Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

The internet has stolen my will to live

Damn the person who introduced me to facebook.com!

I believe it was Nick (i know where you live, buddy). It was bad enough when I got into blogging and needed (needed) to blog almost daily and read blogs and comment on blogs and check out the blogs of other people leaving comments, and follow their links, and constantly, constantly check my blog for comments to respond too (pant, long sen...tence, pah-ant).

Alright, its not all that bad, and it helps pass the time when working reception in another dead end temp position. And its been a comforting community when I've been lonely and homesick in this weird country. Furthermore, I've never been diligent enough to maintain a well-kept journal, so, in many ways, this is it.

Here I've written what I'm doing, how I feel and what's on my mind, and a lot of the time there is instant feedback - which is great because even the phrase "delayed gratification" upsets me. I've asked you whether I should give up on the UK and come home. You've interpreted my dreams. I've overshared to extreme degrees, and even nagged my boyfriend into commenting on my blog, despite the fact that he lives with me in the tiniest flat ever, so I know exactly what he thinks anyway!

But now there is facebook. One more account to maintain. One more profile to develop. Another place that I log on to way too much and despair if nothing has changed. Tracking down obscure people from my past takes hours of my day.

I guess I have to face the fact that I am addicted to the internet, or something. And this is where it gets all too self-referential (is that right?) and ironic. I'm blogging about my need to blog, and my concern about my growing internet consumption while mainlining broadband. (Oh the glorious broadband in my home, fast and beautiful. Oh, how I will miss you, my love, when ever I finally go home to dial-up SA!)

Stand up and be counted, fellow addicts!

11 comments:

Unknown said...

hey darlin!

welcome to the book! it will change your life! from now on i will communicate with you there.

by the way, heppy heppy new year!

luv
sit

Katie Possum said...

hi Sit.
Happy happy right back at you!
Lovvies!

Mich said...

I totally get you. the internet has taken over my life... You know in the early days I used say the internet was for geeks and pervets... now... let's just don't judge it until you try it... Facebook it's the next stage... :)

sdfa sdfasdfadsf said...

Hmm... I've heard of facebook but never signed up. Is it a myspace type site?

The problem with sites centered around companies/schools etc is that they seldom cater for South Africa, rendering them somewhat redundant.

Welcome back to the blogosphere though!

Anonymous said...

sa has come along way so when you do decide to return 'home' you can lounge around on the net all day courtesy of adsl... bit costly but that come with being an addict...

Katie Possum said...

facebook is more network focussed than myspace. you sign on, create your profile and join networks such as your city, university alumni, interests, high school.

it also has a search function, allowing you to find people you know.

check it out. its pretty cool.

DelBoy said...

I'm off to SA on holiday soon and I'm already missing the net! Addicted? Me?

Dan Lurie said...

I am a full fledged internet addict. I HEAR YOU.

But don't despair, now that Telkom is no longer a monopoly, broadband is becoming cheap and faster in good old SA. Even my parents gave up their dial-up for ADSL when their friend began sending them 3meg emails ;)

I have internet on my phone (much better idea than having a camera) and as soon as I get home, I check my gmail, blog, flickr, google talk and msn (no internet at my flat - drives me insane).

Aaah, the joys of Web 2.0/online communities

Katie Possum said...

hahaha! I'm very pleased with the turn out for our little Net-addicts anon meeting.

Hi I'm Kate and I'm an addict! :)

Dami said...

yea its very addictive, i just got banned from a forum (did it on purpose cos i got fed up of being hooked) i can even do my work on time anymore
ive always had one eye on my work one on the forum waiting for replies,one some blogs then another blog then another (got only 2 eyes though)
its all good

ChewTheCud said...

Work is the ultimate persuasion to start blogging. Anything thats not work that you can do at work really. I started when i had a couple of months of really boring, mind numbing work to do. Sat in an office all day and passed the time blogging ;P