The LifeQuake Blog

I would hate to be a kid today. There is a GREAT article I read on kids and depression and how it is being masked by overuse of social communities.http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-opmcd0712679046may06,0,4832350. There is so much pressure on them to perform. Not only are they exposed and pressured by the usual stuff of illegal drug use and premature sex but they also have bigger demands academically than we did as kids. Then you throw in the distraction of You tube, facebook, and twitter, who wouldn't be ADD or ADHD? How can anyone these days focus on one thing given how much outer stimulus we're being bombarded by?

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A few weeks ago I wrote about this new burgeoning addiction to social communities and asked a lot of questions to help you assess if it’s a real problem for you. In today’s post I want to talk about solutions.

I think at the heart of social community addiction is the avoidance of loneliness. Whatever we run from will have power over us. If you have a need to be connected to people through twitter 10 times
a day, you don’t have a healthy relationship with yourself or with the joy of solitude so before you go on the internet, even email, take 15 minutes, close your eyes and breathe into your diaphragm deeply. Then place one hand over your heart and send love to yourself. corny maybe, but it works. Taking time out to center yourself before you start your day may bring you into deeper relationship with yourself and your connections to others will be less desperate. another tip I gleaned from another blog I want to share here as well.
There actually is a website for people who need assistance in getting clean from their facebook or you tube fix.
This is from dailyblogtips:
You basically add the URL of the site that is consuming your time, and then the service will provide you with another URL that you should use to access the service (ideally you should bookmark it and always use it). If you try to access the site more than once within a specific time interval, say 60 minutes, they service will block you and remind that you should wait some time before you can go there again.

http://www.dailyblogtips.com/keepmeoutcom-solve-your-internet-addiction-problem/

And if that doesn’t work, start your own 12 step program for cyber junkies!
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