My name is Louise C and I'm a cyberholic

Louise Cornish
j cornish @ ryerson . ca

Hello.

My name is Louise C and I’m a cyberholic.

First thing every morning, I crave a fix.

Just one, I tell myself… I’ll stop tomorrow.

So I go online and start with the Toronto Star. Well, just one more wouldn’t hurt, so I hop over to the New York Post. They have a fun gossip page. Since I’m already at my computer, I might as well read the Washington Post, Drudge Report, New York Daily News, Toronto Sun, Globe and Mail, National Post, TMZ and MSNBC. On Sunday, God rested, but, unlike me, He didn’t have a computer, so I read News of the World, Newsweek, Maclean’s, New York Times and the New Yorker. And then my e-mail…

In the old days, I would actually have to get dressed, get out of the house, go to the corner store and interact with a human person to get my news fix. Now, if I choose, I can schlep around in a bathrobe all day reading the news. Maybe that would work better in theory, but I do have neighbours and I don’t have curtains. I have no time to hang any blinds because I have so much news to read.

Once a week, my husband David and I meet after work and school for dinner at our local pub – which is our favourite because it has Wi-Fi access. I bring my laptop and he brings his. We enjoy chicken wings, squabble over who should have the last celery stick, and tap away on our computers. Sometimes we watch the hockey game on TV and chat during commercial breaks and sometimes we just go back to our computers.

We’ve been married for 20 years (oops, I originally typed 200 years by mistake, but sometimes it just feels that way) so I suppose it’s natural to not stare dreamily into each other’s eyes over every drumstick we share. But really, I’m reading Toronto Life online and he’s playing solitaire at dinner?

I thought the Internet was supposed to bring people closer together, to open up a global living room. Am I the only one who never has to leave the house or pick up a phone to get my news and communication needs met? Should I lock up my laptop (actually I have three in case two of them break down – Dave only has two so I worry for him) for a week?

One day at a time. That day will be tomorrow though, because I haven’t checked out Smoking Gun yet today.

One day at a time.