We label someone a “couch potato” if they spend too much time sitting on the couch watching TV. The boob tube consumes about half of America’s leisure time or nearly three hours per day.
But the amount of time people spend online and using computers is also increasing. Children spend an average of 89 minutes each day using a computer "for entertainment purposes," up from 62 minutes in 2004. Eighty percent of U.S. adults spend an average of 13 hours per week online, while 1 in 7 are online more for than 24 hours per week.
Marriam-Webster defines “mouse potato” as “a person who spends a great deal of time using a computer.” Although there is some debate about the future of the computer mouse — given the rise of non-mouse devices such as smartphones and tablets — “mouse potato” is a fitting term to describe our digital sloth selves.
So here are the Top 10 signs that you may be a mouse potato:
- Your Facebook friends know more than your immediate family about what’s going on in your life.
- You wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and stop to check your email on the way back to bed.
- You harvest acres of virtual crops but must visit the grocery store to buy vegetables.
- You text/email/tweet someone sitting in the same room.
- You judge your self-worth by the number of Facebook friends, LinkedIn connections, and Twitter followers you have.
- The last woman you hooked up with was a FLV.
- You won’t even consider going on vacation to a place without Internet access.
- Your spouse/parents have to text you to come to dinner.
- You search Google to find your car keys.
- You checked your Facebook status while reading this article.
Some of these are original, some I’ve heard before. So do you show other signs of being a mouse potato? Please comment below.
Article published on June 22, 2010
If you like this article, please share it:
|
June 23rd, 2010 at 9:45 am
11. You refer to going to the bathroom as “downloading.”
June 24th, 2010 at 4:47 am
My freind actually referred to versions of a car rather than make/models.
July 1st, 2010 at 12:38 pm
I was worried I might be classified as a mouse potato, but I’m happy to say I don’t text people in the same room. 😉
July 22nd, 2010 at 12:59 pm
Cute article with a good point. We often do spend far too much time in sedentary pursuits in today’s world. People can get obsessed with their computers just like they can get obsessed with anything else. In some ways, I think that computers are a bit worse than television as far as potential addiction goes. After all, television is a passive entertainment, while you can actually interact with a computer. The concept of a video game widow/er is becoming quite a bit more than laughable, I’ve known several people who have lost their marriages over such things. Becoming too wrapped up in any given thing to the exclusion of life is always a bad thing.
Donald from Causes of Down Syndrome
July 29th, 2010 at 8:39 am
[…] Top 10 Signs You Are a Mouse Potato […]