Internet add's to SA

allanboy · Intermediate User Joined: Aug 20, 2005 Posts: 297

Now that i´m on vacation i´ll certainly be way more than 7 hours on the internet.

on my case, being on the internet, makes me think and talk like people in the internet do, in this case, it americanizes me. And that aint good here where i leave, i begin being different than anyone else(enjoy different jokes, say different expressions).

cypher828 · Newbie User Joined: Dec 26, 2005 Posts: 4

Ive thought about this quite a bit. The less i interect with people the more comfortable i am, but then there gets to be a point where i start to get lonely and depressed, and then i get to be even more anxious and i wish i could just sleep all day. It is even harder to go back out into the world after having taken a break than it is just to stay with the day to day grind. Yes the internet is a comfortable thing that keeps me from interacting in real social situations. Yes it is a mindless way to pass hours. But i dont know where i sould be headed anyway. Anyway there have been times when i havent had internet that i sat in my apartment alone for weeks/months alone and read books or did other stuff, so i dont know.[/u]

LibertadIlusoria · Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2005 11:03 pm Post subject:

Without the internet, I'd just be sitting there watching TV, not talking to anyone anyway....

_________________

Each lonely hour my heart has slept has drifted back to me.

LittleMissScareAll · Expert User Joined: Jun 15, 2005 Posts: 716 Location: Hell

probably 7 hours or more on most days...
and i dont think the internet has added to my SA or depression(except when i see pretty girls, it's depressing and makes me VERY jealous) at all....actually it's helped me, if anything...just think, if not for the internet...i would have ZERO interaction with people...except my family. the internet is my ONLY way of meeting people or speaking to people...all the people i meet or who call me--i met them online. so if the internet didn't exist or if i couldn't get online, i would just be a complete loner who never spoke to anyone AT ALL...cause I can't just go up to people and talk to them, and nobody ever comes up to me and talks to me...so that would just leave me being a complete loner(and i'm a bad enough loner as it is)...which actually though, probably wouldn't be SO bad, considering all my horrible luck with all the people i've met online so far...

_________________

"I find sadists to be rather dull. I'm interested in heightening peoples' awareness."

LittleMissScareAll · Expert User Joined: Jun 15, 2005 Posts: 716 Location: Hell

oh and if not for the internet i wouldnt have ever even dated anyone...cause all my boyfriends, i met online or met through someone online or met again online...though i wouldn't have missed out by never meeting them since they were all assholes. but still...it's bad enough being an almost 22 year old virgin...would be worse to have never even been on a date or anything.

Septor · Elite User Joined: Dec 15, 2005 Posts: 1033

If any thing the internet has been a life line for me to the real world ,so I know whats going on in the real world.I have been in complete isolation for 4 year,have not talk to a single soul including no interaction on the net.I could never type right and could never make any on friend on the internet so I just stop typing.

That being said i would be online for over 12 hours a day just reading stuff.Its only recently that I started to try to interact on the internet message boards but im not hoping for any friends or any thing like that.Im way past that point people just don't like me but the loneliness really gets to you and it hurts.

If it was not for the internet I would be complete out of touch with the world.

B · Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 6:53 pm Post subject:

When I first used chatrooms several years ago, they were VERY beneficial to me. I think it helped so much because the rooms I went to were heavily populated with people who actually lived in my town and who I would see at school the next day. I was mute at school and I could relax through the chatroom and people could see I actually had a sense of humor. As a result I ended up with quite a few friends because of it and I managed to loosen up at school. So there are definately some benefits at first.

On the other hand, now I find chatrooms are just so negative and a lot of the people are so obnoxious (tho that probably has more to do with specific rooms I visited and not ALL chatrooms in general). A lot of people seem to have such a short temper, and the 'regulars' tend to chat among themselves and ignore most of the other people. I don't use chatrooms anymore, but for the several years I did use them they gave me something to do in my free time.

TAMPA-BAY

I completely disagree. Its been a huge help for all of us.

Where else would we find people like ourselvs? The clubs?Partys? Shopping centers? On a busy street?

If it was'nt for the internet none of us would of ever met each other for ovious reasons.

We just have to remember to use a little bit of moderation.

Kinetik · Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 6:08 am Post subject:

Yeah, I'm with Tampa. I mean, it's great to be able to just say hello to someone randomly on the net. You could never do that out in the street. Well you could, but you'd get weird looks and possibly a restraining order against you. The thing is though, even if that were okay, most of us wouldn't dare to do it. I do try to stay a bit grounded, by having some interaction in the real world and a bit on here as well. I think it's important not to get sucked in to any one thing too much. You can meet some great people on the net though, and it doesn't always have to be about meeting up or anything. Often just getting to talk to someone can be a great help.

LittleMissMuffet · Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 7:09 am Post subject:

I pretty much agree with Kinetik and Tampa-bay.

Is the internet a stepping-stone or an obstacle out of social phobia...?

I could suggest that perphaps the techno world we live in today has actually made it harder for people to socialise and feel connected in the first place. ...yet perhaps the internet can help the socially marginalised after it may have contributed to creating them to begin with.

I also think that feeling like an outsider, 'strange', too different, is a big part of social anxiety and that the internet is a possible tool for finding a sense of community that people like us are sufferring a lack of.

It is also true that the internet could be an obstacle to connecting with the wider world. ....but I think that dealing with overcoming any kind of dependency or addiction, like over use of the internet or social phobia, is best done not being too strict or too lenient -which is a hard balance to get. And I think that getting this better balance is more about attitude and what's going on inside. So basically, I think the word moderation is important and is the thing to try for with an allowance for not always being perfectly balanced.