Posts
1. Step 1 - Admit we are powerless over our Social Networking addiction (we try to log off of Twitter, Facebook, Amplify, Foursquare and others but we just can't. We keep saying we're only going to check one more comment or respond to more reply and before you know if we’ve lost track of time and our deadlines have passed. YOU MUST BE WILLING TO SAY "Hi, my name is _________ and I'm a social networking Addict" or there is no help for you!)2. Step 2 - We believe that a Power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity (only God, a power failure or no access to WiFi can help us now!)3. Step 3 - We've turned our will over God (because it's going to take an act of God to get us off of these sites and there are more to join each and every day… will the madness ever end)4. Step 4 - We are taking moral inventory of ourselves (We take hard stock in ourselves and ask “how did this happened and why we aren't getting any work done”?)5. Step 5 - We admit to God, to ourselves and to others the exact nature of our wrongs (yes, I spend more time on Facebook commenting on my friend's walls than actually meeting with my friends... and I like it)6. Step 6 - We are entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character (or to have our Highspeed Internet provider cancel our service and give up our Blackberrys and/or iPhones whichever comes first)7. Step 7 - We humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings (before we lose our jobs, clients, friends and family members)8. Step 8 - We've made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all (that is... the dog that didn't get walked, the loved on who didn't get the pleasure of our company, the office work that didn't get done, the deadline we missed or the hobby we ignored)9. Step 9 - We've made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others (in other words, we make amends, but don't we do it via Twitter if that's going to cause us to spend even more time ignoring our deadlines, pets, family, friends, work, etc)10. Step 10 - We continue to take personal inventory and when we are we wrong, promptly admit it (we know we are going to get on the Twitter for hours.. but only after we have done our work and spent time with our loved ones. Wait... that's a little too radical.... let's just say we will keep our social networking visits to an amount of time that doesn't impede our daily activities… baby steps… baby steps)11. Step 11 - We seek through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God and acknowledge God's will for us and the power to carry that out (Dear Lord, please let me not ignore my obligations when I'm online... I DO want to have more than a virtual life).12. And finally...Step 12 - Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we carry this message to other addicts and promise to practice these principles in all our affairs. (We will let our friends know when they are spending too much time social networking and will not judge those who only check in once a week. Of course, to actually know THEY aren’t checking online WE have to be online and therefore the cycle begins again.)
This 12 step program is based on a real recovery program with a little humor thrown in to lighten the mood. However, if you are suffering from and actual addiction of any kind that is crippling your life please seek professional help or log on to www.12step.org for support. You won't find the Twitter, Facebook or Amplify there yet… listed but give it time... we will have our own, official support group in no time.
Now, go see one of your friends IRL will you please? My name is Danielle Ricks and I'm a social networking addict.
No comments:
Post a Comment