Day 12: Doomsday. Kinda.

So as I expected, today wasn't quite that bad. I think that I might have just been lucky actually- for some reason the teachers didn't give us too much work... but enough about school.

So recently I've been wondering about my internet usage. Sounds strange, I know, but a few people who's blogs I read and videos I watch have been talking about this recently. I've known ever since I started getting into all these social networking sites and discovering the hidden wonders of the internet that it wasn't good for me. Too many distractions. Too much time wasted. So now I must cut back.

There are things I can't get rid of. YouTube for example- I love watching many of the videos on there, but I don't need to be subscribed to all of the channels I am. I simply don't watch them all. I haven't used MySpace, Bebo or MSN in a long time, but I can cut down on my Facebook time. Then there's twitter, which has been my biggest waste of time recently. I read all of these tweets but I know that, really, I'd live on quite happy without reading them. So I will follow fewer people. I will only go on Facebook occasionally. I will cut down on YouTube. Every time I go onto a new website I will think: 'Do I really need to do this?'

This all sounds very sad. It's sad that I spend this much time on the internet, and it's sad that I'm having to cut it down. It's like an addiction. But there we go, that's how sad I am. But I think it's a problem that happens to lots of people as the internet starts to grow even more. I live far away from my school and my friends. There's nothing for me to do when I get home from school, and half the time I'm too tired or homework laden to do it anyway. The internet is a nice way of bringing the world to you, of talking to friends who live miles away, of entertaining yourself and discovering new things. Now that it has become part of my life, it's harder to let go. But things come and go: Facebook replaced MySpace. Wall comments replaced MSN. Twitter replaced status updates. At the moment, I am reading more blogs than I am watching YouTube videos, although that's probably because the people who I normally watch in videos are taking part in BEDA instead.

When I think of the things we do on the internet, it sounds crazy. Watching strangers make videos of themselves? Reading what strangers have to say in blogs? Reading 140 character snippets of their lives? I could do other things. Stop wasting my time. Maybe even do some work(!). So now I will stop watching and reading about other people's lives and start living my own. I want to be myself again.

It starts tomorrow.