What kind of addict are you?

Since many writers use their desktop or laptop computers to tap out their stories (though I do know those who prefer scribbling them in notebooks…no, not Macs…the things with paper, remember?) it comes as no surprise that, while glancing through the many blogs and interviews and whatever else that writers put out there, I see a similar theme of internet addiction.

The internet is our way of staying in touch with the world and writing community even though our craft is a solitary one. We’ve got email, blogs, forums, YouTube, Myspace and however many other cybersocial devices that are being created and used every second. There are Amazon.com reviews, post comments and…you get the point. Needless to say, I’d be willing to bet that most of us are now addicts in some form or another. The article linked below, in fact, shows some of the many ways we take our cybersocial dose each day.

http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/mg19225831.200-just-cant-get-enough.html

So what are your symptoms? Are you a photolurker? A cyberchondriac?

In order to be honest and start off the many confessions I am sure will follow…

Hello, my name is Josh, and I’m an infornographer. It’s been, oh, two minutes since I browsed through Encyclopedia Mythica, Wikipedia’s featured article, along with CNN, Discover Magazine, Wired News and all those assorted links and news posts that I track each day. I really can’t help it. I love finding weird news articles, discovering something stupid that someone else has done, or keeping track of the latest scientific developments, all while brushing up on my trivial knowledge of Chinese deities.

And here’s the other thing. If you could take a pill to cure yourself of your internet addiction, would you? Or are the emails, e-cards, forum friends and lurkers too comforting at this point to even think of abandoning them?

I see that smile.

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