internet addiction?

Lately I've been feeling a fair amount of apathy towards the internet. I know that it is my primary source of income and that it allows me to keep in contact with distant friends and family, but it also seems to suck my time.

The creation of all of these social media sites doesn't help, either. Talk about wasting time. It is very difficult to hop onto the internet, do what I need to do, and logoff. Instead, I always get sidetracked into reading blog posts, news articles or the latest local bulletin board gossip. Sometimes I feel like I can't help it, almost like I am addicted. I check my email several times a day, and often feel like I can't sleep if I haven't checked for messages right before bedtime. What a joke.

So I've decided to try and find a cure. While my blogging frequency isn't likely to change that much, I'm going to try and cut down on the amount of time that I am spending online. I can't think of a better internet addiction treatment than that. By staying away from the internet, I'm ramping up my health, too. Getting outside more often and getting more exercise is something that I've been putting off for too long. I made the self-employment mistake of working without a set schedule, and now I am paying for it.

Part of my problem is that I spend much of my free time on the computer, and many of my hobbies revolve around the computer. It makes life difficult, but I would rather spend my computer time doing what I enjoy than getting sucked into all of the meaningless pseudo-social outlets that are taking the net by storm.