Just a little addiction

I have an addiction. Yes I'm admitting it for all to hear. It's not the type I need to attend AA meetings for or even NA meetings. It's the type that probably doesn't have any kind of meeting to go to but it's definitely an addiction that may be taking over my life. Social Media addiction is a silent addiction that lots of us suffer from quietly in the privacy of our homes and probably lots of offices (very sneakily). I must take you back a few years so you can understand the depth of my addiction and then we can discuss if I need to go to a meeting or not. In 1996 I was working at Star City Casino in Sydney as a VIP Host and this was where my first introduction to emails occured as we were required to email invitations to VIP events to important customers. I loved the email and soon began emailing all the other hosts and staff who worked on different shifts and even flirted with numerous men who worked at the casino but in different departments. I distinctly remember the first time I heard another host mention the Internet and my ears pricked up. What was this World Wide Web so many people talked about? I had to know and would slyly sneak little sessions on the work computer on the midnight shift to try and figure it all out. Eventually I decided to buy my own computer and that's when the social addiction began. After setting up the computer and cruising the web for a few weeks I stumbled across a Chat room site and I was intrigued. I can't remember what the site was called and let me know if you remember it but it was thousands of different rooms with different topics and you created your cyber name and joined a room you were interested in. Now I am telling you honestly that I wasn't interested in any kinky sex rooms or crazy people rooms and of course there was always the odd weirdo who tried to privately message you to hook up but generally it was about meeting different people all over the world and chatting about life and having company when my flat mates were out and I was doing shift work. I would spend hours on it and met some lovely people but I never revealed my addiction to my friends cos they just wouldn't understand it. Eventually I moved on from that addiction when I met my hubby and discovered my real life again but I always loved those chat rooms and the people I met who helped me through some lonely times and lots of breakups! The next addiction I discovered was of course Facebook. I was a stay at home mum with 2 babies under 2 when I first heard about it and I was eager to get on the Facebook train. Problem was none of my other friends were on it! I sat up for hours looking for people I knew from school or old jobs and even ex boyfriends cos I was desperate to get my friends number up! I emailed all my friends and begged them to join and eventually I found more people. It didn't matter that I wasn't actually friends with these people anymore, all that mattered was my numbers! (addict here people). Facebook was my link to the outside world and it made me feel human again after spending the day making baby food, talking baby talk and watching Hi5. I discovered the chat area and started chatting to old friends on that just like the good old days! After a few years everyone was on Facebook and I realized that I didn't actually need to be friends with some girl I went to school with 25 years ago who I actually wasn't even friends with back at school! I didn't want them to see my private pictures and read my crazy status updates about how much my kids were shitting me so I started the culling process and started rejecting friend requests from randoms I had met once and would never see again. So then of course comes the twitter addiction which you have probably read about before in my previous blog cos I have raved about how wonderful that is and I do truly love twitter cos it has changed my life and I have met some amazing people on it but sometimes twitter has a habit of taking over my life and all I can think about is my twitter friends and how they are getting on with difficult times and that makes me forget about my real life and my real children and my real husband! This can become a bit of a problem as some of you might know and it has also caused me to step in dog poop which is very annoying. My next little addiction which twitter created for me was blogging. I remembered that I love to write about my life and after the encouragement of my twitter buddies I started writing a blog which I love doing but just can't find the time to blog so thankfully it's not a full blown addiction yet. (stay tuned) So just when I thought I was cutting back on my social media addiction I started hearing about Pinterest and my ears pricked up again. What was this lovely, pretty website people were talking about? I had to know. I emailed off my request to become a Pinterest member and when I got it I was super excited. The pictures were glorious, the food all looks amazing! The animals are so damn cute and you can follow people and they follow you! So, I'm admitting that I do still love Facebook, I still adore Twitter, I want to blog more if I can find the time and now I LOVE Pinterest! Holy crap. There is just not enough time in the day for me to feed my addictions. So what do you think people? Do I need to go to a social media addiction meeting or am I just like all of you reading this and completely normal? I'm thinking we may all need to start creating our own little meetings so we can finally meet! Xxx