Reasons to stop your internet addiction

I kind of thought about this lately, and I saw that internet addiction and PMO addiction have quite something in common. They both rely on "doing something although there is no need to do something".

Topics and common rationalizations are:

"What if you have missed out on something important right now" (So called fear of missing out)

"The internet is the only thing which makes me happy, it's my only hobby available"

Googling something although you don't need to google it (something comes into your mind, you google it and look for information, although you don't have to)

Checking out the news or reddit like every 15 minutes (it's like the fear of missing out, but on a smaller scale)

Keeping to watch YouTube videos although you don't have to watch them (you're not looking for a tutorial or an online lecture or something, so why are you watching something you don't need to watch actually?)

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What other realizations do we use to overuse the internet?

I'm gonna write more about those rationalizations soon, you're all invited to write about these too of course

 

"The internet is the only thing which makes me happy, it's my only hobby available"

Let's break down this for a moment: There is a difference between using the internet for a hobby, and the internet being a hobby.

Programming can be your hobby, and usually you use the internet if you are coding. Playing video games can also be a hobby, so here you use the internet to connect with other gamers.

Rationally speaking: What is it a hobby to lay in your bed with your smartphone, and to constantly check reddit, e-mails and YouTube? This is essentially enslavement.

We - internet addicted people - live all a life of being a media consuming slave.

Let's imagine we're in ancient Rome. Wealthy people usually owned slaves back then. Now imagine, there was internet already available in 300 BC. The wealthy guy gives his slave a smartphone, and tells him to check reddit, e-mails and YouTube all the time constantly for at least 6 hours a day, in that given cycle. The wealthy guy goes on with his life, while the slaves does nothing - besides eating, sleeping, and going to the toilet - but is only checking reddit, e-mails and YouTube just as his owner said.

The reality is that we don't own the internet, but the internet owns us.

Let's say, after a couple of years, the slave is freed and thus doesn't own a smartphone anymore.

Of course the slave will not know what to do without the internet

The reason we don't know what to do without our internet addiction is because we've been brainwashed pretty effectively.

So how can we undo this brainwashing?

First and foremost, we should realize, that by being addicted to the internet, we're just wasting our lives away. Just as the slave was constantly checking reddit, e-mails and YouTube, his owner had probably a good time doing something different, definitely not wasting his life away.

There is no need to do something time- and life-wasting. It is completely illogical and irrational, especially as we only have one life available.

So, once we have a good motivation not to waste our time on our smartphones, what else should we do instead?

This is what the slave doesn't know what to do: He's been freed, he realized that what he's been doing was just a big waste of time and his life. But now he got so much used to the internet, that he doesn't even know what to do with his time and life.

He only knows one thing: He wants to do stuff where he isn't wasting his time and life away. It doesn't mean to be productive all the time, it just means to actually have a good time and build new experiences.

But which ones and how? I think this should everyone decide for themselves, as we all are in a different stage in life.

 

As for me, I'm moving to a country with notoriously slow internet (Germany), so I better get used to not being able to zoom.

 

DISTANCED SELF-TALK

Basically, it's about talking to yourself about yourself in the third person.

Let's say Joe is worried about a long trip he has to take tomorrow. Instead of thinking "I'm so worried, what if something goes wrong, what if I meet people who will be rude?", Joe should think to himself "Joe is worried about the trip tomorrow, he is worried that something could go wrong, or that he could meet some rude people".

By distancing from yourself in your self-talk, you actually are able to calm down (as you look at your situation from a third person's perspective) and to find rational, good solutions to your problem (just like you would give advice to people online or to your friends)

This distanced self-talk is something very anxious people would benefit from immensely.

But I think it could also be used here if you're addicted to something (whether it's PMO, or the internet)

You simply force yourself to imagine standing right next to yourself. You lay in your bed, watch YouTube all the time, browse mindlessly. If I personally think about this, I would be ashamed to look at myself while doing this. I may understand it after a long hard day, but everyday, at every free minute? If you can't imagine this, then maybe film yourself while mindlessly surfing, and watch the video over and over again.

