Getting Off the Internet : the challenge to reconnect with yourself & significant others

December 1, 2012 at 5:57 pm · Filed under Anonymous® Radio Show, BEST of the Web, Climate Change, Computing, Consumption, Educational, Feedback, Guest Author, Health & Wellness, Healthy Living, Internet, Italiano, Lifestyle, LOW Tech, NEW Music, Personal Growth, Politically INcorrect, Propaganda, SHOCKED & AWED, Spoken Word, Suggestions, Sunday Series® and tagged: health, Internet addiction

What do you do most of the time you are online? (Apart from reading this website that is 🙂 Blogging, designing, emailing, gaming, pinning, reading, socializing, surfing, watching videos, writing reviews… take your pick. Even when were not in front of the personal computer or laptop, we may have a phone on one ear, and a tablet on the other arm.

Now, quickly, what do you do when you are not connected to the Internet? I hope it’s not a politically correct answer that you just made up on the spot. Most of us who make our living on the Web also use it for our leisurely activities, namely playing games, armchair-socializing and probably stalking exes, which as you can probably tell are not very healthy activities. Our tendency to favour gadgets, text and images over real life could well be the tip of the iceberg of problems to come. In this article we will briefly touch on a few things that the Internet and our addiction to it is ruining for us – and why there exists an urgent need to disconnect from the Web to reconnect with humanity.

By Singyin Lee

Our health

I was suffering through a short bout of ‘computer fatigue’ the other day – oh, it’s a real collection of symptoms, believe me, but I doubt it would be enough to get you off of work. You may have even experienced it yourself: the strain persists on the bridge of your nose, the area between the eyes; blurry vision, a metallic taste in your mouth, headaches and slight dizziness – all at a degree that doesn’t justify a run to the doctors but that still affects your productivity enough to make you sit up and take notice. After spending on average 13 hours a day in front of the computer, I was craving to go back to working on print i.e. paper; at least until I feel better. A torturous week later, I found the cure: a 12-hour long-awaited sleep marathon. All the symptoms I had been having disappeared the next morning. Part of the benefits of having a boss who understands freelancing, is that they let inadequacies like this slide. But I believe a plea to take better care of your health is justifiable seeing how easy and relevant it is for this section to be describing you as it was, me.

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