New Homegrown String Band Web Pages: Are we addicted to the Internet?

When we released our first CD (Blind Dog Thumpin' on the Porch) in 2000, we decided it was time for The Homegrown String Band to establish a presence on the World Wide Web (that's what we used to call the Internet). In July 2000 we registered our domain name and began selling CDs on Amazon.com. Our first website was a primitive one page html document built using Adobe Page Mill and posted using AOL's Hometown free hosting. Since then we have added an EPK, a Myspace page, (I've yet to heed the call of Facebook or Twitter), a Youtube channel, and this blog. Our website has grown to twelve glorious pages and I spend way to much time on the internet. Once these sites are established they have to be maintained and monitored. I do my best to keep our website and EPK current and up to date; Myspace and Youtube. . . ahh, not so much. A lot of bands use Myspace pages as their band website—we have had a page since 2005—but I've always thought of it as an add on to our website and have invited all our imaginary Myspace friends to check out our concert schedule, come to a show and become a real friend. A couple of weeks ago, while checking in on Myspace, I found some of the photos had been deleted by our photo hosting service due to the fact that we hadn't logged in for more than six months. Well, I couldn't remember the user name or password so I just deleted the photo links. Then last week, while checking the site again, I noticed that the music player was not loading. I made a comment about it and my daughter said "Myspace is so passe." I always found the long load times and ads on Myspace to be very annoying, but lots of people would ask about the site and go there to hear samples of our music even though it is all available in a more accessible form on our EPK. Now that Myspace is passe, (will the last person to leave Myspace please turn out the lights), I felt free to move the link to a less prominent spot on our website. So, last Thursday I decided to do some remodeling. I spent the bulk of the next four days adding three new pages—a photo page, a video page, and an Mp3 player, as well as updating and cleaning up the other pages. By Sunday night I had a most heinous headache, the wife (the lovely and talented "Mother Hen" Georgianne) suggested—no make that ordered me—to stay off the computer for a day. It was hard but I did it; 24hrs without touching a computer.  The little beast kept calling me (am I addicted to the Internet?) "check your e-mail," "track your packages," " see if you sold any buttons or Navajo spindles , "read some blogs," "It's Hot Stove time better check the MLB trade rumors." Well, guess what? My packages were delivered without me tracking them, the Mets didn't make any blockbuster trades, and most of the e-mail that accumulated in my mailbox was junk and the rest was not particularly urgent. Maybe I can live without the Internet..... Maybe. I did sell a spindle, which is winging it's way across the country, via Priority Mail, as we surf.