net. Actually, more people are talking and interacting on this medium than ever before--people who might never meet in real life because of distance or politics.
We are seeing others as People; not nationalities or political beings. I can't help but think that this is a good thing. Where people can talk, they are less inclined to fight. Where we can get past the biases of the so- called real world and actually find that there are a lot of people out there that we can like, befriend, and learn about-that has to be a benefit, not a liability.
IMHO....

[lone-wolf]

Ill have to admit, due to my lack of a social time of late iv'e become a bit addicted to the net, but not havin anywhere nearby to go, its probably easier for me just to log on to a site and chat on that anyway.

(p.s) Im not a lazy as i sound i used to spend bout an hour a night on net before i moved to where i am now

[Ceekur]

I have to agree with a lot of what Redeye said. While some people can become socially dependent on the internet, it's a fact that it offers greater convenience in comparison to say traveling to each person you want to talk to individually or calling them up.

One thing I'm afraid I can't agree completely with is the seeing others as people. I do see how the Internet is a "leveler" though. But while it makes sense that physical ties (which could cause hostility in real life), such as nationality, are stripped by default, this usually makes it all the harder to remember that there's a real person on the other side of the screen. "Internet trolls" and the like generally act differently in real life toward other people and in general. A random person producing text on the screen may not be seen the same way as in real life. In real life, everything needed to see a person as a person is right there (the other person needs to accept it though). Virtually, the person may be seen as just a producer of text.

Basically, while the Internet may help some people see others as people, it may just have the opposite effect on others.

[Scott Gardener]

Well, right now browsing The Pack is distracting me from working on my Nanowrimo novel. Note that National Novel Writing Month, or "Nanowrimo," is also an Internet phenomenon.

As for whether The Pack or the Internet in general causes me to squander myself, I don't think that it does. I work 24 hour shifts at a time and yet still maintain living standards that are well above average; balancing work hours with the rest of my life is a far bigger problem than time and energy spent online versus the mundane.

I do agree about the potential for wasted energy, though. The Pack is a great social venue, and it's also a good source of ideas and inspiration. I've found that if I dwelled too much on negativity while browsing a forum, it was time to move on--I left Werewolf.com in 2001 for that reason--too much arguing and in-fighting, and a decreasing amount of meaningful content. (Note that the site today is completely different from what it was back then.) Thankfully, so far here, that hasn't been a real problem. Threads that go wrong get locked down pretty quickly. Thank Lord and Lady for moderators.

[Aki]

The internet doesn't distract me in any way something else wouldn't. Seriously, if I dropped it right now I'd probably be wasting my time on the TV, or doing something slightly less wasteful like reading or playing a video game - still laying about, but at you learn from that (yes, video games help you learn - staying alive on harder difficulties requires being cunning as well as twitchy most times).

The internet, being a sea of knowledge and the ultimate communications network (as of right now, anyways) is a good place for me. I learn lots, meet people from strange places and such. Which does more for me than my sleepy small town in rural Massachusetts will. I'm less of an ignorant fool because of it, and my typing's improved massively.

I mean, in the summer I take time to go out and get some exercise. Keep healthy (well, healthy-ish, heh). But the Internet isn't a time waster for me, oh no. Hell, I tend to use it to help my real-world potential. Online fractions-calculators are absolutely awesome.

[Terastas]

Well, right now browsing The Pack is distracting me from working on my Nanowrimo novel. Note that National Novel Writing Month, or "Nanowrimo," is also an Internet phenomenon.

The Pack really put my writing on hold too, both in the sense that I write less, but more importantly, because I got so much inspiration from all the discussions here that I ultimately realized I'd been writing a total piece-o-crap, scrapped it and started all over from page one. So in a sense, it's made my job take longer, but I also think I'll be much happier with the results.

Right now the Internet as a whole doesn't interfere with much; I have a few daily rituals like visiting the Pack and collecting the daily freebies on Neopets, but everything else I do, I do with my free time. The only things I've ever turned down so I could watch the net are video games and TV shows -- nothing that would have had a serious influence on my life anyway.

