Internet Addicts

Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Youtube, Wikepedia, or Google ... What's your drug of choice?
10 years ago, the only people who spent the majority of their time online were technology professionals, but today, surfing the web has become a past-time as social as going out and as informative as going to class. It is now embedded into our mainstream culture.
74.2% of North Americans use the Internet regularly, but man of which have begun to use it in an excessive compulsive manner. Millions of people all over the world are Internet addicts, a disorder recently acknowledged by mental health professionals. People are literally living online. They have become citizens of the worldwide web.
I see evidence of this on the regular: The students who can’t stay off the internet during class, even though they are paying good money to be there. The girls who are constantly taking pictures at parties just so they can post them to document their social life, and the people who use their Facebook status as a diary entry, updating us on every little thing they do. In severe cases, people neglect their most important priorities such as school, work, and relationships, because they can’t seem to log off.
Honestly, what’s the point? It’s as if their online identity is more important than their real one. But my profile page doesn’t show you my personality, and if you Google me, you won’t find my thoughts, feelings, beliefs, talents, and the things that make me who I am.
So, why spend so much time in front of a computer screen? There are much better things you could be doing with yourself. What is so entertaining, important, and addicting that people will spend hours a day absorbed in it? We are only given a short time on Earth, so spend it here, instead of lost in Cyberspace.
We are wasting so much time when we could be out there in the real world experiencing the beauty, gifts, raw emotions, and memories that life has waiting for you. There is so much to see, and so much to do. This life has so much to offer, we just need to get off your butts first.
The Disney/Pixar movie Wall-E paints a humorous picture of the future, portraying the human race in the constantly hooked up to computers, living their life online. I believe this could be possible. People have become increasingly more dependant and obsessed with the Web, it isn’t a far stretch to believe things will get worse as more technology is invented.
Can surfing the web, watching Youtube videos, or creeping Facebook even compare to the feeling of a good weekend, a tropical vacation, a road trip with friends, a family dinner, or rocking out at a concert? Can looking at photos of a sunset, coral reef, or a blooming flower have the same effect on your emotions and senses as seeing these things in person? I don’t think so. So, why look at pictures and watch videos of the things that interest you instead of going out and experiencing them firsthand?
Make life your addiction, and stop living online. Drop the mouse, step away from the keyboard, put yourself through some serious Internet detox, and go live your life.