Kari Breaks the Habit – Day 4

July 7, 2009 at 10:49 pm (Blog Addiction) (, , )

I suspect I may be trading one bad habit for another. With no access to my Christian podcasts, I’ve been checking my blogs almost constantly.  My subscription list has over 40 different blog feeds, most of them from left-wing / liberal / atheist / evolutionist / skeptic websites: after all, who better to inform me on what the religious right is up to?

Each morning when I log in to my blog reader, I open up 10-20 tabs with new updates, and of course I have to read them all, otherwise I’ll miss something! And then when that’s finished, another dozen updates have popped up to take their place, so I have to read those too … it never ends!  Before I know it, half my day is gone and I haven’t accomplished anything.

Now, blog-writing is a common enough addiction to merit its own set of posts along the lines of “You know you’re a blog addict when …”

But I don’t see a lot of websites for blog-reading addicts, although there is some degree of overlap; most writers read a ton of other blogs in order to get material for each day’s posts.

In any case, I’m determined to find a solution to this problem.  If I’m quitting the podcast habit, there has to be a way to quit the blog habit too.  It’s the only way I can fully unplug myself from the political/religious media machine.

Here are some starting points:

Juuso says, “Don’t be a blog addict”:

This post might be quite a strange to hear from a blog writers mouth, but I definitely believe in this: Don’t get addicted to blogs. Same as with any other activity: think why you are having that habit or activity. If reading blogs is fun and you are okay with that, then fine – continue doing so. If reading forums is fun and you prefer it that way – then so be it.

But – decide what your goals are:

  • Are you doing it for fun? Is this okay for you?
  • Are you trying to learn something? (What? Why? Does this habit (blog/forum/articles/book reading benefit you to reach your goals?)

Bellur suggests some possible cures that involve rediscovering what daily life is like offline:

  • Remember the days when you got up and the first thing you did was attending to your morning duties like brushing, washing your face … Please start doing it again (in other words, do not switch on the comp first thing in the morning – assuming that you have switched it off last night)
  • Enjoy your breakfast (eat with one hand and let the other rest on the table and not browse blogs)
  • During free time, clean the house, wash clothes, and pursue your hobby (hope blogging is not on the list) before even thinking of blogs
  • Try and learn something new that you have never tried (eg: cooking, gardening, tailoring, painting … to suggest a few)
  • If you are a parent, play and spend time with your kid/s
  • Go out for a leisurely walk (on roads that don’t have a cyber café) everyday for some time – a stroll in a park advisable.  And don’t take your laptop!

And the Middlewesterner comments:

Unlike the heroin addiction, the cure for the blog addict is not necessarily total abstinence. Rather, as with many sexual addictions, the goal is to change the habit and the mind-set, so that the patient gains control of the activity, rather than allowing the activity to control him.

Is it hopeless? Not necessarily. The loved one of a blog addict needs to:

  1. Ensure that the blogger posts no more than once or twice a day.
  2. Aid him in reducing the number of blogs he reads – get it down to no more than fifty per day.
  3. Assist her in lessening the number of comments she leaves on other blogs to no more ten per day maximum.

These seem to be reasonable standards; anything more has the potential to become extreme and to push the addict out of control again.

“I blog, therefore I am” is a great and dangerous fallacy and the blog addict needs to understand that.

The same writer concludes: “BLOGGING IS NOT LIFE – LIFE IS LIFE.” Well said.

Tomorrow, I intend to take a break from blogs altogether and see what life is like outside the computer screen.  Will let you know what happens.

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