Do yourself a favor and get offline
Internet has been growing right from its onset. It has grown from only a few interconnected companies back in 1980s to what now connects all the computers in the world together. This enormous growth has lead to many great things like facebook, twitter, youtube and other information sites. Because of the internet, it is now possible to send e-mails to anywhere in the world within a few seconds. Not to leave pictures behind, websites like flickr.com and picasa.com provide a platform for us to share pictures with millions with one click of button.
Because of all this excitement going on in the internet, people are spending more time on the internet than before. I have seen may people staying up late at night just because they are chatting online with their friend about their vacation or they are busy playing online games with their friends. On an average. People stay connected and use internet 17 hours a day. The use of internet has grown to such an extent that we feel very helpless without internet.
I am not saying that internet is evil. It has brought many good things like paying bills online, getting connected with friends, viewing maps and finding your way beforehand. But internet is quickly becoming an addiction. People would spend time searching random things on the Google. They would listen to online radio while working in their office. People are unknowingly choosing to stay indoors because of internet, rather than going outdoors and refresh their mind. This addiction is having detrimental effect on our physical and mental health.
According to a research by psychologists at Leeds University, addiction to internet is linked to psychological disorders like depression and being cranky. Another such research shows that people who are addicted to the internet show reduced focus, lack of confidence and poor physical health. People who are addicted to the internet do not get enough physical exercise to keep their body in shape, and hence they suffer from obesity and other diseases. I have seen many people procrastinating their pending work because of their internet addiction. This in turn leads to huge mental stress from pending work.
Like any other addiction, addiction to internet can be given up. The following guidelines work wonders for giving up the internet.
1. Become aware of your addiction: You got to be aware of thing that you want to remove. You cannot remove a thing that you are not aware of. So the first thing you should do is become aware of your addiction. Observe yourself next time when you are using internet. If you are not doing any real work and just surfing the internet meaninglessly, stop using internet.Get offline. Give your mind and your PC some rest.
2. Go out and exercise: This is my favorite way to reduce the addiction to the internet. It not only reduces your addiction to the internet, but it also leaves you feeling great and stress free. Start exercising daily for at least 30 minutes. And if possible visit your friends once a week. Go out for a run, or just walk down the trail. If you are interested in outdoor activities, go out and learn golf or whatever you want to learn. In short, don’t be a lazy bum; go outdoors there and do something.
3. Read books and novels: This is another very helpful way to reduce your addiction to the internet. Read novels that you like. I always find thriller and comedy novels very entertaining. Find out what sorts of novels interests you and starting reading some of them. If you like motivational books, I have mentioned some very useful books on books page.
4. Watch TV: This is not a very efficient option as too much of this could lead to television addiction, but its at least better than being online all the time. I have observed that the amount of stress on the mind is quite less while watching TV than being on the internet. The reason behind this, according to me, is the way we use both. Our laptop or desktop is very close to our eyes (1-3 feet) while we use internet. TV is at least 6 feet away from our eyes. This gives very less stress on our mind and eyes.
Once again, internet is not an evil thing. It has made a lot of things easy, and there is no harm in using it up to certain extent. Using the internet above that extent will create problems. I hope you find this article helpful.
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Tags: exercise, eyes, harmful, internet, meditation, mind, offline, relax