I too, use the Internet as a means of distraction and avoidance. My advice to the letter writer is to indulge to the fullest. Wallow in it. It's only by letting myself "pig out" on the online junk food world that I become sick of it. You are no longer a noble poet, but an internet hog.

Sign up for celebrity fan blogs, and give yourself three days to make an ass of yourself by having vitriolic opinions. Write in a pseudonym. Make enemies online. Stop working so hard at your boring job and use your work hours to respond to each and every post. Make plenty of spelling and grammar mistakes, be as sloppy a writer as you possibly can.

At first it feels obsessive, but after a short amount of time, you will get tired of the blogging, become bored with discussing Tom and Katie, and want to avoid that other blogger you've set up in intellectual oneupmanship.

Someone will be rude and piss you off in written form, and you'll want to avoid them. At that point, there's not need finish the discussion. Dump the blog/site. Move on. It's not real life... you don't have to have closure. Know that your real life writing is way more important than showing your writing chops on the internet.

After three days, you'll be "over it," and will want to move on to something more substantive.

I'm in one of those jobs that is too good to leave, too bad to stay. I drive to work fantasizing about quitting. I walk into my cubicle and I slump.

I've been in this situation. You ARE hiding dissatisfaction about an aspect of your life, your job. You said so yourself. You need a way out of the job, first--start making plans for that. Trust me, it will energize you. If the writing will play into that, then add writing tasks into your plan. If not, leave them out. You're not getting writing done as it is, but focusing on quitting the job will be a positive change, and will give you the energy you need--so don't feel guilty about not writing!

I'm another creative, and I agree with one of the other responses about the messiness of the creative process. for some reason, I get my best ideas while showering, and I do "waste time" reading fairly trivial things while I'm "processing." However, it doesn't sound like the good ideas are coming from this. It just sounds like you are another wage slave, with a soul-sucking job that is draining your creative energy.

I realize most people don't want to know the science behind their behavior, thinking behavior is determined by free will and conscious choice, but this woman asked for an explanation of what lies beneath. "I know that I can unplug the Internet, talk with my therapist, go cold turkey. I'm more interested in what lies beneath."

Several other responders recognized this woman is addicted but because addiction is so poorly understood, especially by addiction experts, have no way to explain this specific behavior.

Celebrity addiction is a real addiction and is part of the larger "people addiction." People addiction is just one group of the hundreds of addictions caused by the genetic neurobiological disease of Hypoism as discussed in my book most completely, Hypoic's Handbook, and generally in this article: http://www.nvo.com/hypoism/hypoismhypothesis/

People addiction is the most common addiction of all addictions and least understood. I suggest anyone interested in addictions to read the article then, if that makes sense to them, to read the book.

There is a solution to addictions. It comes from the correct theory, Hypoism, not from the incorrect current theories which abound today.

I'm not sure if there is as much meaning in the choice of distraction as some think (celebrities as gods).

I think it's much more about avoidance. A subconscious fear of facing some big life decisions (LW hates job but can't face deciding what to do about it). Some people make self-destructive choices contrary to all sense, and it can be because we fear change, we fear success, we want to punish ourselves. Find out why. Why do you choose to turn away from the things that define who you are and give you joy for things that are shallow, unreal and superficial.

There is a stalker-ish inappropriateness to thinking "knowing" celebrities is relevant to your own life. You don't know Johnny Depp, you can't know him--but investing A LOT of time in pretending like you can sure keeps you from spending time with real live people or on taking chances and improving your own life.

At least he's reading!

He could be checking out the CNDB to find his favorite actor's nude scenes or the Celeb Archive for screen caps of same.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. . . .

Cary:

Have you been hacking into my web site, checking out my favorites to see that I, too, am obsessed with celebrity gossip?? I am so serious about this activity that I even keep my wireless notebook with me when I watch TV so I can look for information!

I used to claim that I did it so I had something to talk to "the girls" about at work, but that is no longer true. I want to know about Tom and Katie, even though I can't stand Tom, and think Katie is giving up her career to marry her poster boy. To think I used to be your basic intellectual snob. I even do Googles on spoilers, so I can find out what is going to happen on shows I like.

IMDB is one of my faves. I also like TV.com. I am even thinking about paying for "premium" IMDB.

Is there hope for me?

As Luce (? the guy with the monkey data) implies, I think the thing about celebrity culture is that it's a `super-normal stimulus' for our natural inclination to spend some time every day socializing. But I also think (as many have said) it can become an obsession. Like Arthur, mine is more for news/politics than celebrity. I think this means I get enough social stimuli in my normal life, but when I'm working I'm often looking for something that might reset my own priorities, especially when they are getting tedious at the moment. (I think expecting the news to do this is a post Sept 11 thing -- I think as upsetting as that was, it was also a rush that made us all feel special & fragile and start valuing our families more --- there's apparently an associated baby boom!)

Enough theory, the cure for this kind of obsession I've found is just putting the right kind of things in front of myself. Just like not having cookies in the house so I won't eat them. Find websites with really fantastic, inspiring poetry (or biographies of poets -- even Wikipidia will serve there!) and put these on your bookmarks lists right by all your celebrity links. Then, when you're procastinating (we all need a break sometimes!) it's more likely you'll remember and/or choose to click on something that will help you with your work than something that's a pure sponge.