Do you consider the Internet a basic utility? Do you have friends who know you better by your username than your real name? If somebody told you to “google it,” would you know what he wants you to do? Does your computer rule your life? Here are 25 signs that it does.
- You can’t remember the last time you wrote an entire paragraph using a pen and paper.
- You consider Internet a basic utility.
- Between your Internet and your TV, you would rather lose your TV.
- Between your Internet and your phoneline, you would rather lose your phoneline.
- The Internet IS your phoneline.
- You carry a flash drive in your purse or pocket.
- You carry a laptop with you wherever you go-or you wish you could.
- You have a callous on your right wrist, where you rest your hand when you use your mouse.
- Your “diary” is not protected with a lock and key, but with a username and password – and it is open to be read by anybody in the world.
- You’ve joined an online forum and regularly post messages on it.
- You are – or have been – a member of a Yahoo group.
- You’ve watched 1,500 orange-clad prisoners dancing “Thriller” on YouTube.
- You know the meaning of the word “google” – and if you don’t, you simply Google it.
- When you hear the word “spam,” you don’t think of food.
- You’ve bought and sold things on eBay.
- You’ve had an online love affair.
- Half your friends only know you by your username.
- The other half know your real name AND your username.
- You’ve mastered computing the time in several different time zones because of all those online meetings you schedule with your Internet friends.
- You no longer buy greeting cards; you get them free online and send them through email.
- You no longer buy newspapers; your morning news is regularly sent to your inbox.
- You no longer buy calendars; you use the one in your email reader or taskbar.
- If your wall clock suddenly disappeared, you wouldn’t miss it very much either.
- You don’t keep pictures of your kids in your wallet, but you set them as your wallpaper and screen saver.
- You need a computer to view your children’s photos.
Disclaimer: This list is for entertainment purposes only. If you want a real assessment on whether or not you are addicted to the Internet, please go to
netaddiction.com
August 6th, 2007 at 3:45 am
omg, that’s me!!!
August 6th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
You know, I actually saw that Thriller dance in YouTube. Who hasn’t?
August 7th, 2007 at 5:09 am
Nice try =)
August 7th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
3. What if you use your TV as a computer screen?
August 8th, 2007 at 4:23 am
Here I am communicating online! But, maybe we have no choice but to become digital beings, real or not? Interesting article.
August 10th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
Is this 1995? If you aren’t doing most of the things listed here the world has left you behind.
August 10th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
Yep, that’s me. Oh well. Back to my “Stumbling”
August 11th, 2007 at 7:53 am
Oops… back to stumbling too…
August 11th, 2007 at 8:46 am
Why the right wrist? Can’t lefties be addicted to the internet also?
August 11th, 2007 at 10:40 am
In fairness I didn’t think of food when the word spam came up before the internet either…merely a vile combination of chemicals designed to destroy what little remained of tastebuds.
August 11th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
Check on all but 25, 24, and 20. Don’t use greeting cards and I don’t have kids or photos of people. 26. You seriously consider using your handle instead of your real name.
I know I did!
August 11th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
That’s SOOOOOO me…
Well, it isn’t a surprise at all =p
August 11th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
Ah, so true.
August 11th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
I can’t believe how accurate this list is! I’ve only been on the internet for about 6 months, (if you can believe that. took me a long time to catch up with the rest of the world…) and this is already me!!! That’s kinda sad. I should get out more.
August 12th, 2007 at 12:29 am
I was stumbling… and the page I stumbled on before this one was the Thriller video.
Everyone should use StumbleUpon for your firefox!
August 12th, 2007 at 2:20 am
oh my god I’m a total internet freak. I got all but one.
August 12th, 2007 at 8:37 am
i atually found many of these incorrect. i know im addicted to the internet but some of these 25 things wouldnt mean you are addicted to it. i will show you a list of why some wouldnt work.
1. in high school, you have to type essays on the computer.
2. why wouldnt someone consider the internet as a basic utility by now. its been years since it was first used by only the rich people in the world. now that almost everyone has one, you should consider it a basic utility.
3. you should rather lose your TV because on the internet, you can watch TV. so it would be pointless to keep your TV.
4. through 10. i agree with.
11. dont know what a yahoo group is.
12. so what it is just a video.
13. so does that mean every smart person is addicted to the internet.
14. if that were true then one could say that if you didnt think of the internet when you hear the word spam you are addicted to food.
15. if this were true than someone could say if you have googled something before then you are addicted to the internet.
16. i agree with this one. its also kidna sad.
17. through 25. i agree with.
so when you actually break it down it comes to either 17/18 things. (i still dont know what a yahoo group is.)
August 12th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
this is pretty bad – i meet about 19 of these criteria.
August 14th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
oh i thought of another one. You amaze your non-internets friends by being able to talk on the phone, text on your cell, chat on messenger with 3 people and stumble at the same time and not get confused.
August 15th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
I was wondering what that place on my right wrist was!! LOL. Bad thing is that my teen son has it too! We recently moved and do not have a tv and do not care!!
August 16th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
thanks made me laugh too xxx
August 16th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
ha I love the callous thing don’t have 1 though
August 17th, 2007 at 11:05 pm
And what’s the problem?
August 19th, 2007 at 6:16 am
#13 You know the meaning of the word “google” – and if you don’t, you simply Google it.
if youre referring to the mathematical definition, it’s “googol” not google. Google created this name as to not interfere with any copyright issues so it can claim the name for itself and hold the copyright.
August 19th, 2007 at 7:33 am
LOL..
August 19th, 2007 at 8:55 am
liquis, thank you for the copyright info
To clarify: No, I wasn’t referring to the number 1 followed by a hundred zeroes, or the googol.
