the next goal

I think my goal for the month of November is to spend less than 30 minutes a day on the Internet. I could still write blog posts while offline and upload them later.

I sometimes wonder how much more productive my life would be if the Internet had never been invented. I know that some things, like researching, would take a lot longer than they do with the help of the worldwide web, but overall, I think the Internet uses up more of my time than it should.

I spend countless hours a month on the Internet--looking up weird articles, watching conspiracy theory documentaries, stalking people on social networking sites, and reading trivia on IMDB. And that`s not including time spent playing Textwist.

The Internet is the ultimate useful tool and timewaster. It allows us to access information at ridiculously fast speeds, but it also allows us unlimited access to that information--which means that we can go into a proverbial rabbit hole and not realize it until we`ve been staring at a screen for four hours straight.

I`m ashamed of the amount of time that I spend logged into Facebook. I think my homesickness makes me do it. There`s also that weird voyeuristic part of me that likes to watch other people`s lives unfold. I guess social networking sites are the closest that I`ve come to watching reality TV shows.

I can`t limit my time on a computer because I need it to write and edit. But I can spend more time in the real world, where the air is getting colder and the mountains are covered in misty clouds and where people don`t give a shit what my profile picture or status is.

Oh yeah, and I guess it will be good for me to study for that ridiculously evil test called the GRE that I have to take on December 5. That`s a good reason to exist in the real world instead of the virtual one--or is it a good reason to escape?