Wasting Time Online

I thought it was funny a few weeks ago when I read that my friend comes home every day and checks her email and her Facebook. I was feeling just a little superior that she's so locked to the internet, the assumption being that I am more free from it. That assumption would be false. Now that I've opened my Facebook account and have established connections with 300+ people, I too check my Facebook account regularly, despite having set my account to email me with events of import and the ability of my friends and connections to email me directly should anything need immediate attention. This draw to Facebook has made me aware once again of all the sites that I visit regularly and the ways that it's so easy to waste time online.

Yesterday, for example, I came home expecting A to be overjoyed to see me and to demand all my attention the minute I walked in the door. This wasn't what I wanted as I had been pretty busy at work and needed some transition time. Well, never doubt your powers of manifesting your reality, because A was busily involved in a new game on the Wii and didn't demand any attention. When I found myself seeking something, anything, to entertain myself with online, I decided to head to the gym.

So, what do I look at online? In addition to an irregular MSN.com habit which often falls into MSNBC in pictures (they have some great photo collections), I also

• Check 4 email accounts (1 regular, 1 junk, 2 work)
  
• Log onto 2 Blogspot accounts - used to follow several blogs as well
  
• Use 2 Livejournal accounts, used mostly for reading A and other friends' blogs
  
• Read Christine Kane's blog
• Track my food and exercise with an online tool
• Network with Facebook, Linked In, occasionally MySpace and a work related social networking site
• Organize social activities with Meetin.org
• Do random searches - most recently photos and style notes on Jackie O and photos and biography of Sting

When there is nothing of interest in any of those, I KNOW I'm just wasting time, but I think sometimes that I'm wasting time even if I've gone past a couple of those in a day. For example, this post - it's really just wasting time, of course, procrastinating from starting work for the day. Well, I guess since it's barely 9am and I've already done 5 of the above, I'd better get on with it.