It’s been a long time since I’ve done any writing prompts, but the current Weekly Wrapup is about internet addiction and I feel like I really should answer this one.

1. Are you addicted to the Internet? Why or why not? If so, how?
Yes, I am definitely addicted to the internet. I’m not sure why exactly - I think it has to do with my ADHD and the fact that there are millions of things to do and see online. It’s nearly impossible for me to get bored while I’m online - there’s always something more. As for how - I honestly would be online every minute of every day if I could. I want to be online while I’m in the car, at work, everything. I get grumpy if I can’t be online for some reason at a time when I would otherwise be able to. I love being with my friends and doing things in real-life, but my desire to be online at other times is strong enough that I would definitely call it an addiction.

2. What aspect of the Internet do you find most appealing? Why?
As I mentioned, I love that I can do anything online. The ability to interact with the world, to window-shop, everything! The internet is perfectly tailored to my brain, and I never get bored.

3. What Internet features (i.e., sites, blogs, email, chat, etc.) do you participate in the most?
Percentage-wise, I probably spend most of my time on MOO - Lambda, specifically. I’ve been there nearly six years and I still love it - I can talk with my old friends and make new acquaintances - I even made a new friend just yesterday. I spend a lot of time checking my e-mail, too, and I participate heavily in a few forums as well.

4. How did you get started online? At what point did you realize that you were hooked?
I don’t remember exactly how I got started. I know I was on the old 8-bit Prodigy service in the 1980s, and switched from there to GEnie in the early 1990s. I don’t really remember my transition to the internet as we think of it today (i.e., the web), but I know that I became hooked in my first year of college, when I had unrestricted access for the first time.

5. What is the longest amount of time you’ve gone without using the Internet?
I think that would be the three weeks I spent in Turkey in 2001. Before I left, I fully expected to feel withdrawal and miss the internet terribly. I was stunned to find that I didn’t - I saw internet cafés throughout the country, but I didn’t even want to go into them. I kept my journal on my Palm Pilot (I didn’t actually start blogging until a few months later, so that was a journal for my own purposes), and I had a wonderful time without the internet.