I'm in my 40s. I've been online since dialup BBS's in the 80s. I never had this kind of addiction to screens before the pandemic took away all my other outlets

I'm in my 40s. I've been online since dialup BBS's in the 80s. I never had this kind of addiction to screens before the pandemic took away all my other outlets for novelty and interpersonal communication. I loved to travel, to go out every night, meet people in person. It's terrible. It's a terrible world we've created. I'm really scared for the generation of kids who are growing up with no memory of what human interaction was like before this. I think it's lowered my IQ significantly. And I think it's worse for people with curious minds, people who are formatted to absorb information. When I was a kid, I read the encyclopedia for fun. I was on the debate team. I ran forums. 90% of my interactions were offline. There was a gradient between real life and online life that made online life a tool, not a habit. The current modality of endless scrolling harnesses both the debating impulse and the information-gathering impulse in the most harmful, least useful, most meaningless way possible. I'm an alcoholic, and I smoke cigarettes. I am sure the modern internet is worse than both those things for my health and mental well-being. Having struggled with other addictions, I'm really only just starting to recognize it for what it is. I think I need to find some kind of AA for internet junkies. Sitting around with a bunch of sad sacks and drinking bad coffee can't be worse than whatever I was doing at 4am last night.