The Internet is trouble

Dear Internet:

Ever since you dialed-in to my life at the turn of the millennium, you've been nothing but trouble.

Take this very second, for example. What should I be doing? Writing the final essay of my undergraduate degree. There the notes sit on my coffee table, staring at me. I stare back. Then I turn back to my laptop.

The Internet is addictive to those who find pleasure in procrastinating, among other things. Does gardening do it for you? There are almost 66 million hits for gardening on Google! 232 million for shoes! 92 million for porn! Yes, whatever your pleasure, the Internet has it.

This isn't always a good thing, however. What about those people who should be at work, working and instead are chatting on adult sites? What about those guys who lose thousands of dollars online on gaming sites? What about that jackass who stole my credit card information and started using random services like "Payfriend" to log onto European porn sites?

Because every dirty pleasure of yours can be fulfilled at the click of a button, all while sitting on your rear, is the Internet an especially dangerous addiction?

At any rate, it's a largely hidden addiction. It's easy to log onto the 'net while in the privacy of your home. There are no legal limits against Internet consumption and few support groups (you can find them, however, through an online search!).

Anyway, I'm going to run this through my fancy Google-provided spell checker and hit publish. Then I'm going to check my email, log onto my Facebook account, chat with a few people on MSN and then, only if there's still time, work on my essay.