Not addicted. At least no more than I'm addicted to my wife or my friends. Much the same way as I can spend hours at the local, drinking pints and chatting with... well, just about anyone who happens to be there that night about anything from culture to politics to sports... X-Marks is just another outlet to chat with folks you have something in common with about something that brings you together and your interests.

On that note, and evidenced by the degrees of separation thread, it's nowhere near uncommon for X-Markers to get together in person and do what they do online. I must say, that's a huge step up from some of the people who pretend to have 700 friends on Facebook, but when they try to organize a live meetup, no one comes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/ma...26lives-t.html

(The above link is a great little story to read, BTW).

As Ted aptly pointed out, spending time online replaces watching TV. As far as comparing the two, spending time online is far more interactive than just staring at a box so I can totally understand how people rack up thousands in their post count simply by checking in each day and keeping current with the dozens of conversations that are taking place. It's really quite unbelievable, that in the period of several hours, a single thread can accumulate 3 or 4 pages worth of posts. I've never seen that in any of the other forums I've ever taken part in (and still take part in).