No Self Control

Well, maybe a little.

I have seen research that says that surfing the Internet causes our brains to respond like it does to other addictive stimuli. I have no doubt that this is true, because I have seen it in myself. I have had times when I have finished visiting my usual online haunts, and sat there for a moment, wondering where to get more.

Unfortunately, Internet addiction is more like overeating than drug or alcohol addiction, because it is difficult to do completely without the Internet in this day and age. I realize it can be done, but once those lines of communication have been established, it can be a problem to cut them.

In my case, I let surfing get in the way of doing other things, especially practicing and working on music. I would either say “just one more thing before I practice” and then be who knows how long, or I would think of something I wanted to check online while I was practicing and go check it as soon as I hit a stopping point and not go back for a while.

I finally found an application that helps me to stop doing that. It is called SelfControl. It is a Mac application and it is free, but I believe there are similar apps for Windows. It does not work exactly the way I would want, but it will do for now. What I usually do on weekdays is block my Internet access from 9 AM to Noon, and from 1 PM to 4 PM. While the app will let you choose which sites you want to block (such as Facebook, Twitter, your local newspaper), I have it blocking everything, even email.

I have found that this app has helped me stop spending time online and go do other things. The one disappointment is that when I am not using the app, I am just as bad about wasting time online as I was before. Do you think Dr. Drew would admit me as a patient?

Posted 2011 09 02 at 8:10 AM

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