Fighting Internet Addiction
In this post I want to talk about one of the biggest problems of the 21st century. And that, in my humble opinion, is information overload and specifically internet addiction. Of course, it’s not THE biggest problem humanity has to face, and on surface doesn’t look like it could compete for attention with problems like world hunger and wars. However, it is a completely new and un-studied problem that people just a generation ago didn’t have, and the speed of how fast it’s spreading is alarming. More than a billion people have access to the internet, and a lot of them are addicted. I want to examine the problem in detail and find a way to deal with it.
What is an addiction? To me, an addiction is simply something that takes away more than it gives. In case of the internet, web surfing takes away an enormous amount of time, at least 5 hours a day for me. But it’s not just the time. More importantly, internet takes away concentration and energy. At the end of the day I feel exhausted and irritated. It’s also more difficult to fall asleep and the quality of sleep is lower.
What does the internet give to me in exchange? Mostly, it is a quick way to get news and other instant entertainment like blog articles and YouTube videos. Information-wise, books can provide more insight and depth than most things found online. But it’s the always-on surfing and browsing that really fuels the fire of an addiction.
This is not the first time that I’ll be fighting internet addiction. I tried to tackle the problem two years ago using a neat application called the WatchDog. The WatchDog would lock out my account after 2 hours of internet use. It was a spectacular failure, because I would just login to the computer admin account and reset the daily time limit for my user to “finish reading what I was reading at that time”. Granted, that made it useless to use the program at all. In that experience I learned that using time-based approach to limit usage does not work. That is in part because “internet time” passes a lot faster than real time.
Here are some of the specific things that I’ll be implementing to help me fight the internet addiction:
Start Using Sticky Notes
That’s right, those yellow 3M post-it notes that you’ll find in every office. These are extremely useful in bringing you back into the physical reality, and away from virtual reality. Every time I open my laptop to do anything, I will write out exactly what is the purpose of starting up a computer, what tasks should be accomplished. It has to be fairly detailed, something like “– check email” or “– research shipping rates to China”. After booting up the computer, I would stick the note right next to my laptop on my desk. After completing the items in the note one by one, I would shut the computer down and get another empty note out. The empty note should always be stuck on top of the laptop cover, so that there’s no chance of ever forgetting about the procedure.
Remove Google Toolbar
Google Toolbar has several addictive elements to it. First, there is the big ‘Google’ button on the left that takes you to the iGoogle homepage. Then, there is a Google search textbox that tempts you to search for anything that comes to your mind. And of course, there is the Favorites button that has all of you favorites arranged in a hierarchical order, and just a click away! Getting rid of the toolbar will surely lessen that impulse to waste some more time :-)
Stop Using Favorites and Bookmarks
Using favorites and bookmarks is something that wastes hours of my time every day. The problem is the temptation that is created when something is just one click away. I look at my favorites, and of course, out of dozens and hundreds of choices, there is always something that I find interesting to check out at that moment. Like ‘oh, I haven’t checked this person’s Twitter feed in a long time, why not do it now?’. Because there is nothing stopping me from clicking on it, even if I really do not need to consume that information at the moment, I still do it. Even checking out five random links can easily take an hour of time without you even noticing it.
Stop Using iGoogle
I call the iGoogle homepage the Axis of Evil of internet addiction. It has every possible element to get you hooked to information overconsumption, including:
- Google search functionality
- Email (Gmail) preview module, so that you get distracted by incoming emails when doing a simple search
- Google Reader to bother you with new RSS and Blog feeds
- Google Chat
- Other time-wasting modules like “A Joke A Day”
Remove Browser access from desktop
If it’s one click away, the addiction will stay! By forcing myself to click several times to get to the browser window, I am gaining the valuable several seconds during which I can catch myself not following the rules and stop before it’s too late and I am already submerged in the internet ocean of information. This measure will definitely test my patience.
Pay for No-Ads Email
Ever wandered how to get rid of those Google ads displayed next to the email message you’re reading in Gmail? I get very annoyed when being forced to see information I didn’t ask for, especially when it’s scammy advertising. There is no free lunch of course, and the only way to get rid of ads in email with Gmail is to upgrade to the premier edition of Google Apps, which is designed for the corporate user in mind. It costs $50 per year for an email account, which is good value, considering how much time and energy you save by not being unnecessarily distracted when processing email.
Read part 2 of Fighting Internet Addiction here >>
