4 Productive Ways to Spend Time Online

The Internet is a curious and paradoxical invention. On one hand, it literally offers the knowledge and wisdom of millennia of human experience.

Computer!

On the other hand, it offers infinite time-sucks that are nothing more than mindless diversions.

And unfortunately, most of humankind has opted to use it as the latter.

People spend months and years of their lives playing Farmville, scrolling through Twitter updates, and scouring Reddit for amusing memes.

I don?t mean to act as if I?m not a victim to these lesser realms of Internet usage. In fact, I?ve definitely spent months of my life doing the things I just described.

However, I?ve recently been aiming more and more to harness the potential that lies in this information technology.

Hopefully, these 4 items give you an idea of how you can as well.

1. Read, for the love of God.

And I don?t mean status updates, photo captions, Tweets, and e-mails. The Internet is bursting forth with the richness of books and valuable articles.

If you don?t think you?re interested in any of that stuff, get interested. Knowledge is power, man, and the Internet allows us to access and absorb it much faster than at any point in history.

2. Become a Wikipedia fiend.

This is in the same vein as the previous suggestion, but seriously, a few hours reading Wikipedia can give you a very cohesive and informed overarching picture of many aspects of history, politics, and well, everything else.

I tend to start with a school of thought or important person and click on other links within that article, leading me to further enlightening information I would not have found otherwise.

3. Create something.

Learn basic programming and embark on a small web application. Begin tinkering with Photoshop, design something artistic, and share it online. Develop a blog.

The Internet allows for more diverse mediums of creative expression than ever before, and it?s a shame not to take advantage of them, especially when sharing what you create with hundred, thousands, or even millions of people is within reason.

4. Watch documentaries.

Youtube and other compendiums of video information are bursting with informative and eye-opening documentary material.

You can start with a Google search for documentaries about an area that fascinates you. The nice thing about the age of information is that people have made films about almost anything you could want to learn about.

Documentaries provide a nice change-up from reading, and good ones are still jam-packed with powerful ideas.

That?s all for now, folks.

This is a short list, but mostly I just want to force you to consider how other people are using the Internet to gain expert knowledge, while you?re stalking your friend?s spring break album.

Wake up your natural curiosity and explore. Don?t confine yourself to the mega-giant websites that steal everyone else?s consciousness.

Venture out, dip your feet in different areas, and become more aware of the world around you.