I often joke that I've been giving up "real life" in favor of my online social life. It's easier, more versatile, and it's on demand. If I'm bored, my computer is always there unless, goodness forbid, my Internet is out. If people online are irritating me or my butt starts to hurt from sitting in my chair all day, I get up and find something else to do. When I can't sleep, my computer is there for me to find something to do at 2 in the morning. I can take as much or as little of my Computer Universe that I want. It's completely up to me. But, I'm starting to question how much of a joke it really is.
I've recently started to expand my Computer Universe by joining several online social networks such as MyBlogLog, Blog Catalog, and Entrecard, not to mention that I'm also starting to pay more attention to Twitter. Btw, I'm not linking any of that. Google them if you want to find them or click on their buttons in my sidebar. Through these various sites, I've found a plethora of new blogs to read. So many in fact, that my Google Readers rarely says, "Your reading list has no unread items." I've blogged about my blogging habits recently in a post titled, "Blog Stats". But that's not what this is about.
I found an article online (go figure) today that piqued my interest and made me feel not quite so bad about my own online habits. Read it here: The Web Habits of Highly Effective People. I figure I'm in pretty good company since I frequent many of the sites listed by these professionals and now I have even more online haunts to haunt. This article led me to another article which I found quite interesting about blogging: The Death of Personal Blogs. The author talks about how blogging has morphed from being about people's personal thoughts, feelings, ideas, and opinions to people syndicating their blogs or abandoning their blogs altogether for positions which pay them to blog for other people about certain subjects. I confess, I've looked into this before because quite frankly, I was a little surprised that people could get paid for blog posts. Big companies hire bloggers though, not just dot coms that are here one day and gone the next.
There are other online pursuits aside from blogging and social networking though. People play games online, make an honest living online, keep up with news from around the world, go to school, conduct research, and a slew of other things.
I find it amazing that there are still people in the world who consider the Internet to be a waste of time. How much is too much? That's all a matter of opinion. I think that if I didn't have my online pursuits while I lived in Vermont, also known as the land of NOTHING, I would have lost my mind or ended up divorced and I never would have gotten my Christmas shopping done. It's a portal to the world, to different people, to different cultures, to be really dramatic. I wish that I had had the Internet, as it is today, back when I was in high school. It would have made projects so much easier. I'm thankful that my own kids will have it when they are in high school. Well, provided it's still around: Full Capacity, heheh.
I was a blog lurker for a long time before I took the plunge and decided to have my own blog. If anything, I've met some of the coolest people through my blog....I would have never met them had it not been for the Internet.
ReplyDeletePam~~I blogged before I read blogs. I've also made some online "friends" and a real life friend through the Internet. And I would have lost touch with many of my friends because we move so much if it hadn't been for the Internet as well.
ReplyDeleteWhen I discovered online reading groups many years ago, I was in heaven. I worked in a job that didn't allow me much freedom in joining an actual face to face group and I didn't really know that many people who enjoyed reading. I also discovered other types of groups and have met some wonderful people. The blogging community is an extension of all of that--and a great one too.
ReplyDeleteI'm not too familiar with the blogging for pay aspect. I certainly have discovered that having a book blog can be a door to getting free books to read and review. It's easy to get overwhelmed by that fact, I've found. I learned fast how to say no, but it can be hard. :-) Since my reading and blogging are hobbies, I don't want either to feel like an obligation. Sometimes it does though.