I did a similar post a while back and I've been contemplating this post and updating on the progress for quite a while now but I couldn't quite manage to get my point across as I'm not that good of a story teller so here we go.
6 years ago, I was a kid who had gotten a new computer which ultimately changed my life, I started with the basics, you know, click on this, click on that, even when I joined here, I had absolutely no idea what was I doing, it just seemed like a cool place.
Days, weeks and months passed and I'm getting caught up in this huge online world, which was quite fascinating to me but yet again, I wasn't doing much, just hanging around websites, being a troll and having fun, well at least that's what I thought.
Throughout my online journey I've had the opportunity to be part of many online projects with other great, skilled and well experienced members of this website, in many areas of online entrepreneurship, for what I am and will always be grateful. Therefore I've been through it all; countless nights with no sleep, slacking in school, fighting with people I care about, spending the majority of my daily time sitting on a computer and much more.
I was young, keen to learn and gain experience, motivated, meanwhile by the time I had realized how things had turned out to be, I was already the fat, socially deprived, alone, shy and socially awkward guy.
Being overly active in the internet world has had major setbacks in my life; arguing with my family all the time, almost failing all three years of my high school, gaining weight and having no social life outside of other nerds (with all due respect) with whom I'd communicate on daily basis.
And although I've had an eye condition ever since I was a child, I'm pretty sure spending the vast majority of my time online wasn't really helping either.
I was a slave to my own existence, the Internet world consumed me, it consumed my life; a typical day for me would be going to school at 7AM getting back at 2PM, getting something to eat and getting back to my own miserable online existence, yet again by literally doing nothing. So yeah, I was quite bad at setting my priorities, and it almost ruined my life..
The Internet world had lowered my self esteem to a point where I would feel unconfident about the slightest, smallest thing I'd do socially.
Well if you've gotten this far you're probably wondering when did I finally come to my senses and realize that what I was doing was not beneficial by any means and I was inexistent, selfish prick? The final wake up call happened about 3 years ago when I nearly failed my senior year at school; not that I was a bad student, I was a quick learner, alert, attentive when I really wanted to, but I just did not have the will to study, which certainly affected my life, the online part of it and the real part likewise, it eventually resulted into me not maintaining the same rapports with certain individuals, not being part of all those, big and famous (not really) projects me and my online comrades would often contemplate as I took the decision to take a break from it.
It was around the time I was lucky enough and managed to get into college considering my very low average in High School and by the time I got in, it was a new world to me, new people, new places, everything was different.
I'm happy to say that I've overcome this addiction now and nowadays I drop by here every now and then and hang out for about half an hour, I have overcome almost all of those difficulties I had come across a few years ago and feel generally better about myself, the people I hang around with and am enjoying life at its fullest.
It would be safe to say that this humongous online presence of mine has had a huge impact on the previous years of my life and I feel proud to announce that I am happy with my choice, to take time off everything that involved sitting in a computer for the majority of time during the day or night.
Today I have a great relationship with my family and friends and though still struggle with my social skills a little bit, I feel confident about my self, I succeeded, I turned this experience into something positive, I'll hopefully be a college graduate by this time next year and I know there are people here who are going or have gone through the same struggles as me, and yes, the real world is so much better than being here most of your precious day.
Indeed, being online can be beneficial in many aspects of your online skills and it may be your actual job, but a clear balance must be struck between the internet world and the real world, where you can have real life events with family and people.
My most sincere, truly heartfelt advice to anyone who is a excessive user of the internet, whether that be owning a online business, aspiring to be a programmer, designer or webmaster, my advice to you is to properly and efficiently manage your time and online presence.
So while you have the time, be positive, call your family and friends, hang out, go jogging, go to a gym, be active, and remember it's not really worth it, believe me.
If you have been through a similar path as me, please share with us, maybe we can be helpful to someone going through the same struggles and we did, thank you very much.
6 years ago, I was a kid who had gotten a new computer which ultimately changed my life, I started with the basics, you know, click on this, click on that, even when I joined here, I had absolutely no idea what was I doing, it just seemed like a cool place.
Days, weeks and months passed and I'm getting caught up in this huge online world, which was quite fascinating to me but yet again, I wasn't doing much, just hanging around websites, being a troll and having fun, well at least that's what I thought.
Throughout my online journey I've had the opportunity to be part of many online projects with other great, skilled and well experienced members of this website, in many areas of online entrepreneurship, for what I am and will always be grateful. Therefore I've been through it all; countless nights with no sleep, slacking in school, fighting with people I care about, spending the majority of my daily time sitting on a computer and much more.
I was young, keen to learn and gain experience, motivated, meanwhile by the time I had realized how things had turned out to be, I was already the fat, socially deprived, alone, shy and socially awkward guy.
Being overly active in the internet world has had major setbacks in my life; arguing with my family all the time, almost failing all three years of my high school, gaining weight and having no social life outside of other nerds (with all due respect) with whom I'd communicate on daily basis.
And although I've had an eye condition ever since I was a child, I'm pretty sure spending the vast majority of my time online wasn't really helping either.
I was a slave to my own existence, the Internet world consumed me, it consumed my life; a typical day for me would be going to school at 7AM getting back at 2PM, getting something to eat and getting back to my own miserable online existence, yet again by literally doing nothing. So yeah, I was quite bad at setting my priorities, and it almost ruined my life..
The Internet world had lowered my self esteem to a point where I would feel unconfident about the slightest, smallest thing I'd do socially.
Well if you've gotten this far you're probably wondering when did I finally come to my senses and realize that what I was doing was not beneficial by any means and I was inexistent, selfish prick? The final wake up call happened about 3 years ago when I nearly failed my senior year at school; not that I was a bad student, I was a quick learner, alert, attentive when I really wanted to, but I just did not have the will to study, which certainly affected my life, the online part of it and the real part likewise, it eventually resulted into me not maintaining the same rapports with certain individuals, not being part of all those, big and famous (not really) projects me and my online comrades would often contemplate as I took the decision to take a break from it.
It was around the time I was lucky enough and managed to get into college considering my very low average in High School and by the time I got in, it was a new world to me, new people, new places, everything was different.
I'm happy to say that I've overcome this addiction now and nowadays I drop by here every now and then and hang out for about half an hour, I have overcome almost all of those difficulties I had come across a few years ago and feel generally better about myself, the people I hang around with and am enjoying life at its fullest.
It would be safe to say that this humongous online presence of mine has had a huge impact on the previous years of my life and I feel proud to announce that I am happy with my choice, to take time off everything that involved sitting in a computer for the majority of time during the day or night.
Today I have a great relationship with my family and friends and though still struggle with my social skills a little bit, I feel confident about my self, I succeeded, I turned this experience into something positive, I'll hopefully be a college graduate by this time next year and I know there are people here who are going or have gone through the same struggles as me, and yes, the real world is so much better than being here most of your precious day.
Indeed, being online can be beneficial in many aspects of your online skills and it may be your actual job, but a clear balance must be struck between the internet world and the real world, where you can have real life events with family and people.
My most sincere, truly heartfelt advice to anyone who is a excessive user of the internet, whether that be owning a online business, aspiring to be a programmer, designer or webmaster, my advice to you is to properly and efficiently manage your time and online presence.
So while you have the time, be positive, call your family and friends, hang out, go jogging, go to a gym, be active, and remember it's not really worth it, believe me.
If you have been through a similar path as me, please share with us, maybe we can be helpful to someone going through the same struggles and we did, thank you very much.
