Limit your time

1. 1
   Limit your time on the computer. This may seem difficult at first, but it’s the first step to recovering from computer addiction. Remember that you don’t need to stop using the computer altogether, just set reasonable limits for now.^[1]

   • You can set a limit by setting a timer. When it goes off, close and turn off your computer. Walk away and go do something else.
   • You can ask family, friends, or roommates to help you enforce the limit. They might take the computer away from you for designated periods of time or make sure you’re staying away from it during designated hours.
   • Ask friends or family how much time they think is reasonable for you to spend on the computer each day. Try to limit your computer time to two hours or less.
2. 
   2
   Only use the computer for necessary tasks. You may need the computer for work or for school. If this is the case, use the computer as much as you need to for those particular applications. Otherwise, put it away.^[2]

   • You can uninstall programs that aren’t necessary to your work, such as games or software for entertainment.
   • You can ask friends or family to set a password or “parental controls” to block you from accessing websites or programs that aren’t related to your work.
3. 
   3
   Limit where you can use the computer. Depending on the nature of your computer addiction, you may benefit from limiting where you use the computer. For example, if you only use the computer in a public place, you may refrain from behaviors that are easier to do in private, such as cybersex, online gambling, or watching movies.^[3]

   • You can commit to only using the computer in the kitchen, at the library, in a coffee shop, or at a friend’s house.
4. 
   4
   Keep a computer usage diary. Write down the dates, times, and duration of your computer usage. Also write down the way you were feeling before, during and after each session of computer use.^[4]

   • By writing down your feelings before a computer session, you can help identify things that trigger your computer usage.
   • Once you’ve identified the triggers, you can avoid them to help avoid computer use.
   • If avoiding the triggers is impossible, you can choose another activity to replace computer usage.
5. 
   5
   Create a plan for modifying your behavior. Overcoming an addiction isn’t easy, and it requires a plan. You may try a simple plan, such as quitting cold turkey; however, it’s more likely that a slower, more methodical plan will be successful for computer addiction.^[5]

   • Establish how much and how often you’d like to continue using the computer.
   • Establish what kinds of activities are acceptable to continue doing on the computer.
   • Create a calendar for overcoming your addiction. You may want to wean yourself off of the computer by using it for one hour less per day each week.

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The Rising Sea

Snaking beneath roads and strung across oceans, hundreds of thousands of miles of cables and their connections make up the backbone of the internet. Despite its magnitude, this network is increasingly vulnerable to sea levels inching their way higher, according to research presented at an academic conference in Montreal this week. The findings estimate that within 15 years, thousands of miles of what should be land-bound cables in the United States will be submerged underwater.

“Most of the climate change-related impacts are going to happen very soon,” says Paul Barford, a computer scientist at the University of Wisconsin and lead author of the paper.

The immediacy of the threat stems from an unfortunate coinciding of location—much of the infrastructure that supports the internet just so happens to be situated in places most prone to rising waters. Internet traffic from our devices pings through fiber optic cables bound up in tubes that lie in shallow trenches underground. Although these cables are designed to be weather-resistant, they were never meant to be waterproof, Barford says. He predicts over 4000 miles of these cables running along the coast will flood within 15 years.

What’s more, the parts of the system that are designed to be waterproof are also vulnerable. While pipes carrying streams of information along the ocean floor can withstand the stresses of the sea, these are very different than the cables buried on land. Ocean-faring tubing is endowed with “armor,” metal cabling and protective coating to keep water from its fiber-optic contents. “Of course the irony there,” Barford says, “is that those transoceanic cables have to come up above water at some point.” These landing points don’t have the same protections, and they happen to be right next to the ocean. Barford’s research shows that more than one thousand locations where cables meet—like the spots where the submarine tubes hit land—will be surrounded by water in less than two decades.

A perpetual pool of salt water could take its toll on infrastructure. Connections may corrode and water molecules could wedge their way into microscopic cracks in fiber-optic lines. A barrage from storms and floods could damage buried cabling, all leading to signal loss. Most of this infrastructure was deployed decades ago, writes Barford, so seals and cladding protecting wires are also more likely to be vulnerable to damage.

To see where the physical backings of the internet are most vulnerable, Barford compared a map of internet infrastructure that he helped develop, with data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Digital Coast project, projecting worst-case scenarios for sea level rise in the United States over the next hundred years. The overlay showed that Miami, New York, and Seattle were particularly at risk from rising waters.

“When I actually saw the results, I was kind of horrified,” says Ramakrishnan Durairajan, a computer scientist at the University of Oregon who collaborated on the project. “All of these locations are where my friends and family live.”

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