Alison: One week later Options

[Alison]

... and I'm still gone. And it looks like I'm past that magical 'retired-for-two-days-only' mark.

Do I feel any better? Hell, yes!! I'm still reading with dismay the Kato Litany of Bad BLPâ„¢ but now I don't feel any personal urge to go on there and try to make everything right. I just shake my head in disappointment and (mock) shock ... and move on.

Frankly, life off-wiki and off-WR is more than full with enough stuff to deal with and, in retrospect, WP just seems so trivial and meaningless now, apart from the very real damage it can wreak upon peoples' lives, BLP-wise. At least now I don't fret and stress over all the bad stuff.

In fact, I'm less and less likely to hang around here, too.

Yay - freedom (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/smile.gif)

[Somey]

Alison's right, actually. Detaching oneself from an interwebz addiction is usually a three-phase process, and she appears to be doing reasonably well in Phase II. The phases are determined mainly by the changing motivation for relapse - in Phase I, it's habituality, in Phase II it's morbid curiosity, and in Phase III, which usually comes much later (often after several months), it's boredom.

Needless to say, Phase III is the most dangerous, and to head it off a person has to replace the addictive activity with something else that's both intellectually and personally rewarding in some way. Getting involved in some sort of organized social activity, community improvement program, public volunteer charity work, or even a sport or health club usually does the trick... Meanwhile, focusing on your job usually doesn't work in that respect, though of course it might help keep you from getting fired, assuming your interwebz addiction has negatively affected your work performance.

The question of whether or not Alison's posting here today signals an increased chance of relapse is an interesting one, but ultimately it's unreasonable to expect someone who has been a significant player on the WP scene - and who also works for an IT company - to go cold turkey on internet usage. Besides, we here at WR aren't really asking her to fight any wars or take on any unnecessary responsibility, so her experience here (aside from her disagreements with Mr. Brandt and one or two others) should be somewhat less stressful.