I wouldn't say any discussion that ever happens on the Pack is wasteful. I do pretty much learn from everything that is posted here, though I seriously doubt I always learn what the posters have intended. A post that is pissy and/or hateful helps indicate to me what that person's opinion is really worth, and yes, there are at least one or two people on this board that I won't be taking seriously ever again their behavior has been so bad (not naming names here, they know who they are). The pack has 1300 registered members -- you can't possibly have that many members and not wind up with one or two yo-yos in the mix. I still read what the yo-yos write and respond to it just as I would any other poster (I'd be a real dick myself if I ignored them), but I've learned to expect to read some real crap as soon as I see their names/avatars, thus it doesn't phase me nearly as much anymore.
Like the saying goes: "Tis better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt." If someone wastes a big load of time the way you're describing, I don't have to wonder anymore, and I consider that to be worthwhile info.

[RedEye]

Isn't addiction a psychological problem? I've read of "addictive personalities"-as in people who ignore everything to do some particular thing that gives them their only jollies in life.
You see that in all sorts of ways. Some forms of Overeating are addiction. So is Bulemia. So is Poker, fr' th' Gods' sake...

We've lost a number of people who have self-diagnosed themselves as being "addicted" to the internet. They say they have no social lives, no interaction with people, no family activity: everything is the Internet.
Before the internet, these people would be the same people they are now, only plugged into something more destructive and more expensive.
No interaction with people outside of the interenet: Maybe, just maybe, there isn't anyone around that these people want to interact with.
No Social Life? Useta-be these people were called "wall flowers", and could go a lifetime without making one serious connection-due to shyness, or a bad self image. For these people, the Internet is a form of help-getting them over their negative images and getting them used to interaction with strangers.
No family activity? Maybe the family is just one dysfunctional clustser of people that couldn't interact if they had to to save their lives.

Let's consider what (non drug) addiction is: A specifically fulfilling act that generates pleasure, done to the exclusion of all else. If the addiction is not "served"; there are sweats, psychotic moments, interrupted motor activity, dementia, siezures... Pretty nasty, no?
Anybody have these symptoms? Are you missing school or work to be online? Are you not going to the market, so you can be online?
That's addiction, and it's a mental disease-and you can't self diganose.
Scott- can you add anything here?

[MoonKit]

...and collecting the daily freebies on Neopets...

Wow. I totally didnt realize that it was December. Thanks for reminding me!

[Jarden]

I don't get near a computer enough for it to become problem. Even if I did my aunt jack me over the wall if my grades fell.

[vrikasatma]

I have to admit, I'm probably addicted. It's easy to get that way when your health is up-and-down, like mine.

For instance, lately, I've been having some joint and bone-pain, and so far we've only got a partial picture of what's going on in there. We nailed the joint pain — it's osteoarthritis, with a touch of bursitis thrown in for good measure — but I'm having to wait on my bone and abdominal/pelvic scans because my medical insurance won't cover it until after the New Year. It could be osteoarthritis, but there's an outside chance it could be my ol' colon cancer demon metted out to my S-I bone.

On top of all that, the saddle I bought last summer came down with a cattywampus tree and was messing with Tagie's back and my hips. So now I don't have a saddle and I'm not good enough to ride him bareback. The arthritis and bursitis are a factor in that, too...I just ain't up to it.

All that adds up to...me, not getting out much. So when I'm not doing housework, I'm sitting on my bed and Internetting. I haven't ridden Tagie since before Hallowe'en.

So...I don't know if it's "Oh I can't ride because I don't have a saddle/have arthritis" or if it's "Oh, I'm not riding because I'm on the frickin' Internet" or if it's "Oh, I'm on the Internet because I can't ride" and meanwhile the apartment is in a sad state of maintenance. And declining. And Christ on a stick, it's the ramp-up to the Democratic caucus/primary season and I'm involved in the campaign...

[Timber-WoIf]

basically.

the Emperor calls. i spent alot of time on this site when it was exciting. now that its just dragging on, i've pretty much given my time to vidieogames and service the the almighty God-Emperor of Mandkind. all of which could be time better spent, but as the addage says "Serve the Emperor today - tomorrow you may be dead!"