Are you addicted to the internet? If you answer, “No, I can get out of it any time I want to,” sit up and listen to your words. Every smoker in the world says those very words in between puffs, splutters and coughs! Try this: Switch off the net. Sit and stare into the distance or do something else for a half hour. If you can, you’re okay. If not, you’re hooked.

Health effects

Net OD-ing can cause dry, strained eyes that make them hurt, spreading into a full-blown headache.

Later, the dryness can lead to major retinal problems. Neck- and back-aches are legacies of long laptop/mobile hours.

So is sudden and inexplicable weight-gain or weight-loss. Sleep dwindles into a toss-and-turn affair. Memory eludes, the brain becomes restless and only eases as it browses…

Time for preventive measures. To combat dryness, squeeze eyes shut until moist, then blink 100 times thrice a day. Take your hands behind the head. Place right hand on left shoulder, left hand on right shoulder, elbows pointing upwards. Keep head straight and breathe consciously until you feel a loosening in the shoulders and neck regions. Take a brisk 15 minute jog-trot — the easing of neuromuscular tension is the ‘blowing away of cobwebs’.

Remember, it’s not other people’s job to love and care for you. It’s yours.

Wean yourself away from the compelling call of the net. Join a group where you can play badminton/basketball/ cricket.

Offline mode

Get into the habit of doing things offline, wholeheartedly. If the mind gets habituated to just browsing…wandering…then when you want it to focus its attention on studying, ouch! It’s tough, it’s tiring, so you postpone it.

Moreover, you’d have random impressions picked up from various sites rather than true, deeper knowledge of things. Such vagueness makes you live in a state of constant irresolution where the smallest things upset.

So, start doing with your hands, working with your brain. Let the net be just another tool, not the rule, of the day.

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