10 Signs of a Net Addict

by Jared

Net addicts are a varied and complicated breed of people. We are from all walks of life from your grandma who got addicted to online marjong (after you explained to her how to use the mouse) to the13 year old geek who has discovered forums and other geeks just like him!

Here are 10 simple signs you or someone you know is a net addict!

1. The first thing you do in the morning is turn on your computer and check your email.

I am incredibly guilty of this. I get up, walk into my office, turn on my computer and then go make myself a cup of tea and breakfast while it loads, come back, update twitter, open Google Reader then get absorbed so badly the house could burn down around me and I would not notice!

2. Your internet gets capped and you get irritated at waiting 60 seconds for a web page to load.

There are 3 people sharing the net connection at my house. Thats 3 times the flash games, youtube videos and downloads so inevitably we get capped. When it happens I will actually YELL at my computer to go faster... it sadly doesnt listen!

3. Its 3am, you have to be up for work tomorrow at 6am and you find yourself saying "just one more webcomic/blog post/game"

I do this on a nightly basis, I will stay up horridly late reading webcomics, blogs, new articles, photography and photoshop tutorials or looking at pretty naked people and then the next day I will be an awesomely not fun person to be around until I have ingested approximately enough caffeine for an elephant.

4. You have dreams where you met your favourite bloggers (or the creator of your favourite game)

This has happened to me more than once. I dreamed Gala Darling and I went on a shopping trip and found a store that sold real live unicorns! (Probably inspired by her Holo Unicorn Necklace) I also dreamed the gorgeous Lady Smaggle and she asked me to take her outfit photos.

5. The power goes out and your first reaction is "Oh no the internets!"

Not 3 weeks ago someone hit a power box near my house and I was without power for 3 days. I didn't know what to do with myself. I ended up rnd pretending that this was the apocalypse and trying on the best zombie fighting outfits (fyi High Heels are not practical in event of apocalypse)

6. You find yourself telling your grandmother about the latest lol cat at a family dinner... and then spend 15 minutes explaining what a lol cat is because you know she'll find it funny if she could just understand cat linguistics.

I haven't done this to my Grandma but did I explain the whole story of Pastafarism to my Grandfather and he promptly decided he liked and and now tells everyone he is a Pastafarian! (My Grand Dad is too cool) More info on the Flying Spaghetti Monster Here [Link]

7. When someone asks you a question you say "ill google it" even if its just "whats for dinner?"

A very common saying in my house is "Just google it" everything from Recipes, Songs and Pet Tags the Internet is the ultimate Tips and Tricks guide.

8. Before cleaning the house you search for more efficient ways to clean rather than just getting started

I did this yesterday because I could not figure out how to get the gunk from an exploded lasagna off the roof of my microwave!

9. You have conversations with your real life friends and you tell them something you have done recently they say "Yep read it on your twitter/facebook/blog"

I follow several RL friends on twitter and recently in a conversation a friend mentioned something that had happened to him that he had Tweeted. So far haven't had a story of mine made redundant by tweeting but the day is coming.


10. You obsessively refresh your RSS Reader when you have read everything desperately hoping someone will update and give
you something to read!

My Google Reader has over 100 websites subscribed in it and I still run out of things to read and am constantly adding things to it. I love blogs that update multiple times a day and especially if they are pointing out other cool things like on the net (Boing Boing is great for this)


There are alot more things that characterize us net addicts but these are a few that I am guilty of. If you are worried you might have an actual problem take the Net Addiction Test: [Link]

What makes you a net addict?

Love and Obsessions

Miss Addict