I started a list here a few months back about signs you are addicted to Newsvine.
I later posted my instructions on how to get from Newsvine to "real life"
I was reminded of all of this when OK did his seed: Newsvine Addiction? 12 Signs You Might Be a Social Media Addict My reaction was, "We didn't need no stinking seeds to tell us if we're addicted. We can figure it ourselves!"
So, without further ado,
You Know You Are Addicted to Newsvine When…
1.When one of your first thoughts, upon waking, is "Which should I check first – the front page (of Newsvine) or my own personal Newsvine page?
2.You have changed your signature files on all email accounts and your home pages on all other web pages to direct people to your Newsvine page, i.e. sbutki.newsvine.com
3.When the first and last thing you do online is Newsvine-related (bonus points or demerits, depending on your perspective, on if it is the absolute first and last thing you do, i.e. instead of, say, getting dressed or going to the bathroom. Even more bonus points and/or demerits if you sleep with your laptop computer.
4.When the hardest part about being at a job that is off-line is that you go through withdrawals from your Newsvine habit.
5. When you try to get around the fact that your job requires you to be offline by copying and pasting long Newsvine discussions into word documents to read while off-line.
6.When journalist friends, from your newspaper days, ask if you still write, you say, yes, and then wonder how they will react to the kind of stuff you're writing here and you hope they don't read this piece demanding an end to spam about your genitals.
7.When your idea of "giving back to the community" involves spotlighting the best stuff you read here.
8.When you hear the term "community" and the first community you think of is this one here as opposed to, say, your geographical community.
9 Instead of making New Year's resolution for your health or lifestyle you make ones for your Newsvine use.
10.When you watch television programs – I'm looking at you, American Idol – just so you can comment intelligently on the reviews of the shows, for which you have solicited recappers.
11. Your email program and cell phone know that when you write the word "news" the second half of the word is more likely to be "vine" than newspaper
12. When you take trips you consider how many Newsviners you can meet while on said trip.
13. Your Newsvine friends seem to know you better than some of your regular friends.
14. You seem to be doing more interviews with other Newsviners than with "professional" writers
15. When you get a Christmas gift involving the soldiers in Iraq one of your first reactions is to see if you can arrange for the Newsviners in Iraq to review it.
16. When you go to the zoo you set up a story suggesting Newsviners write a story about a Newsvine zoo… and they do!. .. and you can't decide which is weirder, your request or their response.
17. When you start checking MSNBC's entertainment section to see which of the many gifted writers has been linked to today and then going to congratulate them and, often, be the first to break this news to them.
18 When you write this list while bored at work and are frustrated that you're going to have to wait 10 hours to post it but realize during that time you'll probably think of 10 more reasons which is why the title of this has changed from "10 signs" to "18 signs" to "26," etc
19 When people ask you something in "real life" you are tempted to just ask them to read what you wrote at Newsvine answering that very question, i.e. "what are you doing in Hagerstown?" or "Who ARE you anyway?
20 You tag your memoir pieces about your newspaper reporting days and reflections on your father as sbutki-memoir, thinking this is the first step toward collecting my thoughts into an eventual memoir and/or collection of reflections.
21. You actually felt guilty for missing the Newsvine Drinking Contest so you participated, while on a church retreat, via getting drunk texts from the participants.
22. You rarely read a newspaper or magazine without finding at least one thing that you want to seed.
23. When you fly across the country you feel you owe it to your readers to give them something to look at or read while you are away and so you put up, for example, a slide show.