Another way how to use this technique would be here: "I am so bored without my smartphone, what should I do, there is nothing to do!". Instead of this, think: "He feels very bored right now without his smartphone, he doesn't know what he should be doing"

Now this gets a little bit ridiculous: How should he not know what to do? Other people are in similar positions as he is, but find a way to do something. Now you try to give him some advice what he, depending on his talents and interests, could do instead of mindlessly browsing the web.

In order to get the best advice, treat yourself as another person you're talking to or you're talking about.

We don't know what to do without our addiction, because we put too much emotions in it. So we need to talk to ourselves in the third person to look at our situation more rationally, like how a good friend of yours would look at your situation, and which kind of advice he would give to you.

 

If you don't know what to do, if you are trying to quit your internet addiction, you can also always imagine what your friends would be doing in your situation, especially the friends you envy or who are kind of a role model for you.

 

I've got another idea: What if we would try to substitute watching YouTube, browsing mindlessly, etc. with something more beneficial?

You will not change the habit of being at your smartphone, but you will at least do something which will benefit you somehow

For example, instead of binge watching YouTube, you binge watch TEDx Talks.

I have to come up with some examples here, but this could at least be a good begin for some people, so the time we spend on our smartphones wouldn't be "wasted" at least.

It's kind of like "instead of playing GTA all the time, you may play chess all the time". You don't change the activity, but you only change the parameters in that activity so you benefit more from that given activity

 

IT'S POINTLESS TO DO SOMETHING WITHOUT A GOAL

The internet today is very deeply integrated in our lives. The internet can be used positively in numerous ways: To find places, for studying, communication.

But we - internet and smartphone addicts - use the internet in a different way.

We are exactly like a C64 programmer in the 80s, who keeps writing 10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD" and executing it for 6 to 8 hours daily. He is doing something on his C64 which is just pointless, because he keeps programming without a real goal. Everyone would have said that this person must have mental issues, like, why doesn't he try to code something specific like a game? Why does he keeps coding without a concrete goal?

We are no better than this person. We are watching YouTube without a real goal. We are googling what comes into our mind, we are jumping over Wikipedia articles, we read random Reddit threads.

It's like if we would go to the library, just to pick a book, read for 2 minutes, put it back, and take the next book, and repeat it over and over again for 6 to 8 hours daily. Everyone would agree it's pointless to be at a library without having a specific goal in mind, like reading THAT book or looking for books about a certain topic at least.

So, every time we use the internet, we should simply pause and think: What's my goal here? We should treat the internet as a giant library, because that's what it is basically if you think about it. Just imagine if the internet would be a real world place, a giant library. We internet addict would behave really silly, wouldn't we?

Another trap we all fall for is that if we stop using the internet, we need to do "something productive". This is wrong! We don't need to be productive all the time! Actually, if we stop using the internet, we need to do "something with a goal in mind". That's the better and real advice here. Because if we do something without a goal, of course we are going to go crazy. Just like that programmer in my example. Or that person who is in the library, picks a random book for 2 minutes, puts it back, looks for another one etc.

If we keep doing things without a purpose and goal, it is essentially no wonder that we become depressed. I often found myself thinking: What's the goal of anything? I've got no goals. And so on. Now we know from where it comes from: From using the internet without having a goal in mind. Of course, we then condition and trick our mind to think that everything does not have a goal or purpose. It is just a learned depressive mindset in the end.

Summary: We should treat the internet as a giant library. Before using the internet, we should ask ourselves: What's my goal of using the internet right now? We should not use the internet without having a specific goal in mind, as it's just stupid behavior, which can make us become depressed by adapting a no-goal no-purpose mindset for life. It is OK not to do anything productive outside the internet, it's just important that you do something with a goal in mind.

 

Well said, mi counter actually meets personal goals cuz im actually on abstinence from binge manga, mindless googling, smartphone games, so goon, and life its actually brighter without those, ive done it already but the craving after month just grow, thats why now ive implemented habit changes in my routine, hard as f* but hell it worth it, really, whatever your reasons or goals are, trust in the proyection of your bestself after meeting dose goals and even if u reelaps, dont throw all the process how ive done saying, if i did it one then why continue let me just stay the same, ive done it myself, nooooo, stop right there and even if it hurts you just placed your foot outside your path, dont put both of it, luck, wish u best.