Response, it is something that many of us crave. Someone to take note of us and tell us that we are special, it is why praise works so well on people. I am not a doctor or a researcher to give statistics on how praise affects us mentally or even chemically. However, I do not doubt that it does so.

Consider the forums, it is compiled of a group of people who come together to share thoughts, views and silly remarks. The simple premise to it all is: post a topic and then wait for people to respond. It is the response that people look for, a comment, a view count, a simple acknowledgement that they are being noticed by someone else. As much as some of us, like myself, tend to hermit ourselves away and pretend the rest of the world does not exist at times, humans are for the most part social beings. We like to socialize with others. However, I think that the drive and need for human contact of any sort can create problems. I think there are many who find themselves yearning, needing contact of any sort. This can lead to an addiction of sorts, reliance upon the thrill we get from a response.

I find this addiction in myself. I come to a site such as this one and find myself wanting to be noticed. I get pleasure from responses people give, even the ones that end up aggravating me. It is this that makes me wonder. How many out there have found themselves fanatically checking their favorite blogging spot, or favorite forum board? Watching the responses, checking back again and again to see if someone has commented, and it is this that I think holds much of the danger. This increased attention to a website, a virtual society that creates a virtual life which causes people to create virtual priorities. If we are not careful we can easily find ourselves putting our virtual world above our real world.

It was a virtual world like this that drew me away from my life, and opened me up to the possibility to sin in the way I did. I met people and became friends with them, I found myself checking regularly to see if anyone had commented. And from the friendships I created I developed a relationship and then let that virtual relationship take more priority than my real life relationship. I paid less attention to my marriage and allowed myself to give more attention to chatting online with my “friend”. I found myself sending comments back and forth with him while at work, and then coming home and going straight to the computer to chat the entire night with him. Though I loved the attention I did find the whole thing very stressful. If I did not show up every day then he would get worried. And so I gave away a year worth of time with my husband for the simple thrill of interacting with someone, who cared much less for me than my husband did, and who eventually encouraged me to take steps that could have ruined my life forever.

It is from these experiences that I have learned that when I begin to feel the familiar pull of the virtual worlds of the internet, that it just might be the time to step back into my real life and spend some time really living.

Tags: Forums Sin Addiction Attention

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