Addicting And Life-sapping Software - on the Internet, I mean

Addicting and Life-sapping Software
A community-invoked list of software on the Internet that you should do your best to avoid.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Compiled By: The Astahost Community
Created: October 22, 2005

Wow, the Internet! It's always full of surprises. Studies show Internet addiction is quite prevalent among teenagers and adults. Sadly, if you continue with your addiction, you'll eventually wind up restless and working in McDonalds.

The purpose of this guide is for Astahost members to discuss their addiction, warn others, and get help quitting. Most people that are addicted deny it. The signs point to addiction if you:

1) Do it before homework.
2) Spend half the night on it.
3) Other bad things.

Fortunately, there's help! And we're here to help you out as a community.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- Myspace. This trend is popular among, well, everyone I guess. I mean, everywhere you go, you'll find phonies talking and exchanging Myspaces. Basically, you make your landmark on the Internet here and make "friends." Friends, my ---. Some friends.

- EverQuest. This massive-multiplayer-online-role-playing-game (MMORPG) can be found in videogame stores. It's funny. A psychologist wanted to figure out what was so addicting about it that they wounded up addicted themselves. Fortunately, they quit to save their job.

- Electrotank. Not really addicting. Just enough.

- Ezboard. It's funny. It actually took a hack-attack just to get people off of this. You will find rumors that God Himself hacked ezboard.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Phew. That's all I can think of on the top of my head. Go ahead, list your past/current addictions and you can get help from this community.

Oh yeah, on the topic of recovery, there is no better way to build character than in the midst of addiction. What better to learn self-control than through the pain of addiction. Christians believe that God has used addiction in their lives to help them grow.

I am reminded of an old saying, don't let the things you own end up owning you. Balance your Internet and videogame time with the call to live a normal life!

 

 

 

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

Oooohhhh, I have one to add to list: www.astahost.com! This one eats up all my time. Yes, I am the proud founder of IAIPAA (internet addictees IP address anonymous, a biyearly meeting group for internet addictees). I spend about 8 hours a day at least on astahost.com. I notice it sapping away at my school productivity, but there is little I can do, I must continue (I am a mod).

Oddly enough though, most of things other people are addicted to, like everquest, myspace, blogs, I never view or use. Oh well.

~Viz

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

Astahost.com isn't so bad. That's just my opinion, though.

It isn't even that hard to sustain credits. And even if you're a moderator, just look at moonwitch or microscopic^earthling. They aren't really on all the time and OpaQue still lets them keep the job. Granted, Klass was de-modded but that doesn't mean you have to spend 8 hours a day here.

Remember, you can get as much done as a moderator in one hour than in eight, if you're productive enough. Efficiency is the key to save you some time.

And also, Astahost will go by more smoother for you if you get at least nine and a half hours of sleep (last year I just got 5 but this year I'm changing too), prioritize and don't slack off. After you finish your studies then you can go to Astahost or party or whatever. As long as you get the work done first.

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

My 100 cents (I'm gonna need about 88 cents back...),

I have to agree with Viz on the sites you listed there, Cube Domain; the fact of the matter is, I've never viewed/played/etc any of those sites/games!

Still, from the descriptions, I could see how they could be addicting games.

I would have to say one of the majorly addicting sites is:

www.runescape.com

That is an insanely addicting game, in my viewpoint - or at least it was... my addiction wore off slightly.

On the matter of Astahost.com addiction, I would say I just really like this site and the forum and like being on here. I find myself spending average of, oh, 4 hours every 2 days or so...

Not bad,
HTML_Guru

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

I don't know if this one counts, but www.microsoft.com. Every time I set up a new computer I spedn hours ont hat site performing all the updates.

~Viz

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

I used to be very addictive to different forums, but now I spent less time there, but it still takes my spare time though, for some time now, my most visited sites are localhost and php.net + google and some other communities and news sites, that is more addictive to me now is IRC

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

I want to add ogame.org, a game about building up your universe domination. I think it's quite boring but I was addicted for a short time too and I have to say that I lost a couple of friends to it ;'-(
Another addicting thing for me it is too look up my Simpson Bot in my Dashboard. I had nearly every saying already but about once per week I find a new one (gotta check now.. he he). And what does it say:
Lenny: Let's make litter of the literati!
Carl: That was too clever, you are one of them! [punches him]

Wonderful, right?

But I hope for all of you that you are seeing this ironically, since I don't really need a cure, I'm just spending a lot of times here sometimes, but life has more priority still.

Good luck with finding a way out ^^
Ruben

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

As a college student, I cannot let facebook.com stay off this list.

It's like myspace some what. But the design is cleaner and it's a college-only network. You must have a email with a school domain in order to join.

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

The problem for Astahost with most people isn't addiction, it's time-management. If you balance your time well enough here, you don't have to spend hours a day on it. In fact, you can even sustain credits going on once per week (believe me, I've tried that).

On the matter of Runescape, the cause of most addiction like that isn't the fun factor, it's credibility. People like the high scores, and how people they don't even know admire them.

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

Cube Domain,

While you are partly correct, I do know of a sort of addiction that tends to be prevalent among the "veteran" users; simply put, in Astahost and among other forums as well that those members that have been there longer will assume dominance or control among other newer users, whether or not they have posted more or are in better standings. That's just what I've observed, though.

Like I said, I have no problem with "time-management" myself, I can spend 3 - 4 hours per every 2 - 3 days on Astahost and I'll have done everything I need to do. Then again, one needs to take into account the actual jobs and tasks of other staff and how they thusly mesh that with their lives.

Eh...

Thanks for your input,
HTML_Guru

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)