When I was a kid in high school we had dial up internet. Most teens today won’t remember that. Using the internet would tie up your phone line unless you had a totally different line. Therefore, the time we could spend online was limited. My whole family also shared one computer. I would get maybe a couple hours a day online, and I would have to amuse myself in other ways. I read books. I played games. I wrote stories and made art. I went outside. We had no cell phones- that was something reserved for the adults who worked and needed a cell in case of an emergency. You couldn’t do more with a cell than call and text anyway, and the texting was charged per word.

Back then I hated not having all the time I wanted on the computer. but now that I have a computer with constant internet access, and even internet access on a phone that I have with me at all times, I feel sickeningly attached to the internet… like I can’t escape, no matter what I do. I always come back to it and I feel it burning into my skull and dumbing me down, but I can’t stop. And it scares me that this is just normal life for thousands of people now, always being plugged in. People aren’t really a part of the world they live in anymore , they’re more invested in the digital world and reality has become the fuzzy dream.

I know I’m rambling… I just hate this feeling and I don’t know what to do about it.