My plan to drastically cut back on internet time

I never realized how addicted to the internet I was until recently. I have about 50 things I either need to do or want to do, yet 99% of my time I'm sitting on my computer. I think I know how I got this way. At first having a computer meant I could make unlimited amounts of new friends anywhere in the world. Making friends has always been hard for me in real life, so this was a miracle to me. But in recent years I've been more focused on learning, and researching, so I use the internet mostly for that now. But there is still that Facebook trap that I think has so many of us in it's grip. Sometimes I'll be scrolling down my timeline for 3 hours before realizing how much time had gone by. I sometimes end up going to bed an hour or two later all because Facebook had my attention and wouldn't let go. I finally realized I need to change. So I came up with a plan.

I wrote a list of all the things I either need or want to do (including exercise,trying new recipes, cleaning, reading any of the 200 actual physical books I bought and never finished, etc. So my goal is to only get online twice a day for less than an hour total. Half an hour before work and half an hour after work. Then I will hit my list and stay off the computer.

In case this doesn't work, does anyone else have any suggestions that have worked for them? I realized I probably joined this forum at a horrible time, now that I want to get myself off the internet, I will probably make new friends here and get sucked into the forums which is precisely how I got addicted in the first place! lol

There's something ironic about us going to the internet to talk about internet addiction, but hey, that's what we know.

I feel your pain re: Facebook. Recently I took a FB sabbatical. I couldn't deactivate my account though, because I am a developer, and deactivating would break my clients' plugins. So I just posted I was going away. Facebook being Facebook only showed that post to like 1/3 of my friends. I kept on receiving notifications about messages. A week later I started getting e-mails. "42 notifications waiting for you! Joan Smith posted a photo! Joe Jones changed his status! YOU ARE MISSING OUT ON SO MUCH!!!" I tried to ignore those posts but I started getting all anxious and of course I am back on FB now.

What you can do with your FB (and what I am busy doing) is reduce amount of people you follow. Do not unfriend them, just unfollow. Get it down to as little as possible. You will no longer get new "fix" every five minutes when you follow 10 people instead of 1000. In order to see more stuff you would have to visit everyone's profile manually, and based on my own experience this gets old within a few hours. So that's one thing that comes to mind.

If you have any tips please share them too!

at OP: oh dear, I'm not even on facebook, but apart from that I am as addicted to the internet as you, for the same reasons you describe. Endless research is my main vice. I'm badly out of control at the moment.

I'm going to try your plan ! It sounds like a good plan !

Now get off the internet, girl, and report back in a month ! (mid-January that is)

Best of luck