Sometimes, when I've reached that lull in my day when classes are over and I'm not rushing off to practice (being an out-of-season athlete is a strange form of withdrawal), I find myself once again gravitating towards my glowing MacBook...and it's not long before the favorite tabs are opened and I realize that the next two hours will be spent in utter internet oblivion.
I don't ever remember spending this much time on the internet in high school...sure, I'd log on to Facebook and spend some time chatting and clicking around. But it's like since I got to college, my internet usage has exploded. I watch all my shows on Hulu now, and I can't get through one page of essay writing without checking my email, or Facebook, or twitter, or blog..., well, you get the picture. I even spend time on StumbleUpon, so I can look for more interesting things with which to waste my time. Now that I started my blog, I can excuse my aimless internet wanderings in a way...I'm brainstorming, looking for inspiration, etc. When I don't have a pressing matter eating away at itself in my brain, begging to be blogged about (this has happened to me maybe, mmmm...twice? Real inspired), I take interest in what those around me have to say as well.
Sometimes this problem pays off. Recently I discovered a sort of collective blog called Thought Catalog. Pegged as "illuminating and informative, nobrow and nonpartisan," it's basically a collection of hipsters living the dream in NYC, reveling in their own stereotypical hipsterdom and writing cynical pieces about "our generation." Topics include Life, Love, Music, Entertainment...you know, the basics. I'm not one for the shove-it-in-your-face hipster thing, but these writers are intelligent and informed, as well as culturally functional. The articles are usually humorous, self-deprecating, and just serious enough. Reading Thought Catalog makes me feel a little better about wasting time online, and it also gives me a glimpse of something I hope to do in the next phase of my life. The "future of journalism" is here, it's online and it's everywhere. Hopefully someday, someone will pay me for this.
You're already online, so check it out. It's pretty cool and a better way to spend your time surfing the web than watching Rebecca Black parodies on YouTube.
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