Internet Addicted or Dependent?

We had a horrible event occur in our household last week. We lost access to the Internet. We had been having intermittent problems, which caused us to be cut-off and were also experiencing slow connections for about a week. Then all of a sudden on October 7^th our connection ceased to exist.

I reset our wireless modem and router a few times and still nothing. Then I called Clearwire customer support and they had me do it again. After that they pinged the transceiver box that is located on our roof and said they were getting static messages. After more pinging and checking with her supervisor, the customer service representative concluded that our unit just quit working. The bad news was that they no longer supported their roof mounted equipment, so we were basically out of luck.

I borrowed a neighbors portable unit, that is designed to be placed in a window facing the direction of their tower, and got an intermittent slow connection, but nothing strong enough to depend on. We tried several windows in the back of our house and none of them would provide a strong enough signal. Big surprise, since that was the reason we went to the roof mounted unit in the first place. My conclusion, Clearwire does not want the expense of maintaining a field service support capability. Crappy, yes, but nothing I can do anything about. Seems lots of my neighbors are furious with them and I am told that somebody is putting together a class action suit based on promises made and not kept. That was of no help to me though, because I WAS NO LONGER CONNECTED!!

You see, I have become dependent on the Internet and must have daily access to do the things I want and need to do. Each morning when I get up I go online to:

• Check email and communicate with people
• Check the weather on two sites
• Check local news on two sites
• Check national news on seven sites
• Check opinions on four blog sites
• Check technical news and happenings on twelve sites
• Check Facebook to see what is happening with family and friends, make comments, etc.
• Check my financial information to see what has been charged to our accounts, investments, etc.
• If we are considering a purchase, we usually check prices and product reviews online. We also buy products online and feel we save money and time that way.

I guess you get the idea. I am definitely dependent on the Internet, but do not feel I am addicted to it as a lot of people are.

Because we live out in the country we do not have the many options that regular city dwellers have when selecting an Internet Service Provider. Before their service and broadband delivery started deteriorating, Clearwire was definitely the best choice for us. So I checked my current alternatives and decided to try the Verizon Wireless MiFi 2200. This is the review that convinced me to give it a try. We have been using it since the afternoon of October 9th and really like it.

Losing Internet access for even two days made me realize how dependent I had really become. This made me wonder if I had become “Addicted To The Internet.” Now that I am again “Connected” I checked to see if there was something online to help people determine whether they might be suffering from Internet Addiction. This link will take you to the test I found. I am happy to report that I fall into the average user category. Why don’t you give it a try and see what it says about your use of the Internet.

Please remember, any kind of addiction is bad.

Tags: Addiction, Advice, Good Choices, Health, Internet, Social Behavior