D sent me this questionnaire and I answered it.
Sign 1
Do you always check your e-mail before doing other things? Most of the time.
Sign 2
Do you frequently find yourself anticipating the next time you’ll be online? Yes. (Update: I run two blogs and write occasionally for another one. My anticipation here is not waiting on my next fix as much as it is What Comments Do I Have To Moderate Now? and Who Lit Fire To What? The Internet – it is serious business after all.)
Sign 3
When you’re online and someone needs you, do you usually say “just a few more minutes” before stopping? Sometimes. Not at work.
Sign 4
Have you ever lied about or tried to hide how long you’ve been online? No.
Sign 5
Have you ever chosen to spend time online rather than going out with others? No.
Sign 6
Does going online lift you from a depressed or nervous mood? No.
Sign 7
Do others in your life often complain about the amount of time you spend using technology? Yes. (Update: I get paid to do it, so yeah.)
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What now? Am I overloaded or not? So many signs add up to someone sending out an ambulance? Do I check myself into Betty Ford Grace Hopper? Free carpal tunnel splints? What?
God, it’s like the “Ask Yourself This” questionnaire from Alcoholics Anonymous or Al-Anon.
It doesn’t sound like you’re addicted — slipping out of meetings to hide in a bathroom stall and check your Facebook, or anything like that.
But you’re a ‘no’ to Sign 5? I’m a definite ‘yes’ to that one, but I don’t see it as a negative; it’s spared me (and my wallet) some evenings in bars. And eventually my back hurts from sitting at the keyboard and I go pick up a book anyway. See? The Internet DOES promote book-reading!
What bothers me about this questionnaire is that it’s like they struck out the word “alcohol” and replaced it with “technology” or “online.” You work in journalism while I am a technologist. We are required to check our email, read articles or edit things during “off” hours.
I am indeed a No to Sign 5. I’d rather have IRL conversations than online ones any day.
YNNNNNN. So where do I go to see what I won?
These questionnaires all seem to be written by the kind of quaint, old-fashioned people who consider “online” to be the computer at their house, a distinct place which they don’t spend all day in like you or I. It sounds like it’s from a different world.
I check my email in my pajamas damn near every morning to make sure there are no fires I’m going to have to fight when I get in. But I largely don’t get personal email; in a twist, the programmer does -less- personal email than the technophobes I know.