I strongly suggest that you take a weekend or a week off from all internet-connected devices. Although many societies are very dependent on internet, it is (almost always) not entirely necessary to function. There are plenty of people who go without it, at least for a little while at a time. Being dependent on the internet is foolish as a society, let alone an individual. It threatens an individual's ability to be self-reliant and have self-determination. There are a lot of people, like yourself, who are pushing back against the "need" to have internet in their daily lives. You can probably do the following fairly easily: Cut out internet-based video games Stop (or limit) your access to social media. Delete your accounts, if you're able. Try to limit the data usage of your phone, or get a phone plan without data.
It is a very painful question: Internet addiction may be seen as an occupational hazard among digital marketing professionals (which is likely to be inevitable)
I'm not really into forums much anymore. I think fan sites were better in the infancy of Internet services before blogs, wikis and social media got to be so massive. Now people use forums less now and go on Reddit, Facebook and Twitter. That's fine. But I think forums have a neater interface. I've not seen much activity on the forums I go to. Even the big gaming ones like GameSpot are not that busy these days. I think it's good that the games have sub-categories to post in, but one downside is that nobody looks in them now. Maybe in 2002 they did. By 2018, most of the focus has shifted away from forums. Now even news pages don't require a forum, because you can use a social media account to post. It is okay to do that if your site ain't that big. But for long running sites, it can be a buzzkill.
Aren't we all internet addicts? Any decent internet marketer is likely to spend tons of time on the internet.
Not really. Game addiction eventually decreases a person's frontal lobe function. Which, in turn, negatively impacts the person's creativity, impulse control, social skills - you name it. Game addicts often struggle with severe depression. Internet marketing doesn't do any of that.