Internet, really affecting your life in a negative way?

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Yes, I spend a lot of time on the internet also... However there are plenty of productive things that I can get done by going on the internet as well, research being one. I understand how going on the internet can be an avoidance of life though and try not to let it take over my life (though I spend most of my time on it). Personally, I think television is much worse and addicting.

...also, i believe anything in excess can be bad for you. The internet is just especially bad for SA because it takes away time to socialize with others in the real world.

The internet can definitely be addicting and suck away at your time and your life. But so can hundreds of other activities. But yes excessive internet use has been the biggest problem for me, particularly in feeling overwhelmed by the amount of choices and falling prey to distracting activities when I needed to get more productive things done, either on the internet or off it.

But I've improved my behavior in recent months. The key I've found is finding ways to motivate yourself to be more disciplined in your internet use. Reading blogs like Zen Habits has helped. Leo Babauta, the blog's author and his guest posters have a number of good articles to read about controlling your internet use, as well as a number of other useful lifestyle posts.

Also creating some form of self imposed monitoring has helped me as well, particularly if I am using the computer to get work done. Just as monitoring your progress if your trying to achieve a goal like weight loss can be useful and motivational, so can monitoring your internet use. The easiest and most effective tool I've used so far is RescueTime. It monitors which websites and applications I use, then assigns productivity ratings to them, graphs out the results and gives me an efficiency score. I run it at times when I want to be productive and limit distracting and time wasting activities. I also set goals on the site for how much time I want to spend on productive activities and a goal limit for how much is spent on distracting time. It doesn't block sites or limit me in any way and I can turn it off whenever I want. But if I want to keep most of my internet use at a particular time productive, having the game-like positive reinforcement of trying to raise my efficiency score and meet my daily time goals really helps motivate me.

Also, say you have specific offline social anxiety related goals that you want to do to, if you've left the app running, you can log them in after you return to your computer and assign them a productivity rating to boost your score for the day.

It's not for everyone, but it's definitely helped me control my internet use.

I'm addicted, but then again you need them for everything nowadays. Work, school, printing, paying bills, etc. I do one thing, and drift off doing something else online. I also play games online which is a good stress reliever sometimes.

So it does impact me negatively because I don't see the outside world as much as I would like too. I can't imagine life without the internet.

I definitely agree

The internet to me is my greatest source of entertainment!

I've gotten worse from it

I spend a lot of time online. About 80 percent of the time I am doing surveys and focus groups. I am making money doing that so I don't consider that a waste of time. The rest of the time I am looking here and at other interesting sites or sending emails. I can't imagine life without the internet either.

Same!

I think the internet has been the only thing keeping me sane, honestly.

The internet is good for making online friends, making arrangements to meet people in real life, and finding and learning about opportunities that can broaden your social horizon and general knowledge also, but personally l've been coming off the internet really depressed lately. I pin all my hopes on it and it disappoints. It's a source of anxiety for me, partly due to anticipatory anxiety/adrenaline of good things occuring from it, which don't eventuate. I think l use it as an avoidance tool, like l'm stagnating.

No, I use it as a tool. I take care my tools, and when I need them they take care of my needs. Considering I only like CSPAN and a handful of intelligible shows on television, the internet's vast sea of free reading material and academic lectures has kept me entertained during boring times.

I have almost no self control. My last several jobs have been as a technical writer, and I've ended up leaving each job because of poor performance because I can't resist the urge to go check my personal email or a friends blog or some forum or something.

I've been applying for jobs that don't involve the internet, like at restaurants and such.

The internet downloads SO much information into my brain and I can't handle it, but yet I keep coming back for more.

It makes me want to go be a park ranger or something.

I feel the same way, I didn't do my homework 'cause i wanted to use msn, or read a forum or comic or play an online game, but, i feel that it also helps me to speak to other people, it's more easy and i started friendship with other students (when i was in school) through chat, so i guess it's something possitive in that way.
And i don't think you're addicted, those kind of people get up at 4 am just to see who is online or check emails

I think this is a good way to look at it.

It is versatile, yes, but the internet is not a cure-all and it is not a substitute for actual human contact.

If you really want to "beat" social anxiety, you have to get out there...into the thick of it. You have to surround yourself with people, not online avatars.

I think the internet has it's downsides for me, in the way it gives me an excuse to stay in more and avoid potentially rewarding situations in the real world.

But before I got the net I was just more bored and watched more TV or went on my game console instead. I was going out more though drinking and such like but not getting anywhere better in life, so it really made no difference to me. Now the small group I used to hang with have gone their separate ways and I am now a social outcast once more.

Without the internet at the moment I would just be more bored with my miserable existence basically.

As for the positive:

It helps me keep track of the latest job vacancies, I've acquired IT skills I wouldn't have had if not for using it, that help in the real world. I've made a few friends over the years through it, shame they live on different continents but hey...

It keeps me entertained through video and news and vlogs and makes me feel happier about being alive and gives me more of a reason to get up each day.

Kind of sad I know, but that's how it is.

The internet keeps my sanity and happiness at an acceptable level when I'm isolating myself from the rest of the world, and that is the trap. In the long run it keeps enabling my avoidance and discouraging change. I can't imagine giving it up though.

An essay of pros and cons can be made for internet use really! I have wasted a lot of the time doing stuff that are just for fun (later made me feel miserable for having done them too much) such as playing online games. People on facebook are loving the games there, and even add people they don't know to add more 'members' to their 'mob gang' etc. This is something I did once, and I found it to be a crazy idea when I think back about it every time (I have deleted the people). All-nighters for games. Websites for gaining online money that have not been rewarding anyway, only wasting time trying to promote affiliate websites etc. It has all been a waste of time, in the end it doesn't leave me with anything truly beneficial for me to keep. They sound good and may feel good at that moment, but that eventually goes away.


But put that aside (I don't do such stuff as often anymore, still do that at times for a short-lived fun!), internet has many good sides. My university studies - lecturers putting up all their lecture notes on our university site, is handy. Information could be all a click away, if you know how to look for them. It's all good about information.

And I wouldn't have been able to help myself, if I didn't find this forum, on the good side of the internet.

It's a two-sided issue really, you want to be on it = it wastes alot of time.

But if you consider how much information is online, I mean anything you can think of is right here then it bankrupts books and magazines, sales of newspapers have gone down over recent years. It doesn't beat T.V but it could in years to come. The only improvement that can be made on the internet is making it more accessible.

But I agree everything should be in moderation, sometimes you need to be somewhere else. I spend alot of time online as well, I go through phases of wanting to be on here or not needing to and mainly study birthcharts voraciously when I should be doing college work. I try not to go on Youtube for as long as possible cos of the 'last logged on' part of my profile.