Nine Steps to Breaking Your MySpace Addiction

MySpace is a wonderful site. It sucks up your time like vacuum in water, child molesters roam free. Gossipmongers post blogs about what their friends' sister wore, or did not wear, on a date last night, or you are constantly barraged with bulletin requests to "please comment my pics."

So, why do you stay? Millions of people worldwide log on to MySpace daily to get their fix of profiles and friends and bulletins that makes no sense. It is a check your sanity in at the door type socialite site ruled by teens and pre-teens. Mothers everywhere are wondering why their kids have solid milk in a cup in their bedrooms and their iPods are thrown across the floor. They have only to look at the permanent screen burn in the effigy of a MySpace page to realize the nature of their child's apathy to real world issues.

So how do you break a MySpace Addiction? Here are the basic steps. Unfortunately, for the truly addicted, it might take intervention.

Admit you have a problem

If the first thing you do when you jump on the computer is load up MySpace-you have a problem. Admit it to yourself. If you spend hours on MySpace, and this includes constant checking throughout the day-you have a problem. Admit it. If you are talking to your friend on the phone while you are messaging or commenting them on MySpace-you have a problem.

Stop communicating with people through MySpace

You have tons of messengers, email, postal mail, and telephone. Why would you need to communicate through MySpace? Get Real, Folks. Why are you paying your phone bill if everyone you talk to is on MySpace? Oh, they are not. Then why are you not talking to them on the phone, if they are such good friends? Is that not a waste of a phone bill?

Print out your page

In a way, you created a work of art. You do not want it to be lost forever, so save a copy in print. Having a hard copy will make it easier to let go of your profile online.

Start deleting

Make it into a plain MySpace profile. Turn off all email notifications.

Post several bulletins

Delete all your pictures, blogs, etc. Post bulletins that state you are leaving MySpace so that all your friends will get it. Wait one day, and then delete the profile.

Block MySpace Ads

Get an e-mail filter and set it to block MySpace, Facebook, or any other similar sites. Constant reminders of what is going on around MySpace will tempt you to return.

Find other creative activities to do

What does MySpace really do for you anyway? You talk to your friends, pass messages back and forth, and look at new pictures. There are so many other things you can do, and still accomplish that through interpersonal connections offline.

Take a cold shower

Seriously, go relax, do something. Get it out of your system.

Return to your wonderful life.