Anyone ever feel the need to unplug from ATS?

All the time , but I have a short attention span so tend to fly right back to it .

What I tend to do just wander through this huge site looking for things that interest me . Every now and then I look in on the conspiracy threads , ( some of them are interesting ) and when I get fed up it's easy enough to go check out other things .

I do tend to steer clear of politics , the middle east and most recently all the gun control rants because they all seem like two armies of Yosemite Sams going at it . That's a lot of fun to think about , but I don't think I'd care to throw myself into the middle of it .

reply to post by HooHaa


"Anyone ever feel the need to unplug from ATS?"

Yes.

reply to post by HooHaa


Oh yes. I normally do take a break a few times a year.

The first break I took, I took for a grasp of fresh air and to calm down. I had a very ( very very ) bad temper when I joined ATS and some threads and members ( in my opinion back then ) were really getting too deep into my skin. Then another break was needed when the doom and gloom seemed too much to handle any more.

Now, a few years later, when things become so overwhelming that they start affecting the way I normally think, it's always time to leave. And when I do, I always find that when I do return, I feel like a different user, a better participant perhaps. Logging off for periods of time always make me realize that ATS is a community of folks just like me, that I don't really know any of them personally and that everyone deserves to be treated equally, fairfully and respectfully. As I would like to be treated. Always works!

All in all, I personally think that breaks are not only needed but essentials once in a while.

I unplugged from ATS for nearly about year and only started posting for about two weeks now. I browsed through most of the main stories that I may have missed and immediately noticed that the quality of material posted ATS has declined enormously over that that period with very few exceptions.

Miss the old days when poeple like John Lear use to post on ATS..........

Actually no, one of my greatest 'abilities' is to discern fact from fiction.

This place is where I can actually use that ability to find useful things out, whether you realize you're letting me in on it or not

Mm know how you feel,am starting to feel like ats and the internet is the reality and that genuine reality has to be endured.lol.

Nah it's not that bad yet but it's good to come up for air at times

Not really.

If i want to avoid threads that bother me I just don't click on them or I hide that forum on the recent posts page. I am always logged into ATS and Im on here throughout the day.

Do I find many threads annoying? Oh yes I do but I try not to let them get to me. People have their right to opinion and to post that opinion on here and I have the right to ignore it.

Are there lots of crazy wacky ideas on here? For sure but it IS a conspiracy site so it's to be expected. When I first joined I got freaked by a lot of things i read then over the years I learned well it's not going to do anything to get freaked out over the truth. I am surprised i dont have more alien dreams and apocalyptic dreams with all the stuff I read.

I know for some it helps to get off of ATS for a while and if that is what you need then do so! Don't let it get to you For me I've just learned how to still enjoy ATS even when it bothers me with what is being posted.

One thing i like to do is add members as friends whose threads I enjoy. It always gives me something to read or I go to long threads I've been reading over the years, like Stargates Are Real and a few of Skyfloatings threads. I never run out of interesting stuff to read because I read every link in a post which is why it takes me so long to read some threads esp the ones that are over 20pages long!

Yep, I do. I'm going to do it again soon and no one will miss me when I do.

Just how it goes.

Unplug and learn how to do something new.
Program a computer, use a telescope ect ect the world is so big, not a 15 inch lcd screen.
Says me .

Originally posted by OrionsWitness
Unplug and learn how to do something new.
Program a computer, use a telescope ect ect the world is so big, not a 15 inch lcd screen.
Says me .

Yes.

The World is actually beautiful as much as governments and depressed people try and mess it up..

I LOVE it.

Happy Living.

I'm in a disagreement on a thread with a guy. He thinks it doesn't matter if you treat anyone bad. Actually he thinks nothing matters. I know it's easy to say but you can't really live in the here and now like that or you would become homeless and die. # like that really makes you down. Some people you just have to ignore. That's one big thing of tolerating this site.

reply to post by intrptr


Like i said, you read posts that you totally disregard and disbelieve.. By going through the tread reading all the arguments you get bored and move on.. Those things that you read are stuck in your head (seeds).. You cant unread them.. So time goes by, you catch something on MSM or whatever.. Your sub conscience makes a connection from some obscure reference made in one of those posts.. Now you get curious and start researching.. The more you do, the more you get sucked in, because your paradigm is shifting, you start making connections that aren't there..

I mean that's why every member on Ats is here.. We question, were curious, we investigate.. Now that we are here, how many more conspiracy's are you interested in? Things that before ATS, you would have dismissed outright..

reply to post by HooHaa

I hear what you are saying and I have had the same trouble. For me its more a "crash" than a "planted seed". Like a house of cards collapsing from some new information, more than a seed slowly growing.

