Surfing the Internet Waves

My earliest recollection of the computer is the one my family had. I believe it was an Apple computer, with the rainbow colored logo. I remember the black screen with the green images. I didn't have any use for computers back then, except to make those kick-ass dot matrix paper banners that were heavily pixelated. You better believe that every birthday party we threw had one of these banners hanging in the house. With the image of a birthday cake on either side of the "Happy Birthday" text.
Fast forward a few years to the AOL days. I was probably in middle school when we first got dial-up AOL internet. It was the best thing ever. I got to see my friends for 7-8 hours during school, talk to them on the phone when I got home, and then chat with them online for the rest of the night! AOL chat rooms started online dating! Because it was new, no one (at least not me or my friends) worried about crazy people out there, and I have to admit that I've met up with people I've met in those chat rooms. It was completely harmless, and we were just bored and met up at the mall or something. Don't tell my mom! haha...
I probably spend way too much time on the computer/internet. But it's nothing I am thinking of giving up. I'm on the computer the entire day at work, and if I'm at home, then I'll probably be online or my laptop will be on for some reason. You'd think that 8 hours would be enough, but there's always something to look up, right?

I am taking a night class this semester and I got to class a little early one night. I sat in front of the computer and it was an automatic reaction for me to open up Mozilla. Once the page loaded, I sat there thinking, "What website am I going to go to?" And a few of my usual websites popped into my head, such as Facebook, Blogger, Perezhilton, D Listed, work email (I know...).

I visited each of them briefly and nothing was updated since the last time I checked, which was maybe 2 hours prior to me getting to class. Which got me thinking, "Why do I feel so compelled to be online all the time, to check my usual websites a few times a day, waiting for something to be updated or new information to be posted?" Then I mentally put my foot down and thougt I should really just close the browser and just sit back and maybe meet some people in my class. So I did. I clicked on the red 'x' on the upper left hand corner, pushed the keyboard away and took my hand off the mouse. I looked around at the other early birds and saw that they were all in a trance in front of their own computers.

What thought came to mind next?

"Ahh, fcuk it, I'm gonna play Bejeweled." haha!

I know we live in a digital age, and I'm glad we do! I do agree that it takes over a significant amount of time that I'll never get back, but, hey, 'everyone else is doing it...' haha!