<p>I have only been a registered user for barely a few days, yet I find myself spending all my time on here now, posting, giving advice to others, ect. It's like a bad syndrome I have that I keep wanting to post and help others. Before I created an account it was not so bad, as I could just look at things that interested me and then get out.</p>
<p>My real question is not how to limit/block myself from college confidential, as there are programs that I can do that with. But how to psychologically separate myself from CC and convince myself that I am not needed here. I had the same issues when I first joined wikias and yahoo answers. Now I find myself on here too often and distracted instead of doing schoolwork.</p>
<p>In other words, what are your strategies for staying off College Confidential?</p>
<p>First I think you should consider whether this addiction may be a good thing. As a recent addict, I think this is actually one of the best uses of my “down” time that I could have found. People try so hard to stop wasting time instead of accepting that its a healthy need we have. </p>
<p>Especially based of you history, think of it this way: If you weren’t on here, wouldn’t you probably be wasting your time in some other way? This was an argument that I heard and really liked from a friend of mine who was addicted to a game. He fully understood that he was addicted, but he liked the game and the players and he deemed it a good way for him to waste time.</p>
<p>The moral here is that putting a lot of time into something thats “useless” can actually be serving a personal need. As long as you can keep it in check with the rest of your life, and keep its priority secondary to reality, I think places like CC are great.</p>
<p>If you think you would be happier “wasting” your time elsewhere, then finding that place will be the easiest way to break the CC addiction.</p>
<p>If you truly want to cut all waste time together, finding some other outlet that is primarily fun/passion but also is helpful to you would be the thing to do. Maybe picking up a sport?</p>
<p>LOL…
A good start will be to just open the website without logging in, and just read. With that you will be prompted to log-in if you try to post, and that should remind you of your goal.</p>
<p>LOL…you just increased the degree of distraction by adding a thread…you will certainly come back to read the replies…increasing time spent on Cc… :)) </p>
<p>I was addicted after I joined. I found this corner of the world via the NYTs website. I hung out for 6 months, figuring it all out and finally joined. Once I joined, I was here constantly. That same summer, DD went away for the first time to attend a 5 weeks summer program, so all my free time was spent here. I was fascinated with everything that this site has to offer. Never did I think so much info about the college admissions process be in one place and inhabited by so many knowledgable people. I was like a drug fiend. But boy, was it well worth it. I watched, listened and took advice about the college admissions process from the best. </p>
<p>I stepped away last fall for the most part because DD was going through the process at her own speed. I found that being here caused me great angst. So I stopped logging in completely… </p>
<p>You seem to be giving a LOT of advice to people. The first thing to do is figure out why </p>
<ul>
<li><p>do you envy the ivy league or prestigious college type? Do you feel that by giving them advice, you’re assimilating into ‘that’ crowd? That you’re putting yourself ‘in the know’?</p></li>
<li><p>do you feel like you don’t have good control over your OWN future? Do you feel that, by helping others with theirs, you can feel in control through that?</p></li>
<li><p>are you just curious/fascinated with the world of college?</p></li>
<li><p>are you trying to live vicariously through these people by offering them so much advice? (Because you feel like you couldn’t do it on your own)</p></li>
<li><p>do you give so much advice/guidance because it makes you feel important? Do you want to seem knowledgeable and valuable to others?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The reason could be pretty benign though. Maybe you just have nurturing tendencies, and you feel good about giving advice to people - and this site provides an outlet for that. If that’s the case, maybe you should look into a career in guidance counseling or college admissions. Or, you could broaden that and look into psychology. Either way, just find out whether or not this is helping you or hurting you.</p>
<p>I think once you identify WHY you’ve posted over 130 times in five days, you’ll be able to resolve the problem. I know there are some people on this site with 10,000+ posts, but I don’t think you want to be like them (do you really? Be honest). I’m not trying to pass judgment on anyone, but I do find it (to be honest) strange when I see people with those many posts. If you spend too much time living on a website instead of living your life, you could really miss out. And that’s exactly what it is. Checking a website and posting religiously as if it were a second job, but the only hitch is you aren’t getting paid. Too many people get too comfortable with the sheltered environment and anonymity of being online. I don’t think you should let anyone tell you otherwise. You’re right to be concerned. I don’t think you should slip into the spiral of being someone who posts every single day </p>
Pretty much. Hardly anyone in real life wants to hear it, so I come on here. (On the bright side, it’s improved my writing skills. I’m a quiet person, so most of my thoughts never get put into words, and posting on Internet forums helps me get better at articulating myself.)</p>
<p>What I did was limit my use to one hour a day by using the stayfocusd app thingy on my chromebook. Then I got used to not being on here for very long and I no longer use it as much.</p>
<p>Hi guys. Thanks for responding so much in a timely manner. I wanted to refrain from responding for a while so I could get some unbiased opinions without me interfering.</p>
<p>@Abcde11 I think it may be multiple of the things you mentioned, if I was honest with myself. The future can see so uncertain sometimes, and I just wanted to help people in any way I know how. Plus, the college life is quite fascinating to me, which explains why I spend so much time with it.</p>
<p>Thank you @howtosaveuhlife I’m glad you got the reference! You’re the first one out of the people on here so far haha. I think I’ll be taking a break from CC for a while (at least until finals are over) </p>
<p>I really appreciate everyone who responded and their advice!</p>
<p>I just made my first post since October, and this would be my second. So it’s possible. But maybe I’m falling off the wagon. Mostly, I’ve only been on CC lately if it came up as a google hit on some college related topic. </p>
<p>I guess I felt that two kids in college and a third about to apply was stress enough without adding to it with posts about perfect SAT scores, straight GPAs while finding a cure for cancer. Or posts that tap into the same anxiety I may be feeling about topic x or y. </p>
<p>I did miss the threads about the latest episode of Mad Men or Game of Thrones or which vacuum to buy. </p>
<p>(Maybe it’s also because I have fun going online to flame people about politics, which you can’t do here.)</p>
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