It is easier to waste time than ever before. And the bad thing is most of us don’t even realize we are doing it until we have seen the hours slip away. Thanks to new and intriguing websites popping up all the time there are many ways we can waste our time online and here are the top 5.
1. Facebook. Ok there, I said it. We all know it’s true too. At first Facebook was cool because it allowed us a chance to connect with old friends and classmates we had not seen in years. And then it became annoying when those old friends that we didn’t even recognize pretended that they were our best friends and messaged us every day. But if you are not careful you can easily find yourself burning a whole lot of daylight catching up on the latest gossip on Facebook. There is almost an hypnotic effect that occurs when that news feed is filled with all kinds of useless knowledge about our loved ones, and it draws us in like a flashlight to a frog. Are you one of the millions wasting time on Facebook? If so, learn how to get in, message the people who wrote to you, catch up for a minute, and get right back out to your life.
it can be harder than ever to get something done online when there are all of these temptations that pull us away from what is profitable
2. Youtube. This website is full of entertaining, educational, and just plain weird videos from all around the world. You might even end up on Youtube because of something posted on Facebook, but then you begin to see more videos on the right sidebar, and pretty soon those precious minutes have turned into hours. When friends are watching Youtube videos together this effect can be even worse as they each tell you to look up another video they found hilarious and try to one-up each other. I love these videos as much as anyone else, but limit yourself to just a few videos and shut it down.
3. Online Games. There is a huge market for simple little games that take about 2 hours to create and countless hours to play. The Farmville generation has evolved into online gaming fanatics that love everything from scrabble games to the Flight of the Hamster. These games are a lot of fun but they are also addicting. You can even rationalize spending your entire weekend playing the game just so you can try to beat someone else’s high score.
4. Shopping. The best part about shopping online is that you can compare prices from different companies without ever leaving your chair. But while this saves on gas money it can cost you much more in hours spent online. It’s easy to spend way more time than you had counted on pouring over reviews, looking at product pictures, and trying to find discount coupon codes. While shopping is not always a waste of time, it is definitely an activity that you need to regulate before it does become a waste of time.
5. Keeping up with every social profile. The web is more interactive than ever and social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Myspace, and others are slowly eating up all of our time. What was supposed to make communication with friends and family quicker, has only led to more communication pollution than ever before. Trying to keep your status updated on all of your social media sites is almost as much of a headache as trying to keep up with everyone else’s updates.
Everyone has their own definition of what is actually a waste of time, but we can all agree that the above 5 areas can eat away at our daily lives in a hurry if we do not have some temperance. This list can be expanded 10 fold, but it gets the point across that it can be harder than ever to get something done online when there are all of these temptations that pull us away from what is profitable.
Jon is a writer for www.SafeIdentityProtection.com which is a website that offers great identity theft tips and compares the best ID theft protection services available online. There you can check out some tips on shopping safely online, should you decide to kill a few moments of your precious time.