Would your mental and cognitive health improve by dramatically decreasing your internet use?

No. That’s my answer and I’m sticking to it.

I’m pretty much the same person I was before the internet came along. Yes, some of us can compare our lives pre and post internet.

My health would briefly suffer via my wife & a pan handle if I were to use the internet anymore than is wise.

@mirifique Excellent question! I often ask myself the same thing. However I feel so addicted to the internet, and especially Fluther, that I often times just ignore my impulse to get off.
I also think there is a study somewhere that supports the thesis that spending too much time on the internet can decrease mental and cognitive health.
However each individual is different and while one person would be fine with spending a couple of hours at a time, others would not. I think you just have to figure out what works best for you. If spending 10 minutes is just the right amount for you, then thats fine. No point wasting hours on here.
Hope I helped answer your question. :)

Obsession with anything is bad. Balance works.

Well, my belief or thoughts, etc, is that everything is handleable when used in moderation. Staying on the internet to an extreme is probably not the best things to do. Sitting on a couch in front of the tv for a long period of time…. :( So…internet usage to extreme conditions i.e. many times a day will probably not be the best thing for us.

In some ways it would be better—you’d have better concentration, and you’d be able to think better, and you’d read books and go outside and do more exercise and god knows what. However, you’d lose a social network. A virtual society, yes, but one that is hard to find in the real world.

I go back and forth on this. Sometimes I think the internet (read Fluther) is sapping my energy, my will and my brain power. At other times, I feel it is fueling my memory, my writing ability, my wit and my emotions. I don’t seem to get as much done, but I feel (often) enriched by the experiences I have here.

No. I would miss having the ability to look anything up.

My answer would have to be no. There are an amazing amount of things on the net to challenge your thinking. I have learned a lot online including a few sites I have where I am trying to learn a couple of languages. I think it all depend son how you spend your time on the net.

If using the internet less went hand-in-hand with an increase in some type of physical exercise such as walking or swimming it might lead to an improvement in cognitive health.

I suppose I’d probably be doing something more constructive, although I have no idea if it significantly plays on one’s awareness or social vigor.

Like anything, too much of anything is no good I suppose.

I would say if anything there would be more of an improvement from using the internet, warms up the brain.

I feel like you do, that a reduction would probably do me good. Going completely without would not be good, though.

I’ll get up now and go read a book and make myself pancakes.

no

No I think the internet is a very useful tool. I don’t obsess about it, just use it for my own benefit.

not mine, personally, because of the way I use it – like any resource, there are those who use it wisely and to its best potential, and those who do not or cannot use it well to the detriment of something or other…

I feel worse when i don’t have the internet, because it’s got so much music on it and also, it teaches me so much _. You can learn almost anything you want, and it doesn’t get pissed off at you for being slow and frustrating like people do =).