Internet Addict (originally published on 4/17/09)

I remember when it began, I was in college. I had gotten an e-mail account through the University and started going into internet chat rooms. I even remember who tipped me off to e-mail. It was a friend from middle school.

And since then, I have spent countless hours on Blogger, Facebook, Yelp, Yahoo Mail, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, MSN, NY Times and other dot coms. Has it been worth it? No. Would it have been better to call up one or more of my friends and meet them and actually talk? Yes!

Could I have read a few - or maybe very many books instead of surfing online? Yes. In fact, I am slow going these days on an Oprah book. Oprah book, that's supposed to mean something, isn't it? I should have been finished with it in one day, haha. Well, who knows what the Oprah stamp of approval means, I don't even watch her show. All I know is I saw the Oprah stamp on my copy of "She Comes Undone" by Wally Lamb. It's an intriguing book with an unusual main character and I like it.

In a way, there are cool features and tons of information online. It can become time consuming. When I was growing up, did I expect that 80% of my life would be spent behind a computer terminal? No, not at all. I should make like some of my friends who avoid Facebook and other social networking sites. To my credit, I did go out to a Happy Hour with some people I know from Yelp.com this week. I had a good time. How did we comment on the Happy Hour later? Online, of course.