And I take lost of breaks to walk my doggie... like now.

All the time and i regularly do. ATS is good in moderation

Its always been my first point of call when TSHTF on the news because i believe i get a more honest and in depth perspective on real time events here on ATS (Even though its a conspriracy site).

Ill have a 2-3 month period where im on every day then a time out period for probably the same when things get a little crazy. As Worldwatcher said if you feel you need to unplug then do that immediately. ATS is always here to come back to but sometimes it can become a little too much for people

@ Worldwatcher, Long time no speak hope all is well

No, never.

Yep... I do. All things in moderation, I suppose (esp. around here)

Originally posted by yourmaker
Actually no, one of my greatest 'abilities' is to discern fact from fiction.

This place is where I can actually use that ability to find useful things out, whether you realize you're letting me in on it or not

My family worked for Naval intelligence. My dad told me a good quote that his father (also naval intelligence) shared with him once. " The easiest people to deceive are those who think they are incapable of being deceived" When i was a teenager Art Bell had a guy come on talking about government mind control, and he mirrored that same quote by saying " The easiest people to brainwash are those who think they can not be brainwashed." In my own life i have found this to be largely true. However i think it is my ability to entertain the notion that i could be wrong that gives me a degree of protection. But perhaps the belief that i can be decieved would lead me to thinking myself incapable of being decieved, which would put me in the hands of those who wish to harm me and others like me...but i am straying off topic here.

As for the OP

CONSTANTLY.

But i love the free exchange of information, no matter how crazy it is and no matter how much i disagree with it. I think it is important that everyone who believes in anything has an open and free forum to express their opinions. For example i think it is awful that there are people out there who openly support Holocaust Denial and think that 9/11 was an inside job that involved Holograms and Particle beams...but if i restrict their right to voice their opinion then it is only a matter of time before my opinions are restricted under the same guidelines. And there are times when i think that the Rules are unfair, but ATS isn't my website, so i should do my best to be humble and considerate no matter how crazy the subject or no matter how unfair i think the rules are.

The truth is fundamentally uknowable IMO. So i think it is important that we allow discussion and humble ourselves to the fact that " maybe we do not have it all figured out"


Best of luck on your endeavours, and remember, we can turn off our TV's and computers at any time.

I have definitely felt the need to "unplug" from ATS from time to time.

Especially recently with the Sandy Hook tragedy and all the 2012 doom and gloom, this site can be a pretty big downer.

While I may not post much on this site, I do read other people's posts fairly regularly and have found myself even becoming addicted to all this conspiracy and deception talk. It can get a bit overwhelming at times!

I think after the 2012 hysteria passes I'll probably take a small break from the site until next year.

Happy Holidays!

Originally posted by HooHaa

I love this site and have been coming here for quite some time. With all the doom, gloom and flat out outrageous threads. I find myself getting sucked into some crazy ideas. Weather we believe what we are reading or not. Some threads can plant seeds that we are unaware of.. These seeds grow and start changing my outlook and thought patterns. I find myself having crazy dreams and a series of nights where I experienced sleep paralysis after reading a thread about demons attacking people in their sleep.. We wanna believe some things so bad that we start believing everything people say about it.

Anyways, when you check it 5 or more times a day, and your not an owner or mod... I find it necessary to pull myself away from this site and the internet.. Get outside, take walks, exercise, anything that gets my mind clear and focused again.. Sometimes its days.. Once it was almost a year.. But I do come back and I find after an hiatus.. I'm much more skeptical and discerning about what I read and believe..

I'm curious, has anyone had similar experiences?

If you knew me, which you don't. You'll see i've changed a bit since i got here. I like UFO's and stuff like that, but these conspiracy's, i'm more here as a debunker for the most part. That's because i just have to stop myself from believing it. It was making me go a bit bonkers. I keep to myself a bit about it now. I still believe in the horrors of GMO, and buy organic, but i'm done saying the government is out to get me. They really aren't. And if they were, i want to work IT for them instead of end up in a fema camp anyways.

But seriously, yes i have, and now I just call it "fun" to myself, and stopped trying to "educate" myself, and feel much better. Altough, this CT shooting has really made me kinda start to need a break again, do the the victimizing of a child killer making me a bit angry when i read.

reply to post by HooHaa


Ya feeling your vibe dude, been spending to much time on this site anyways. However I have never experienced all those things your talking about, there is more ignorance in the real world then there is on ATS but in the real world its just not so concentrated and life itself is nothing but a constant distraction. I suppose different people take things differently. But ya, mayhaps its time for you to take a long break from ATS if you feel like that, and maybe I need to get out of here as well, this is probably the longest site I ever hanged around on, it may be time to leave or take a break from it all.