I've got a confession to make

As you may know I'm recently unemployed and so got a lot of spare time ; I really wanted to set my priorities and start from fresh my new life with new (good) habits and was thinking naively that the first thing to do was to define what I really wanted to do in life (that was my last post anyway) - I've even pushed the gusto by writing that I would come back with optimistic answers.

But since then nada, ... and I want to explain why and make this confession :

I'm hopelessly addicted to Reddit.

This began about a year ago, I just registered (because I've seen that little tiny alien head on a Wired.com article) and I even if I was used to social community website (like StumbleUpon or digg.com)  I knew from the very first day that this one was different.

Because there was a twist, something that get you hooked and that's the mix of being part of a community that for me is very representative of the internet (in all it's craziness and glory).


Basically it's like in Matrix (the movie featuring Keanu Reeves) you have the internet you see - and then you have the unseen internet, with hidden comments and upvote that only the reddit community can access.

Reddit is clever, it's smartly build and full of hilarious people (and trolls).

Let me share with you my daily addiction :

First I open the reddit page (having a look on the side in case my little envelope would be orange, telling me that some redditors have sent me a note).
Here on the main page is displayed all articles with a score for all subreddit I've joined.

Now the process starts, I would check the witty titles and the little picture on the left and immediately upvote Linux related subjects (maybe I shouldn't say that).

Next I open a few links and read the comments (also upvote the comments) and it feels good to reward people that makes you smile or laugh with karmas - sometime I put a little comment too,,,

And after 30mn (that looks like 5 minutes), I close reddit - do some important stuffs and incidentally when I got into a website that can be potentially interesting I would automatically submit the link to Reddit - to see what the other members would think of it.

And that's were I fall into the all read and upvote phenomenon for another half an hour.

Why is this so addictive ?

The killing feature is that instant feedback from others, also the fact that you'll always wonder what will be the reactions to the link you've just posted - (and the disappointment when your score is 0 ; man I hate when this happen).

Thanks to Reddit I've been able to overcome my fear of talking in public, I've been informed on many internet meme (which got me to witness Narwhal wrapped in bacon at some stage) ; discover many websites I wouldn't have found otherwise (xkcd.com is one of them).

But I want to put a stop to that ... Because I feel spending 3-4 hours a day for it, is getting in my way of doing what I really want to do.

Conclusion, I think ... I will have to delete my account at some stage*sob*