the internet

I have not written in a while, not because of a lack of time, but rather of inspiration. Work continues to be composed of long stretches of tedium broken by ocassional flashes of usefulness and interest. I spend too much time on social networking sites, obsessively balancing my checkbook, checking the weather in every city I know anyone, and (confession time) even sporadic and unsucessful ventures into on-line dating. I am convinced that the internet is the biggest time-waster known to mankind, above TV and text-messaging even. Whole hours can slip into oblivion, and I emerge neither wiser nor happier, eyes hurting from computer screen strain. Not that the internet is completely a bad thing- on the contrary, life without it seems overwhelmingly and impossibly daunting.
I read an editorial, about how the Internet age has contributed to the growth of libertarian politics by creating a generation of people who are smart, well-informed, and think that they don't need anyone else. A bit scary really. I would also say that it has created a generation of people who are connected to mind-boggling numbers of people like never before, but at a superficial level. So have we really gained anything? A blessing and a curse. Most of the time I think that the Internet is more of a blessing than a curse, but sometimes my weighing of the two sides favors the curse opinion.
When I step back and think about it, it's amazing how willing people are to abandon all privacy, bare their secret musings, desires, and interests, all in the most public of all mediums. In that respect, the Internet operates a bit like a mask, allowing people to be more open, more daring perhaps, than they would be in real life. When you meet someone in real life, do you immediately tell them your favorite things, all the details of your personality, even your income? No. But all that info is right out for everyone to see on Myspace or Facebook, and noone thinks this is weird. And I'm right there with them.
I'm not going anywhere in particular with this. And I think I'm done now. Like I say, lack of inspiration. I'll try to get inspired more often. In the meantime, I'm going to try to have more of a (non-internet) life.