Hooyoo? (dooyoo Addiction)

Name: ScottyGirl

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Product:	dooyoo Addiction
Date:	05/08/05 (250 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: To addiction? None at all.

Disadvantages: Too many to list.

Goodness gracious, with or without great balls of fire. Ohhhh, it's like walking into the wrong house. Who moved the telly?

It's been, mmmm, what, about four years since I last got my keyboard soiled here, and hasn't Dooyoo changed so much. Well, that doesn't surprise me, onwards and upwards eh. Or downwards perhaps, I'm not too sure if it's for better or worse yet. Ah, go on, give me time to decide.

Jeez, I'm forgetting my manners, how awful I am. Hi, I'm Liz, howya. Some of you members may remember me, but I suspect the vast majority of members here won't have a scooby doo who I am, lucky peeps. [Interlude for non-members: yes I know you're there but this is about member addiction so if you don't wanna join away off with ya and read something consumery instead, ner] Righty let me introduce myself properly to those fortunate enough not to have known me in a past life.

I used to be what I suppose could be called a 'prolific writer' here. Or perhaps a better description would be a really sad whatsit that spent far too much time, energy and ultimately emotion on a website. My user name back in those days was ScotGirl, it wouldn't let me back on with that name - no ghosts allowed or some such. Anyway, some people might know me from way back when. A bit of an over-rated windbag would sum me up I think.

Anyhoo, moving on, this is about addiction innit. I recall, back in the very very early days of dooyoo, before I got that involved in it all, there was a member called 'trousers'. She was an absolute treasure of a writer, probably, in my view, the most entertaining on the site at the time. I can't vouch for the truth of the opinion that she wrote, but the gist of it was that she'd been sacked from her job for spending too much time dooyooing. Hmmm, I probably came close myself on occasion. I think for many it was getting that bad. It’s hard to believe that a web site can be addictive, but I do honestly believe that for many it was just that.

Back then the site was buzzing. Web central in the rushhour, on acid. And not just the dooyoo site, there were dooyoo related message boards and groups with scores of active users. People could even make some decent money back then. Newer members, and even some of the longer standing ones, might not believe this - I used to make about £10-£20 from each review. One review I recall in particular netted me over £50. Not that I ever 'needed' the money, but it was nice to get a wee reward for my efforts. I don't think I'd get that type of reward now somehow!

But I don’t think the money played any real part in any ‘addiction’, that was down to the ‘community’. Back then the web was relatively new as a mainstream form of communication – dooyoo started in the middle of the dotcom boom. The web is part of everyday life for most people now, but when it was still fresh it opened up a whole new world of interaction that was alien to most people. How cool was it to write down your thoughts on something and have people from all over the UK, and even further afield, read and comment on them? Apart from perhaps having a letter printed in a newspaper that was a whole new experience. And to chat with people you didn’t know, jeez, it was weird and exciting. I find it all a bit dull now, but y’know, it was good then.

I do believe that ‘addiction’ was the right term to use. Just like ciggies, I felt really irritated when I hadn’t had my fix for a while. Like other addictions it encroached on personal life, chores were put off until I’d just had a quick (two hour) check at what was happening. Like many other addictions I tried to kick the habit on a few occasions and failed miserably, it just kept drawing me back in. In the end it was draining me emotionally, I had enough going on in my head and in my personal life at that time already and the lines between reality and virtual reality became very faded indeed. Looking back I’d have to admit that I became something of an egotistical megalomaniac. I was, and worse than that I couldn’t even see it. Christ, if anyone had said that to me back then I’d have ripped their head off. Eventually I snapped. I threw my toys out the pram one time too many and alienated even those who had been more than patient with me until then. There was no place left for me, my addiction was broken. God did it feel good. I didn’t look at dooyoo for months, I never looked at the message boards again, I felt liberated. When I did go back to have a look at dooyoo it wasn’t particularly through choice – something that I wanted to read had came up on a google search. I read it and left. The site held no interest for me any more.

So, I suppose you’ll be wondering why I came back after all these years. I’m still a windbag - that never changed. Many other aspects of me have changed though, I hope for the better. I’ve exorcised a lot of my personal demons and feel strong and confident within myself. Dooyoo has changed, the people have no doubt changed, and I’ve certainly changed but as I said I’m still an old windbag who loves to put her thoughts down somewhere. I know I won’t take it a fraction as seriously as I did in the past, I don’t need to. I’ll be keeping a reality check on it though because I know how easy it is to get sucked in.

Summary: Unlike Nike - don't do it.