The Young People's Internet

After looking at my classmates' notes on their internet usage, I saw a few coinciding points. I saw that a majority of our time on the internet is either on Facebook, StumbleUpon, Twitter, tumblr, and other social media time wasters. The amount of time that the average person spends on Facebook is close to 8 hours a month (http://mashable.com/2011/09/30/wasting-time-on-facebook/). That statistic is incredible! If we spent that time on work and other productive things, the amount of work we would get done would be substantially larger than it usually is. 

Now we can look at that statistic and say that it is wrong, with the crazy amount of time on the internet, or we can understand why we do it. It is often the case in the modern world that people can feel weighted down by stress and other factors that can be detrimental to health and productivity. In some ways, the internet can be a release from the things that hold us down. With just a click of a button, we can dive into an alternate mindset. You can even choose your mindset. Say you'd like to be entertained with some of the most recent funny cat videos; you can just click a button. Next thing you know you're giggling at our feline friends. If cat videos don't quite do it for you, then you could try some on-line shopping or virtual tours of famous buildings. 

I found that maybe my fellow classmates like to take “little” breaks that help them get their mind off their current assignment(s), maybe a little too much time. Facebook doesn’t need to be checked every fifteen minutes, much like your fridge doesn’t need to be checked every fifteen minutes. There’s nothing new in your fridge after fifteen minutes.