I was indeed refering to the new English verb “google” which means “to search on the Internet, usually using the Google search engine.”
And if you think of “googol” before you think of “google,” you’re probably more of a computer whiz than a computer addict
Thanks for reading!
August 19th, 2007 at 11:08 am
Great article.
August 19th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
Wow, what a terrible article.
Maybe that would have been funny 10 years ago, but today everyone knows that computers and the internet “rule their lives.” There’s not one person who will read that and say “Wow, I don’t apply to any of these!”
This article makes my blood boil.
August 19th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
Uh….another day is shame and self pity after reading this article…depressing isn’t it?
August 19th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
As far as #8 is concerned, just use a trackball! Though I suppose that’s just moved the callous to my thumb. Oh well.
August 20th, 2007 at 4:38 am
You clearly know absolutely nothing about computer geeks and the culture around them. I found this list downright insulting and I consider myself to be a computer geek (and proud of it) and only fit maybe a third of those at most.
August 20th, 2007 at 4:39 am
obviously that was satire as well though
August 20th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Dude, why do people get so angry over this? It’s just a joke list meant to be funny, and if you don’t think it’s funny, well, is a bad joke really something that should “make your blood boil” or be “downright insulting”?
Personally, I thought it was amusing enough. There are so many lists like this out there though that this sort of joke has gotten a bit tired. But this is one of the few lists I’ve seen that didn’t entirely suck.
But I don’t have the callous on only my right hand, I have it on both because of where I rest my wrists when I type.
August 21st, 2007 at 5:44 am
that’s funny
(a lot like me!)
August 21st, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Im on here because Im hooked, and although I don’t do
the many things listed, if i were to choose between my
phone and my computer, ha ha, my computer wins!
But that’s technology
Curious and off topic here, can we publish our work
elsewhere after publication here? Cant find info on that
thanks
August 21st, 2007 at 10:05 pm
You’re right, kellie, there’s no info on that. From what I understand, you certainly may publish your work here in another site if that site does not mind publishing articles that previously existed in another site. You maintain ownership of your articles on Triond. Hope that helps!
August 22nd, 2007 at 9:22 am
Now that’s good news,
Thanks Beatrice
August 23rd, 2007 at 10:30 pm
From what I understand, liquis meant that Google opted not to use “googol” precisely because it is a number and numbers do not have copyrights. However, if they turned it into a trademark, then they would be inconveniencing themselves everytime the word “googol” turns up, wondering if they are looking at a copyright infringement of their trademark “Googol,” IF they had decided to use that term instead of Google.
On a different subject: I don’t mind critics at all. I rather enjoy receiving comments, good or bad.
However, I think it would only be fair to warn people who use such uncouth words and phrases like “retard” and “you suck,” that such language makes such a terrible reflection on yourself and reveals the narrow limitations of your vocabulary, and though WE don’t know who you are, YOU do.
P.S. In case anybody’s wondering, this article is based on my own experiences, and is not meant to criticize “computer-based people” in any way, myself being one of them. Have a good read
August 25th, 2007 at 2:11 am
this is all me… no doubt about it.. its my only girlfriend that i have.. it understands me hehe
well i love this listing..
August 25th, 2007 at 11:37 am
I first saw this list over three years ago, it isn’t original work.
August 25th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
Jeff,
I never publish anything that is not my orginal work. You may have read something SIMILAR to it, and everybody knows the concept is not original, but the CONTENT definitely is.
Prison Thriller didn’t even appear on YouTube more than 5 months ago. I only saw it last month.
Beatrice Adam
August 26th, 2007 at 3:49 am
I have at least 20 over 25 from that signs.. don’t know how to cure it..
August 26th, 2007 at 8:06 am
Just to be sure, may I reiterate that this list is for ENTERTAINMENT purposes only.
For a real assessment on whether or not you are addicted to the Internet, please go to netaddiction.com.
Thanks for reading!
Beatrice Adams
August 27th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
its a list of the lifeless
August 27th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
That’s me all over! Except I’m too young to have kids
August 28th, 2007 at 10:03 am
hey just to tell you that computers and internet are becoming the main source of enternaiment you can watch t.v.,movies,live t.v… you can also lookup just about anything you can think of and the news is there everyday almost faster then t.v.
August 30th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Its scary how many of these apply!!
September 1st, 2007 at 1:33 pm
OMG, that’s me too!! Now… back to my “Stumbling!”
September 3rd, 2007 at 3:49 pm
umm.atleast m not a nerd/geek
September 3rd, 2007 at 6:56 pm
haha…that’s mostly me. Back to stumbling…
Didn’t know it was that popular
September 6th, 2007 at 4:02 am
I don’t know the meaning of “Google” I’m pretty sure that “googol” means 10 to the power 100 though (I’ll just check that on Google).
September 13th, 2007 at 6:01 am
bahahaha I managed to score 6 of them so that means i’m not an addict or am I ? ((:
October 26th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
This is scary…too much of a good thing… :0
November 30th, 2007 at 4:07 am
Ok some of it were right, but really it’s a bit outdated. Everyone that’s.. I don’t know.. alive, knows what “to google something” means.
October 23rd, 2008 at 4:03 pm
6. You carry a flash drive in your purse or pocket.
Actually, Internet IS my flash drive!!
November 15th, 2008 at 7:49 am
Good article. Internet can easily take control on our daily routine. If we are not careful it can even take many good things from our life.
February 24th, 2009 at 6:28 am
Oh Crap!!
April 21st, 2009 at 12:08 pm
18 out of 25! At least I have a good number of RL friends who may or may not know [one or more of] my usernames! (17 doesn’t apply, but 18 does)
Seeking balance…
September 5th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
my kids call me by my online gaming name